How to Crystallize Your Novel’s Narrative: The 4 Stages of the Minimum Complete Story

You'll move from your first tentative telling to a crystallized and polished version ready to support a polished manuscript. First comes the easy part: your MCS automatically evolves every time you say it aloud. Thus, the more often you say your MCS, the quicker it matures. Much of its evolution occurs subconsciously as your mind works out your story's details and pieces them together. Saying it aloud reinforces and accelerates your novel's development. Regular rehearsals also build the overall narrative's accessibility, directing you toward coherent writing, yielding a double payoff. In this post, we go a step further and break your MCS's trajectory into more formal stages. We'll also describe a test for each; these assessments help chart your progress and suggest the next step to take.

Review

Parts one and two of this Minimum Complete Story series covered why it works so well as well as the benefits and how to create your first MCS. The main takeaway: after a small startup cost, adding the MCS to your writing process pays big dividends.

Let's also repeat two foundational definitions. A story is a coherent combination of characters, world, conflict, theme, and plot. Coherent stories, then, fully realize these five elements and synergistically align them across an inciting incident, peak and resolution. As we've discussed in previous posts, readers (and agents) experience stories by putting them into this underlying structure. When readers can't recreate a story in this way, their satisfaction suffers. At the extreme, incoherence translates to a random word jumble, something ChatGPT would produce and should cause humans shame. Stepping back, you can see humans depend on an inbuilt "instinct" or template to appreciate stories. Coherent stories respect this structure. Coherent writing, first, captures our attention; it also flags narrative elements' salient features as well as how these pieces relate to each other. Saying your MCS aloud taps into this faculty in order to support your practice.

Introduction

In working with hundreds of authors from their first telling to last, we've seen that an MCS goes through four stages: completeness, conciseness, stability and drama. Again, writers often progress through these stages automatically so long as they say it aloud regularly. By identifying these stages, and providing tests for each, we can speed up this path and accelerate your writing. In examining the stages, keep in mind that they are flexible and overlap. Part of your story, for example, may be set even though the rest is incomplete. Not a problem! You can fill in the rest later, leveraging the more established parts. Similarly, don't be afraid to revert to an earlier stage when inspiration strikes. Remember, this technique encourages exploration and accommodates new ideas. A change may call for stepping back to a previous stage. Don't fret; your narrative will quickly reform into a new and improved version.

To digress a bit, we've also observed that MCSs tend to go faster for "natural" storytellers. These authors seem to have heard (not read) friends and relatives tell (not read) improvised stories in childhood. No worries here, either; you can catch up to this headstart with practice.

Let's go over each stage's goal and describe how to assess your telling to see if you're ready to move on or what to work on next.

First: Make it Complete

The initial goal is to lay out your entire story by saying it to others. You're not committing to anything, only roughing in a plan that will change as you put in more time. Still, it's vital. These early tellings will push you toward crafting a satisfying story. Bardsy recommends starting any story with an element you're passionate about. For example, you might dream up an intriguing character or situation. From there, you need to furnish the other four elements and sketch a beginning, middle and end. When you say it aloud, have your first MCS!

These inquiries come from comparing your story with their expectations as to what every story needs, so they'll pinpoint areas where your story is incomplete.

We developed the Pre MCS Worksheet to help. << The last post has detailed instructions. >> Recall, you fill in one sentence for each of that page's nine rows: three for characters, one each for world, conflict and three more for plot. The sentence should describe one to three of that element's most salient features. Leaving some rows TBD is more than ok; in fact, saying your MCS will help you determine them. When you're ready, keep the sheet in hand as you narrate the story for your first time. Think of these sentences as training wheels to get you going. As soon as you have the elements in mind, ditch the sheet and rely solely on memory. Keeping your MCS in active memory powers its magic.

The most effective MCS tellings have an audience. Given some writers' natural shyness, it's ok to start with a pet, even a stuffed animal. Eventually, however, try human listeners, perhaps in a Bardsy directed writing group. The idea is to see how well they get the story from your telling. You're essentially engaging their narrative sense to supplement yours; in this first stage you're seeing whether they see your initial version has all the necessary parts, whether it fills in all the slots every story requires.

The surest way to assess their understanding is to let them ask questions. Here's the test: immediately after telling your MCS, let them ask one question. Specify that they should raise the first thing that comes to mind. For example, they may want you to describe the setting, where the story peaks or to identify the main character. These inquiries come from comparing your story with their expectations as to what every story needs, so they'll pinpoint areas where your story is incomplete. In other words, their inquiries indicate something that's missing or unclear.

Consider this feedback, then update your MCS so the next telling addresses the gaps. You may have to repeat this step a few times. Leaving aside requests for more detail -- which you should welcome as a sign of interest, we want no questions from your audience. When you (or a coach, acting on your behalf) solicit questions, they should pause to think and shake their heads. Reaching this milestone proves your MCS, and preliminary story, is complete.

Second: Make it Concise

Early MCS tellings can be quite long, often up to five minutes. Indeed, we've seen authors take up to ten minutes to talk through their story, moving from one plot point to another and adding details as they seem necessary to explain what's going on. Though excruciating -- thanks to all those supportive Bardsy peers -- this is typical. Human minds think in terms of story, but it takes awhile to organize your thoughts into this format. It takes still more effort to tighten your narrative to a crisp 90 seconds.

Aim to create an experience that captures listeners and encourages potential readers to buy your book.

Why should you impose that limit? Simple; you need the whole enchilada to fit into your active memory. This size is perfect for saying your MCS one metaphorical breath, which allows you to cognize and manipulate the main narrative much more easily.

To reach this goal, try to be conscious of, not obsessed with, its length over your tellings. Your mind will separate out what's important and shape those essential details into the standard inciting incident, peak and resolution pattern that all coherent stories follow. For example, some of the parenthetical details present in the longer versions will disappear because they are less important while others may shrink to adjectives and adverbs. Critically, certain plot points will rise to become pivotal, especially the peak and the inciting incident. As you do this work, you'll gain a better handle on your story, which also guides your writing.

Since only time matters at this stage, testing is easy. Get a stopwatch. As you say it more and more, the length will decrease (or, more rarely, increase) until you hit the bullseye, ninety seconds. Keep it to that length no matter the narrative; again, any longer (or shorter) prevents you from keeping an entire story in mind. If you're having trouble or reach a plateau in your path toward this limit, watch yourself in a mirror. If you notice pauses or large eye movements during telling, focus on those parts until they fall trippingly from your tongue.

Third: Make it Stable

Your MCS improves with each telling, becoming more complete and sharper. It also becomes more stable. After accounting for inspiration, you'll gradually zero in on the ultimate version of your story. You need this crystallized form to polish your manuscript. Everything in what you'll publish should be present in your MCS. (You can look over past posts to see the reasoning behind this point.)

The swings get smaller each time until it reaches a steady state. Of course, you should not sacrifice inspiration in the name of stability.

Early on, every time you do your MCS is an experiment as your mind slowly settles on the best way to tell your story. The tale bounces to and fro; some bounces pay off, others don't. Imagine a metronome or Newton's cradle swinging back and forth; the swings get smaller each time until it reaches a steady state. Of course, you should not sacrifice inspiration in the name of stability. On the other hand, as you go further into development changes will tend to be smaller and stabilize more quickly. Keep rehearsing your MCS until it becomes second nature. It may take time, but you'll eventually commit to one version, the best way to tell it.

The best way to assess your MCS stability is to record yourself. Though hearing ourselves can be tough, you'll know your MCS has crystallized when it comes out close to the same way every time.

Fourth: Make it Dramatic

Now comes the fun part; you get to play with your narrative. This stage's goal is to hook your audience and keep them engaged. By now you have a complete, concise and stable story to tell, so trust it and focus on your listener. Getting past this level will help you decide what to punch in the last revision and, more importantly, sell your book. This step specifically helps you get to the heart of the story, and looking forward, prepares you for talking to agents, meeting readers at book signings and doing media interviews. Prepare this most engaging version for them.

Aim to create an experience that captures listeners and encourages potential readers to buy your book.

Public speaking is intimidating, yet it can be liberating. If you're having difficulty, roleplay as a medieval bard or camp director. Aim to create an experience that captures listeners and encourages potential readers to buy your book. Trial and error works. Be prepared to fail; professional comedians put a lot of effort into their jokes before they appear in a Netflix special. One thing is certain, the more you tell it to a range of people, the better it will become.

There are many ways to heighten the drama: emphasis and pauses, voice modulation, pacing and surprise. You need a human audience to test these to discover which are most effective. Younger family members provide a uniquely valuable audience. They are particularly good listeners and respond naturally to great storytelling. See when they smile or gasp, keeping in mind that the performance is their reward. Youngsters love to hear the same tale over and over, so this presents the perfect opportunity for you to hone your narrative.

Achieving a complete, concise, stable and engaging MCS takes work, but the payoff is substantial: it becomes a precise guide for revisions and a powerful tool for outreach. When your final complete, concise, stable and dramatic MCS perfectly mirrors the words you've written, you have a coherent novel ready to win devoted fans.

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