I have heard it said many times that a writer needs to be able to sum up, in on sentence, what her or his story is about. Since that time I have learned that the ability to do this reveals, the beginning, middle and end of their story, highlighting the climax and resolution.
Say for instance an author says, “My story is about a woman meeting a doctor while trekking the Himalayas, how they encounter a third hiker who tries to kill them, and how their decision to save his life puts them all in peril nearly preventing them from reaching Nepal.”
The beginning entails a woman setting out to cross the Himalayas. The woman protagonist meets a doctor doing the same thing. During the middle of the novel the two confront a third hiker who tries to kill them.
While defending themselves and each other they injure him. They choose not to abandon them, despite, as we can certainly understand, the temptation to do so.
As a result of choosing not to leave the third hiker, woman and doctor are delayed. All three have to pull together when a huge snowstorm encompasses them.
The climax is depicted through all three, perpetrator and intended victims working together for their collective survival. Resolution is delivered in that the story ends with the three completing their journey to Nepal.
The ability to succinctly state what your story is about lays down a blueprint, skeleton of events around which you can then weave your story.
How often are you able to state in one sentence what your story entails?
If so, how did you come to this realization?