The Importance of Conveying Character Plans

Character plans may sound like kind of a boring topic to cover; they aren't as exciting as character goals, antagonists, conflicts, or stakes, but they are often still critical to communicate to your...

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How Long Should the Denouement be? (Short vs. Long Falling Actions)

The denouement, also known as the "falling action" or, potentially, "resolution" (depending on what approach you use), is everything that happens after the climax. It's where any remaining conflict or...

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Misaligned Character Wants & Plot Goals

Over the last several months, I've been writing on and off again about the internal plotline, and I've mentioned how one of its major components is the character's abstract want, which many in the writing...

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Working with Relationship-driven Scenes

As I've covered previously, most successful stories have at least three different types of plotlines, and most commonly they are the external, internal, and relationship plotlines. Often these plotlines...

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Why You Should Avoid Bored Protagonists (& When Not to)

It's usually a bad idea to have a bored protagonist (or viewpoint character). Often a bored protagonist means a bored reader, and perhaps even more often than that, it means that the writer didn't take...

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What is a Play-by-Play? And Why are They a Problem?

What is a Play-by-Play? In writing, a "play-by-play" happens when the author simply follows the character around while the character does unimportant things, like get dressed, eat, and do homework....

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Registration Now Open for The Triarchy Method

Hi friends! Registration for my live online writing course is now open. - Sign-ups are first come, first serve- I only take 10 students for the course (however, auditing is available for additional...

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Alternative Views of Basic Story Structure

Basic story structure is, well, the foundation of story structure. Rising action. Climax. Falling action. You've heard me talk about it all before. And if you've followed me for...

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If the Relationship is the Primary Plot (A Story), What is the Secondary (B Story)?

As I've talked about several times on here, most stories are made up of three different dominating plotlines, and most commonly, they are these: External--this is the character's outer journey. The...

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Writing a Meet Cute for Any Story, Any Genre

What is a Meet Cute? "Meet Cute" is a term from the romance genre, and it's basically what it sounds like. It's when the two love interests meet in a cute way. A common (and arguably cliche) example...

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When to Wax Strong on Interiority

Lately I've been doing some posts on the internal part of stories, the internal plotline and on balancing interiority. For a long time, I've wanted to write a post about when to lay on that interiority...

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What Happens When There are No Plot Points in a Story?

Plot points are a vital part of storytelling, but many writers aren't taught about them until they are elbow-deep into writing. Some are lucky enough that they naturally put proper plot points into their...

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Writing Interiority: Too Much vs. Too Little

Recently I talked to some groups of writers about interiority, and the importance of balancing it out in stories. As I've been thinking about the topic some more, I wanted to do a follow-up post on the...

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Writing with 3 Equal-sized Acts: The Hunger Games

A while ago, a follower read my article "Variations on Story Structure: A List," and asked me to elaborate on how The Hunger Games (book) doesn't follow the typical beat percentages, and they wondered...

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