Sell with a Story

16

CHALLENGE, CONFLICT, RESOLUTION

THE CHALLENGE

THE CHALLENGE IS the part of a story where the hero first faces the problem or opportunity. It’s often called the “complication” or the “catalyst” because it’s that moment that a monkey wrench gets thrown into the hero’s original plans and sets off the entire series of events in the story. In other words, this is where the hero meets the villain.

In Mark Bowser’s story in Chapter 10, the challenge was a problem. It was the fact that he didn’t have any pants. Before he realized that, everything was going fine. In Ben Koberna’s story in Chapter 3, the challenge was an opportunity—the unexpected low ...