You may have heard the terms character driven and plot driven and assumed you knew what they meant, but this concept is harder to grasp than it seems. I originally thought I wrote character driven fantasies, but I’ve recently been rethinking that statement. While I believe my stories are very Read more…
We’ve covered Consumer Genres and Content Genres, and now I want to look at Story Genres. This is the last helpful list of genre types I’ve found, and it was created by Blake Snyder in his Cave The Save! books. I am presenting Jessica Brody’s version of it, which is Read more…
You have a shiny new idea for a book, but how do you make that idea into a story? Most people start with whatever excites them most. If you like worldbuilding, then you may start with a setting idea. Or maybe you want to tell a certain person’s story, or Read more…
Every story is about overcoming obstacles in your protagonist’s way to her goal. There should be numerous obstacles to face throughout the book, and you’ll need various types to make it seem more realistic. If the only issue the protagonist has is her love life, then the story will grow Read more…
I recently finished reading a fabulous book and was left with a mind-blowing question about the writing. How did the author write a plot that ended so badly but left me feeling satisfied? There was no doubt that what could go wrong did go wrong in this book, but I Read more…
Story structure comes in many variations with just as many ways to classify it. One of the leading voices on story structure is Orson Scott Card and his MICE Quotient. He divides all stories into four categories based on what element the author values the most when writing the story. Read more…
When I first started submerging myself in writing lingo, I listened to podcasts by authors. I heard the word denouement several times and recognized it as French, but I had no clue what it meant. While the word itself isn’t mandatory to know as a writer, what it represents for Read more…
The Three Act Structure is the concept that each story can be broken into three main parts: Act I, Act II, and Act III. In Act I, we see the characters in their normal lives. Act II is when something changes their status quo and they run into problem after Read more…