The MICE Quotient is the perfect pacing tool for writing a novel, whether you’re a plotter and pantser. It’s not truly a plot structure, which has a series of beats you need to hit for a satisfying story. Rather, the MICE Quotient is a tool to help control the various types of conflict within your novel.
If you can understand the driving conflict for each of your plot threads, you’ll be able to control the tension and pacing of your story.
Due to this flexibility, I find the MICE Quotient more useful than traditional plot structures like the Hero’s Journey. Although plots have their place and can be helpful at times, the MICE Quotient is more universal and can quickly diagnose plotting issues, even for people who hate plotting.
[MICE Quotient – The plot structure for people who hate plotting.]
What is the MICE Quotient?
Originally created by Orson Scott Card, bestselling science fiction author, the MICE Quotient looks at four major types of conflict that drives a story—Milieu, Inquiry, Character, and Event. A key thing to remember is that each of these threads focuses on a type of conflict. All stories involve character, but that doesn’t mean every conflict is a character-driven conflict.
Remember: MICE Quotient is driven by conflict.
A story consists of multiple MICE threads interwoven in a satisfying way. Depending on the type of story, it could involve just a couple threads or many, many threads. However, there will almost always be at least two, as only one thread is flat and boring—it’s the play between the different conflicts that creates tantalizing tension that keeps readers turning the page.
The number of MICE threads contributes to the length of a story. The more conflict there is, the more it will take time to resolve in a satisfying way. Afterall, if the first thing a character tries immediately fixes the problem, that’s not a very interesting story. If you’re writing a short story but you want 10 different threads, you may actually be writing a full-length novel.
Some threads will stretch the entire story while others last only for a scene. That’s the great thing about the MICE Quotient—it’s versatile enough to be useful to a variety of writing styles.
When I taught the MICE Quotient in high school creative writing, I changed it to the PACE Quotient (Place, Ask/Answer, Character, Event) inspired by Mary Robinette Kowal from the Writing Excuses podcast. Feel free to use that if it’s easier to remember.
Milieu
A fancy word for environment, Milieu is all about characters struggling to exit a place. The conflict centers around surviving the environment and escaping. Think about the entire premise of LOST or Star Trek: Voyager—it’s all about the characters entering a new place and surviving until they can leave. Just about every episode of Star Trek about escaping the holodeck is a Milieu-centered episode.
The Milieu conflict opens with characters entering a new place, centers around the struggle to survive, and ends when the characters escape (whether that’s to a new location or through death).
Keep in mind that just because a character enters a new place doesn’t mean it’s a Milieu conflict. If the protagonist travels someplace new, but the conflict centers around them learning about themselves and becoming a better person and not trying to escape, then that’s a character conflict, not milieu conflict.
If the character says, “I’m trapped and will suffer or die if I can’t get out,” it’s a Milieu conflict.
Milieu Examples:
- Star Trek: Voyager 1.5 – The Cloud
- Star Trek – Every “trapped in the holodeck” episode
- Jurassic Park
- LOST
Inquiry
Inquiry is the search for answers—your quintessential mystery novel. If there’s a question the character is looking for, but they keep finding lies or obscure clues that don’t give them the full picture, that’s an inquiry-centered plot. Inquiries are one of the most common conflict threads, especially in classic SFF.
The Inquiry conflict opens with characters asking a question, centers around the struggle to find clues and discover the truth, and ends when the characters find the answer.
Remember that Inquiry isn’t always about solving the mystery of who murdered someone. It could be trying to find out where that mysterious SOS signal is coming from or why everyone on the crew is suddenly acting drunk and taking over the comm systems.
If the characters says, “I need to find the answer to this question,” it’s an Inquiry conflict.
Inquiry Examples:
- Star Trek: TNG 2.2 – Where Silence Has Lease
- Star Trek: TNG 2.12 – The Royale*
- Sherlock Holmes
- The Expanse
* If you’re familiar with the episode, you may think, wait, isn’t that a milieu? They enter a new place where they’re trapped and have to escape. And while that’s true, the conflict isn’t about surviving the place—it’s about solving the mystery of why they’re there in order to get out.
Character
This is an internal conflict where the character is unhappy with an aspect of themselves and/or their life. The conflict centers around their struggle to break free of who they were and become more content with their life either by accepting their life or changing it.
The Character conflict opens with a character unhappy with an aspect of their life, centers around their struggle to break free of expectations and become someone new, and ends when the character is happy with their life (either because they changed it or accepted it).
The Character plot is about a young farmer boy dreaming of enlisting in the army to fight great space battles or the poor, abused serving girl who dreams of being a princess and living happily ever after. Along with Inquiry, Character is one of the most common types of conflict and tends to be the heart of many stories.
If a character says, “I want my life to change so that I’m happy,” it’s a Character conflict.
Character Examples:
- Legally Blonde
- Buffy: The Vampire Slayer 3.13 – The Zeppo
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- How to Train Your Dragon
Event
An Event disrupts the status quo, and the characters’ conflict centers around returning to the status quo or establishing a new one. Think of Godzilla: a monster attacks, disrupting the peace, and characters fight to regain that peace and safety. Event conflicts are frequently found in action adventure.
The Event conflict opens with an event that disrupts the status quo, centers around the struggle to return to peace (whatever that looked like before), and ends when things quiet down and a new status quo is established.
Event is the easiest of the threads to confuse because a story is nothing but a string of events. Remember that the MICE Quotient focuses on conflict. Just because an event happens in the story doesn’t mean it’s an Event conflict—it just means it’s a story.
If the characters say, “We’re just trying to get back to how things were before,” it’s an Event conflict.
Event Examples:
- Godzilla
- Star Trek – Q Episodes
- War of the Worlds
- Star Trek: TNG 2.9 – The Measure of a Man
MICE Quotient Tips
If you find yourself wanting to argue with me about some of the examples, guess what? You’re probably right! All stories consist of multiple threads. The examples listed have a prominent thread for that conflict type, but all of them have other types interwoven.
Think about it this way: if the MICE quotient are threads that you weave into a tapestry, then weaving only one type of thread would result in a flat, boring piece rather than a work of art.
All stories interweave multiple (if not many) of these threads. Some threads stretch throughout the entire saga. Some last only a single scene. Others stop halfway through and become something unexpected.
There are all kinds of ways to weave together the MICE threads to make a compelling story. The important thing is that they’re nested, meaning that they close out in reverse order that they’re opened. So if your opening looks like:
Character + Event + Inquiry
Then when you wrap up the story, you need to close out the inquiry thread first, then the event, and the character thread last. Oftentimes when the ending of a story feels off, the threads aren’t nested correctly.
If you’re feeling spicy and want to try out a next-level skill, then try tying off all of the (major) threads in a neat little knot at the end so that the conflicts come together in a final, satisfying scene.
[Not sure how to map out your novel or short story? Check out Novel Mapping for Writers.]
Writing Quests
This is your call to write—pick a quest and give it a try! Let me know how it goes below.
- Pick a movie or book and map out the MICE threads (I recommend Hunger Games—we’ll be doing a mentor read on it later).
- Look at your own writing and identify the different MICE threads. How many do you have? Are there any you’re uncertain about? How would the story change if you rearranged some of the threads?
- Pick 2 threads and write a piece of flash fiction no more than 1,000 words long.