Of all the paired structural beats in a story, the Pinch Points are perhaps the most obvious. There are only two of them, they have the same name, and they perform essentially the same function in both their first and second iteration. They’re also perhaps the least known and most confusing of all the major […]
Search Results for: pinch points
March 29, 2015 by 76 Comments Structuring Your NovelWhat Are Pinch Points? And How Can They Make Your Book Easier to Write?
You may have heard of these little darlings called “Pinch Points.” Of all the important structural moments in your story, they’re the most likely to be neglected. They get lost amidst all the excited chatter about their bigger, flashier brethren: the Plot Points. But Pinch Points–two of them, both occurring in the Second Act–are crucial […]
November 19, 2018 by 73 Comments Structuring Your NovelHow to Choose Your Story’s Plot Points
You’ve got a story, and you’ve got characters who are doing stuff in that story. That means you’ve got a plot. But how do you know if you’ve got your characters doing the right stuff at the right time? At first glance, this seems intuitive. Story is (or should be) a chain of causes and effects. Something […]
February 27, 2023 by 33 Comments How to Become a WriterGenre Tips: How to Write Mystery
Following closely on the heels of romance, mystery is one of the most popular fiction genres of all time. At its simplest, the genre is a puzzle for audiences and characters to figure out together. At its most complex, mystery offers a deep-dive into humanity’s most pressing existential questions and threats. Populated by manifold subgenres, […]
February 13, 2023 by 54 Comments How to Become a WriterGenre Tips: How to Write Romance
Romance makes the world go ’round. In many respects, it makes the book world go ’round too. Romance consistently remains one of the bestselling of all fiction genres, so it’s no surprise so many people write it—both out of personal enjoyment and because, when it hits the sweet spot, it can be extremely lucrative. Learning […]
November 14, 2022 by 55 Comments UncategorizedMaster List of Answers to Most Asked-For Writing Topics on This Site
You who read this site and participate in the discussions are an endless source of inspiration to me. This is true in many ways, but most literally in that when you ask deeply insightful questions, you often give me great ideas for posts about writing topics! A few months ago, I asked you all to […]
May 2, 2022 by 28 Comments CharactersThe Role of the Antagonist in Story Structure, Pt. 1 of 2
If you’re a student of story structure, then you probably have a pretty good idea how each of the major plot beats affects your protagonist—and, indeed, how the protagonist in turn drives the plot beats. But what about the antagonist? What is the role of the antagonist in story structure? Plot can be described in […]
November 8, 2021 by 53 Comments PodcastThe Two Halves of the Inciting Event
Stories are made of scenes. By one of their simplest definitions, scenes are transitions. They signify a change of some sort—an arc. They start in one place (whether a physical place or an abstract “place”), and they end in another. This is how we determine whether something happens in a scene and whether it “moves […]
November 2, 2020 by 68 Comments PodcastThe Power of Chiastic Story Structure (Especially in a Series)
When writers put on their story theorist caps, nothing is more exciting than those moments when you get to recognize consistent patterns emerging within obvious story forms. This is the basis of all of our understanding (and musing) about story, including the chiastic story structure we’ve been studying these past few months. Although writers sometimes […]
October 26, 2020 by 51 Comments PodcastThe Midpoint as the Swivel Point of Your Story’s Linked Structure
The “saggy middle” of a story is one of the biggest challenges writers face. The Second Act is twice as long as the other two acts and yet is often less clearly defined. What’s a writer to do to keep the pacing just as tight and the events just as interesting over the long haul […]
