What separates a good story from a great one? We might throw out a lot of opinions, but mine is this: Your story’s theme is what will raise it above the pack, out of mere entertainment into something that sticks with readers, impacts their lives, and maybe even challenges them to grow. Awesomesauce!, you say. […]
Search Results for: theme
November 16, 2014 by 51 Comments ThemeDon’t Know Your Story’s Theme? Take a Look at Your Character’s Arc
January 19, 2014 by 41 Comments ThemeHow Minor Characters Help You Discover Theme
Is theme the moral of a story? Is it the message an author wants to share? Or is it something more inherent to the plot itself? If this were a multiple-choice test, then I’d hope you would have chosen C. Although theme is potentially both a moral and a message, neither of these should be […]
June 1, 2008 by 12 Comments ThemeThe All-Important Link Between Theme and Character Progression
Theme is a slippery concept. The prevailing wisdom among writers is that if you apply any deliberate force to your theme, you’ll end up with a heavy-handed Aesop’s fable. On the other hand, a story without a theme is shallow escapism at best and an unrealistic flop at worst. Theme is arguably the single most […]
March 30, 2023 by 26 Comments UncategorizedLaunch Day for Writing Archetypal Character Arcs (Win a Freewrite!)
Welcome to Launch Day! Today, at long last, I get to officially share my newest book on the craft of writing and storytelling. For me personally, Writing Archetypal Character Arcs: The Hero’s Journey and Beyond has been quite literally an archetypal journey. I am so excited to finally and officially share it with all of […]
March 27, 2023 by 30 Comments CharactersHow Archetypes Changed My Life and My Writing
Story and life are inextricably linked. To write better stories, we study life. And to live better lives, we study stories. There are many obvious reasons why this is so. Stories, after all, are meant to be relatively accurate reflections of life. However, the more I study story theory, the deeper the rabbit hole seems […]
March 13, 2023 by 48 Comments How to Become a WriterGenre Tips: How to Write Horror
Note From KMW: I’ve been delighted to hear that so many of you have enjoyed the “Genre Tips” we’ve been exploring these past five weeks. Today, I’m happy to share a surprise post to finish off the series! Welcome to “How to Write Horror.” As you may remember, I crafted the series around the five […]
March 6, 2023 by 31 Comments How to Become a WriterGenre Tips: How to Write Literary Fiction
What exactly is literary fiction? Although the term often means many different things to different people, the general consensus is that literary fiction encompasses dramatic stories that consciously focus on existential themes and artistic prose. Naturally, these elements can appear in any type of story, so deciding you want to learn how to write literary […]
March 2023 | Podcast Episode Archive
Subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast on Apple Podcast or Amazon Music. Episode #618: Genre Tips: How to Write Literary Fiction:Learning how to write literary fiction can be helpful not only in writing the genre itself, but in raising the vibration on any type of story. Episode #619: Here Are Two Ways to […]
February 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment Writing Archetypal Character Arcs
The Six Transformational Character Arcs of the Human Life Ready to take your story’s character arcs and themes to the next level? This latest book from veteran writing teacher and story theorist K.M. Weiland ventures far beyond the popular and pervasive Hero’s Journey to explore six important archetypal character arcs, representing key moments of initiation […]
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, […]
