All good stories need stakes. They’re some of the most important elements of storytelling. They’re what keeps everyone invested in fighting the central conflict – readers and characters alike. What are Stakes and Why Do Stories Need Them? Stakes are […]
Good world building makes a fictional world feel real and lived in. If the world building can fall apart when a reader starts asking questions like “Why don’t they just band together to overthrow the dictator?” and “Why is this character living in poverty when they can do magic?”, the world does not feel real and lived in, it feels fragile and shallow.
One of the keys to writing a great story is great character development. Since stories are driven by the characters they’re about, when characters are poorly developed, a story can quickly become boring, confusing, meandering and pointless. Stories like this […]
Jar Jar Binks …. pod racing … there are a lot of reasons to not watch this movie, but is there anything it can teach us about storytelling? 1. Every character needs a role People hate Jar Jar Binks. That’s […]
Writing and storytelling are two sides of the same coin, and one usually needs to be skilled in both to create a great story. If your prose is not engaging, your story may not be enough to maintain your reader’s […]
I’m by no means trying to suggest that Return of the Jedi is the episode of the Original Trilogy that is closest to perfection, but the biggest flaw with this movie is that the plot stalls in the middle, but what […]
Women have not always been portrayed well in fiction, with female characters often being relegated to little more than objects or plot devices. Real-life women grew tired of their fictional counterparts always being in in need of rescue or stuffed into […]
Don’t know what #FirstChapterFriday is? After a year of analysing first chapters and finding the same strengths and weaknesses over and over, I’ve decided to bring #FirstChapterFriday to an end. I’ve learnt a lot myself about the importance of first chapters; […]
Video transcript Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, there should come a time when you revise your novel, and one of the first steps of revising your novel should involve giving it structure. I know writers seethe when they […]
Don’t know what #FirstChapterFriday is? Good Morning, Midnight, Lily Brooks-Dalton The good I liked the concept. The bad Everything else. Apart from odd transitions in places, the writing was fine. But almost the entire chapter consisted of info dumping about the […]