If you’ve ever written a research paper, you will be familiar with research questions, or guiding questions. As a high school librarian, I have helped hundreds (maybe even thousands) of students write them.
When you are writing a research paper, it helps to define as precisely as possible what your paper is about—what you will be investigating during your research.
It is important to have a narrow enough question for the scope of your paper. It is also important to take into account other considerations, such as whether it is possible to develop an answer to the question.
The research question, when it is properly formulated to be narrow and clear enough, helps to guide you as you look for sources and evidence. You know what to include and what to leave out, based on your research question.
When you write fiction, this idea of a guiding question could more properly be termed a Story Question. You use your Story Question to guide you in deciding what gets included in your novel, what your characters will do, and what you will show and tell.
A Story Question helps the writer decide what is important in the novel. Which character choices matter. What problems to have characters grapple with.
When you write fiction, the Story Question is almost always a philosophical question that has no real answer. While a research question may have an answer over which there is some debate, it is almost never a philosophical question. In fiction you can ask questions about how one should live life, about what makes a life worth living. Questions that research alone will never answer.
Fiction is the opportunity to live other lives. To see choices and consequences without suffering through them ourselves.
Give your readers the full experience they came for—ask them to think about a difficult question through your story, without giving them the answer.
What is the story question in the novel you are reading right now?
I just finished The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides. The story questions I saw are, “What are the events in our lives that shape us? Is it possible to overcome early trauma or are we doomed to repeat behavior patterns that cause pain?”
