Writing as a Martial Art: Learning Your First Pattern

In our Writing as a Martial Art series, we’re exploring the idea that short story writing has disciplines and patterns that we can learn and practice together, and that within those disciplines, each of us will find our own strengths and learn to fortify our weaknesses.

Following the Martial Arts analogy, we’re going to learn our first pattern, a kind of writing kata that brings a defined structure to assembling your narrative. We’ll start with a very useful pattern that can help you assemble perfectly viable short stories right off the bat. 

We’ll call this pattern the “Robus Template,” just to be fancy and use a little Latin. It’s a robust pattern, strong and useful in its simplicity. Once you know it, you’ll find it everywhere, under a variety of names and variations. This is just our own version with minor tweaks based on our experience in editing DreamForge.

To make the parts of the pattern clear, an example plot of a basic action story is included. 

The goal is to write your own story —a science fiction or fantasy story— replacing each of the elements detailed below with your own concepts, characters, and plot, while following the structure and flow of the example as closely as possible.

Using a pattern does not mean that all stories will come out alike and be terribly predicable, any more than following the forms of Haiku or Sonnet means that all poems done in these discipline structures say the same thing or are predictable in their effect. No one ever says “if you’ve read one Haiku, you’ve read them all.”

Further, once you have mastered the Robus Template, then you have the foundation to make informed, artful variations. Things as simple as starting with a flashback or flashforward, focusing on a character based narrative, or subverting expectations during the story’s orientation, all these things are best done after knowing how the parts of the basic pattern work together. Then you’re making informed choices, knowing how your creative impulse affect the basic pattern.

So, let’s go. Let’s see how this basic pattern, our first set of moves to master, works!

The Opening: Learning how to write a catchy opening sentence or two is a tricky exercise, and on its own deserves serious attention. For now, just try for something that is both interesting and inviting.

“The largest earthquake in Pennsylvania occurred in 1998 near Pymatuning State Park. Even had John Smith been aware of this little known historical fact, it would not have given him pause. Shaking ground held no terror for John, and anyway, really, what were the odds?”

Orientation: Introduce Who, What, When, Where, and Why

Our story opens when John Smith is on vacation with his wife and three pre-teen kids near Pymatuning State Park, PA. They’ve rented a small home near downtown Erie; it’s early spring and the family loves boating and fishing. Pymatuning Lake has largemouth bass, and the family is excited, except for John.

His wife and kids even wanted a houseboat rental, but he nixed that idea.

In fact, while they go out, he’s staying in and taking some quiet time to work on his novel, which he’s having trouble finishing. 

All this in 150-250 words or less.

Weakness: John is not excited about this trip. It’s his wife and kids who love the water —he’s not going near the giant lake. Hates water. 

The family is not surprised at his insistence on staying in for the day; they know his issues and do little more than chide him about being careful in the shower. He’s looking forward to a show at the Erie Playhouse over the weekend.

Include the character flaw in the first 300 words.

Crossing the Threshold: Later in the day, as John is working there is an earth tremor, a little scary, but not too bad.  A cup falls from the shelf in the kitchen and breaks.

John decides to check things out. He turns on the radio.  Looks on the internet.  Last significant earthquake near Pymatuning was 1998. He searches online to see if this would affect boats on the lake.  He reaches for his cell phone and calls the wife.  Everything is fine.

Listens to the radio while he looks. Doesn’t seem serious.  Can’t find anything wrong.  Goes back to work.  (Nevertheless, he has “crossed the threshold” into “story.” 

Cross the threshold within the first 300 to 400 words.

The hook can be before or after Obstacle One but does need to come quickly in the narrative. The Hook brings the setup, the weakness, and the threshold event into focus as a threat that will drive the story.

Example: Things settle down, John gets back to work. But something is nagging at him. After a bit he realizes he hears rushing water. He gets up and looks around, finally realizing that a pipe has burst in the basement. It’s a dark, small, unfinished basement.  Maybe he calls a plumber, but they can’t get there, telling him to go shut off the water main, but be careful about water and any electrical lines down there.

John picks up a flashlight, steels up his courage, and heads down. He decides not to turn on the light in the basement, just in case. 

Try to get the hook to in the first 300-500 words.

The first obstacle must be reasonably inconvenient and stress the character at their weakness, but otherwise be terribly easy to solve and appear to the protagonist as if they have ended the story. The threat is over. Their job here is done.

The basement stairs are rickety and in poor repair, but John carefully descends.  The basement is a small, enclosed space with no windows —just and old cellar now used for the furnace and water heater, not much more. He finds the burst pipe still spewing water. He locates the main valve and turns it until the broken pipe stops leaking.

After solving the problem, John notices his feet are wet and there is an inch or two of water. Trying to be a good house guest, he uses his flashlight to look for the basement drain. Perhaps it is hidden under a rug or something has blocked it.

As he does this, he notices he still hears water running. He forgets the drain and goes to find the running water.

Keep the story moving, drop in VERY LITTLE exposition about the past. Explore and describe the character through his actions. (Perhaps he is out of shape and struggles to reach into a tight space to turn off the water. This could clue us into his physical fitness level and make the coming struggles more dramatic.)

Depending on the story needs, Obstacle One could take 1,000 words or more.

The second obstacle flows organically from the first. It is not just another made up problem, it evolves out of the first. It is kin to Obstacle One, but it is worse.

John thought he solved the problem, but he still hears running water.  He goes back to check the main valve. Water, though not a lot, seems to be coming in through the wall where the valve is. He reaches down to tighten the valve even more.

At that instant, there is another ground tremor. He falls, still holding on to the valve, which breaks off in his hand. Water now rushes into the basement in a high-pressure torrent.

Water is spewing everywhere, and John realizes this is bad.  Water is hitting the electrical box. He runs upstairs and to safety.

At that point, he realizes the power is out (from the last tremor). He catches his breath and decides that if runs back down to the basement now, he can throw the main power switch to off and at least prevent an electrical problem. He takes the flashlight, once again steels up his courage, and goes on his mission.

Again, carefully negotiating the ancient stairs, he enters the basement and bravely throws the main power switch, breathing a sigh of relief.  

He is on his way up the stairs when a third tremor hits. The stairs lurch, the door to the first floor slams shut. He frantically makes it to the door, but the door is either jammed or was set to lock when closed.

By now John is no longer brave. He is terrified, and his problem is to get out of the basement before he panics.

Exposition: If you have story background exposition that is important, you could put in a little here. Keep it short. Readers want to know how the story is going, not about the past. But if the background will help us feel more emotion at the ending, a little of that is justified.

Depending on the story needs, Obstacle Two could take 1,000 words or more.

Like Obstacle Two, Obstacle Three flows organically out of the setup, situation, and previous two obstacles. The only difference is —obstacle three is life or death (a mortal challenge to the body, mind, or spirit.)

John would like nothing more than to just wait it out near the locked door at the top of the stairs and hope his family will get back soon. He’s now cold, wet, and shivering.

Unfortunately for John, he hears the water truly rushing in now. This is more than a burst house pipe. The ground tremors must have broken a watermain in the street, but this house and this basement are on the receiving end. The basement is filling up quickly.

John is worried. He ventures down into the waist high water to find a tool, like a hammer with which he can knock open the door. He finds one, but on his return up the stairs, the stairs collapse into the water, the whole structure undermined by the water.

He falls losing his flashlight. John is now in the dark, in water, and knows he is at risk of death.

How does John escape? Every reader should now feel that John is really screwed and they are quickly turning pages to find out what John does and what happens to him?

John tries to calm himself and look for the light of the flashlight. It’s the first thing he wants to recover. After carefully making his way through the basement, experiencing an existential crisis*, he eventually sees a tiny glimmer of light, but it is at head height. How did his flashlight nearly get lodged in the ceiling?

*In Obstacle Three –we could have some exposition that makes us feel more for John in this situation. When he was 9, he was on the lake with his father when his dad had a heart attack, the boat capsized, and he was trapped under the heavy boat, trying not to drown with the body of his dead father right beside him.

The glimmer of light turns out to be where the water has washed away some grime from a part of the wall that is made of glass block. The light is sunshine. He wipes away more grime and more light streams in.

Now he has a mission —to find the hammer again and break the glass block. He has to hold his breath underwater to do this, expending nearly all his energy in the attempt to find the hammer. He has to find something to stand on.  Breaking the glass block is not easy, but eventually he makes a hole so the water no longer can get above his head.

His life saved; he works to make a hole big enough to pull himself into the light.

Depending on the story needs, Obstacle Three could take 2,000 words or more.

John’s family returns to find him outside chatting with the water company crew as they dig to fix the broken water main. Another crew is pumping water out of the basement. Because the water is out, John has not been able to clean up. He looks half-dead, but he’s smiling.

His wife and kids are in a heightened state of emotion and near panic at John’s condition, but he is now taking it lightly.

“Just a little leak, but we can’t stay here tonight. This place is going to need some work.  How about that houseboat rental on the lake?”

“Are you kidding?” wife asks. 

“Who knows, it might give me some ideas for finishing my novel.”

What’s important here? The denouement circles back and echoes the beginning. John wouldn’t stay in a houseboat at the beginning; he wouldn’t go out on the lake. Now we’ve seen him conquer his fear. He’s a new man. 

Or, in a tragedy or horror story, he dies terribly...take your pick.  :)

Now, your challenge is to follow the pattern. 

Fit your own characters, conflict, plot, world-building, and obstacles into this organized form. If you do, your next submission to DreamForge could make it into the top 20%, simply because where you’re trying to go and what your narrative is trying to do will be so much clearer.

Often, when writers get started and then say “I don’t know where this story goes from here…” It’s because they don’t have a disciplined kata to follow. Now you have one.

Make the moves; let your talent bring the art to it. See what happens.