All story structures include turning points and plot points. Whether it has seven, seventeen or twenty-four chapters, somewhere in that structure you hit key turning points or plot points that change the direction of the story. Without them the story is a flat line.
…
With a prequel novella in the works for my fantasy series, I’m finding more troubles with prequels.
Prequels naturally take place before a story that’s already written. This could be two centuries (House of the Dragon), or a few days (Rogue One). The core problem with prequels is the ‘before-ness’ of the story.
…
Lisa Cron guested on a podcast last year discussing internality and backstory, where story lives and breathes.
Listening back to Joanna Penn’s interview from 2021, writer and coach Lisa Cron asked ‘why does story matter in every book we write, no matter the genre?’
…
Writing a fantasy series, there’s no way I can ignore the conventions of the Action genre. A solid action piece has to include some mandatory ingredients of plot, character and theme. Scratch the surface and you’ll find I write all the tropes of a classic Western. With swords.
…
Not the obvious ‘how does it end?’ but something more basic; every story asks questions.
‘What’s is about?’ isn’t really the question either. Jaws isn’t about a shark, it’s about friendship; Fast and Furious isn’t about cars, it’s about family. But those are themes. Both ask different questions of the audience. Can our Three Men in a Boat(!) overcome their fears and band together? Do our street-racers overcome their distrust and become family?
…
Amazon’s Rings of Power demonstrates the trouble with prequels like no other. When the outcomes and consequences don’t matter, how do you make the audience care?
…
The ‘all-is-lost’ story beat is obligatory in just about every story structure from the Hero’s Journey to Save the Cat.
…
I don’t generally review film and TV here, but I have a problem with Amazon’s Rings of Power: Three Hours of Setup. Three hours in, and I haven’t seen a single Ring of Power. Just four entirely disconnected plot strands going nowhere. Slowly.
…
Posting a short story to my writers’ group this week, I’m exploring the art of the Long Con in Selling the King’s Bridge.
…
“Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.” So said British playwright William Archer back in the Edwardian era. A definition that gets to the core of fiction so succinctly, Disney/Pixar’s Andrew Stanton featured it in his TED Talk on story telling.
…