Submitted by DaveK on Mon, 07/26/2021 - 2:45pm

We're on to the Idea story.

Milieu: This story is about the world in which the story takes places in.

Idea: This story is about some information that people are looking for or a question people are looking to answer.

Character: This story is about a character; why they are the way they are and how they act.

Event: This story is about something happening, why it happens, and the consequences of it happening.

More info can be found at the link:

https://proamwriters.wordpress.com/2018/09/06/the-mice-quotient-a-writer...

or do a search for mice quotient but it is not a unique search result.

An idea story is a story about getting information or answering a question. Idea stories revolve around a concept or mystery that needs to be examined or solved. Again, characters are important, but the main focus is the answers they seek. The story comes to a close after the information has been received, or the mystery has been solved, or the idea has been sufficiently examined.

Examples of this type of story include The Da Vinci Code and the Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Most murder mystery stories fall into this category. I would also argue that A Story of Life by Ted Chiang, the story that inspired the film, Arrival, falls into this category too, as the story’s main drive is the idea of language, and then determinism.

More about Idea stories:

Idea Story


Start: The story begins when your main character meets an obstacle. They have a problem that must be solved. This gives rise to a question: how will they get around the obstacle?

End: The story ends when the character has answered the question and removed the obstacle.

Per usual, post your submission as a child page under the writing prompt page. Post comments and critiques to a particular sub as comments to that page.