What’s so hard about story conflict? You throw your protagonist and your antagonist onto the page–insta-conflict! Right? Actually, not so fast. Turns out creating a fascinating story world in which dwells a fascinating hero and an evil villain is not enough, in itself, to create integral and interesting story conflict. I’ve read quite a few unfortunate […]
June 10, 2016 by 58 Comments Plotting Your NovelHow to Write the Perfect Plot (in 2 Easy Steps)
How do you create a story? You start writing and stuff starts happening. Right? True enough that’s how you write a story, but it is not, in fact, how to write the perfect plot. That takes a little more forethought and effort. When we first start out as writers, we tend to have this belief that telling […]
April 15, 2016 by 93 Comments CharactersHow to Control Reader Reactions to Character Sins
Your protagonist just messed up. Big time. We’re talking unforgivable sins here. Now, these sins are totally necessary to your plot. There’s no way you can write them out of the story just because they’re dark. But… here’s the rub. What if you’ve pushed your readers too far? What if they can’t stomach your character anymore […]
March 27, 2016 by 46 Comments Novel EndingsHow to Know When to Write The End
I wrote my first book when I was fourteen–and I had no idea when to write The End. I printed the manuscript in December 1999 (just in case Y2K crashed the world and I lost my beautiful story). This was a great accomplishment, of course. I’d just finished writing a book. Except, it turned out, I wasn’t […]
March 11, 2016 by 73 Comments Plotting Your NovelPlot Isn’t Story
What is story? Is it a beginning, middle, and end? Is it, by any chance, a plot? Of course, it is. But only in the same sense that a cake is flour and eggs. By Itself, Plot Isn’t Story A plot, all by itself, does not a story make. You can stick characters onto your […]
September 4, 2015 by 38 Comments ThemeYour Plot and Theme: Are They a Team?
We all know writing a book is no easy task. The reason it’s ultimately so tricky is that a novel must bring together about a gazillion little working pieces, which the author then has to somehow fit together, so they all start ticking together as a seamless whole. That’s like taking apart a Swiss watch and trying […]
July 8, 2015 by 16 Comments Plotting Your NovelWhat Jurassic Park Can Teach You About Compounding Conflict in Your Story
Think your story is falling a little flat? The problem might be that your conflict is too one-sided. The most interesting stories are always those that result from the complex interweaving of various threads of compounding conflict. In his book The Anatomy of Story, John Truby talks about “four-corner opposition”: A simplistic opposition between characters […]
June 12, 2015 by 45 Comments Outlining Your NovelScared of Plot? How One Author Embraced Story Structure Without Sacrificing Creativity
I was never a believer in plotting. “Me?” I’d say. “I’m too right brain.” Years back, I attended Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and was one of only two writers fortunate to be assigned to Robert Stone for my one-to-one. He told me my writing was beautiful, but that it needed a story to serve. […]
May 24, 2015 by 43 Comments ThemeStories That Matter: 5 Necessary Factors for Weighty Fiction
What is weighty fiction? I would argue that it is, almost unto itself, the definition for stories that matter. It’s the opposite of fluffy fiction (which isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with fluff–we all enjoy a fair share of that as well). Most authors want to write something that matters. Even if we’re never going to […]
March 11, 2015 by 47 Comments Plotting Your NovelFind Out Why Your Awesome Protagonist Is Boring Readers to Death
This week’s video talks about the two reasons you may not be giving a great character enough to do—and how to fix the problem to avoid boring readers. Video Transcript: Your protagonist is fabulously interesting, I have no doubt of that. You wouldn’t be writing about him if he bored you. In fact, you’re probably […]
