Soap Opera Story Question?

[TheGreatMagician]

What is a good Story Question for a soap opera-ish story.
Like i have multiple character POV and it follows the characters lives-loves-Career's but I can't come up with a good story question.

A story question is supposed to be the "Spine" of the story. Its supposed to be the reason the story exist.

They say if you take out the MAIN story question which is seen as the "Spine" of the story than your whole story would fall apart like a spine being removed from a body.

I have MANY story questions but they not considered the MAIN (Spine) story question because they can easily be token out and not effect the rest of the story questions.

i dont have a MAIN story question for the reason of my sop opera-ish story to exist. Well i could say "Will the characters find happiness and peace in this war torn world" but i feel like its not good enough i guess or a valuable main story question.

My soap opera-ish story is similar to "Dark Shadows".

If anyody have any ideas or suggestions into creating a strong MAIN story question, that would be great.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

How will the characters find happiness and peace?

 

[J Riff]

Check out books like 'How to write a romance novel and get it published'. There are only X no. of storylines, and outcomes, in traditional romance or 'soap opera' writing. The manual for same is very specific, down to when the 1st sub-climax appears and etc. etc. Finding happiness and peace is a perfectly good plotline, even Vampires need a holiday.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

@J Riff
Tempted But which one?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1477570195/?tag=brite-21
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A3EOFNQ/?tag=brite-21

There are other similar titles

 

[Randy M.]

Maybe this broadens the TGM's question too much, but how would you know the question until you start writing the story?

There are writers who begin by plotting out the story before writing, and writers who begin by writing the story to figure out what happens, and I'm not even sure that those are the two polar ends, though I'm pretty sure there are dozens if not hundreds (if not thousands, if not ...) of degrees between.

But if you think the story has a central question, how would you know until you know the whole story?

Just curious.


Randy M.