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 […]
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 […]
Ah the sidekick. Dimwitted menace or valuable tool? Many sidekicks are written poorly and with the primary role of providing comic relief or making the protagonist look good. This sort of sidekick can work in some forms of fiction, but […]
I read the first chapter of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo for #FirstChapterFriday and enjoyed it so much that I decided to read the rest of the book. I loved it and, as I can never turn off my editor brain, […]
In this video I bring you three characterisation techniques using examples from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. Learn how word choice, actions and dialogue can help you develop your characters! Check out: Sign up to get […]
(Video transcript) I don’t like character questionnaires and profiles because knowing things about someone is completely different to knowing someone and if you’re going to follow a character through a story you need to know who they are. Characters navigate […]
How to Turn a Story Premise into a Plan (Video transcript) In my last video I talked about how difficult it is to start a story from just an idea and that it’s best to develop that idea into a […]
After reading the first chapter of the Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury for #FirstChapterFriday, I decided to finish the book. The first chapter started out great, but I noted that the second half of it took a bad turn and […]
SPOILERS AHEAD I like using examples when writing about storytelling techniques and found a few good ones when watching I Am Legend the other day. Movies and books aren’t the same thing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn anything […]