Most troubles in an ailing story can be traced back to a little something called the throughline*. Throughline is the motor in your story’s boat. It’s the single, pervasive concept that not only guides every event and action but also the one thing to which everything must directly relate.
A tall order? You betcha.
So what is it? Throughline is the answer to the question, “What does my protagonist want?” or if the hero is not conscious of their desires, “What does my protagonist need?” The answer may not be apparent on a first pass if you’re the writer (nor is it expected to be) but, at some point, writers and their story consultants need to hunker down and tease it out.
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