It takes a lot of scenes to make a novel. Not only do we need enough scenes to progress the plot and get the characters from Point A to Point B, we also need to reach a certain word count so the book can be a novel. (Or the movie can be a movie. Ya […]
August 23, 2021 by 44 Comments Plotting Your NovelThe Main Reason Your Story’s Premise Is Important
Your story’s premise is the foundation of your work. This is true for the shaping of the story itself, and it is also true from a marketing perspective. For both writers and readers, the premise is the reason we become interested in a story. Even when you don’t know your premise until late in the […]
July 20, 2020 by 47 Comments Novel Endings4 Questions to Prevent Plot Holes
How peachy would the writing life be if we didn’t have to prevent plot holes. Just imagine—you could write anything you wanted to, and every single thing would make sense. No need to worry about the fact that your two awesome scenes actually don’t make sense side by side. They get to be in the […]
October 14, 2019 by 53 Comments Plotting Your NovelThis Is How to Transform Info Dumps Into Exciting Plot Reveals
Clues, mysteries, plot reveals, and plot twists—these are some of a writer’s stock tricks for hooking readers page after page. But as important as these tricks are, when they’re asked to bear the load of being the main attraction for readers, they too often turn into boring info dumps. Imagine you’re reading a story in […]
August 19, 2019 by 73 Comments CharactersHow to Tell if Your Story Has Too Much Plot, Not Enough Character
Can a story have too much plot? It might surprise you (especially if you’re a regular reader of the site), but the answer is absolutely, yes. Implicit in the question of too much plot is the idea that a story should have more of something else. Usually that something else is character. This is where we […]
June 17, 2019 by 77 Comments Plotting Your Novel5 Ways to Earn Your Audience’s Loyalty
Part 22 of The Do’s and Don’ts of Storytelling According to Marvel There’s little in this cosmos that writers want more than our readers’ love and respect. We want them to buy our stories, love our stories, tell their friends about our stories, buy more stories, support us in style for the rest of our lives, […]
June 3, 2019 by 63 Comments Plotting Your NovelHow to Write Interesting Scenes
Here’s a secret about storytelling that many writers overlook. An interesting plot isn’t what makes an interesting story. Interesting characters aren’t what make an interesting story either. In reality, a story is only as interesting as its scenes. That sounds almost too obvious to think about. Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it too specifically myself […]
April 8, 2019 by 52 Comments Plotting Your NovelWhat Is the Relationship Between Plot and Theme?
Sometimes plot and theme are confused as being basically the same thing. Other times, they’re viewed as so distinct they don’t even belong in the same discussion. So which is it? First question first: is plot basically the same thing as theme? To some degree, the answer is yes. Or, at least, intuitive phrasing often […]
October 29, 2018 by 103 Comments Plotting Your Novel5 Lessons From a Lost Novel
Mistakes are unavoidable. To fear them is to fear life itself. To try to eliminate them is to waste life in a futile struggle against reality. I daresay no one has more opportunities to learn these truths than does a writer. As writers, our lives are a never-ending litany of mistakes. Certainly mine has been […]
June 18, 2018 by 33 Comments CharactersHow to Intertwine Plot, Character, and Theme in Every Scene
If plot, character, and theme are the foundational underpinnings of story itself, then they must be present in every scene as well, right? But that gets tricky. How can you make sure these elements are doing their job in every scene? And if they’re not present in every scene, does that necessarily mean the scene is […]
