No New Stories Only New Twists
Time and again we’re told there are no new stories only new twists. So what is an aspiring author to do?
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Plotting
Six Essential Elements of Story
Think of this as a writer’s cheat sheet: the six essential elements of story.
There are so many ways to define, deconstruct, breakdown and pick apart ‘story‘, but I’ve found Anne Hawley’s six word prompts the most useful.
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Plot, Character and Second Sight
Editing my genre series
got a lot harder thanks to the collision of plot, character and Second Sight. That’s right, my key big fantasy idea is clairvoyance, the ability to perceive future or distant events. It enables the author to see just how big a hole they’re about to bury themselves in.
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Sanderson’s Three P’s of Plot
From his Free Writing Course online, we bring you Brandon Sanderson’s Three P’s of Plot. Fine advice for the budding author…
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Changing Point of View
When I accepted the fantasy novel challenge, I didn’t bargain on changing point of view at the end of drafting Book One. To make the effort worth while, this has to be a series, but who is at the centre?
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Murphy’s Twenty-four Chapter Structure
Four books in progress and the main crutch is Derek Murphy’s twenty-four chapter structure holding them all together. Without structure, novels are just so many words. Structure is vital. But is has to be the right structure.
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The Plotter versus the ‘Pantser’
It’s said that writers fall into two types: the plotter versus the ‘pantser,’ more politely described as a ‘discovery writer.’
The discovery writer likes to ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ (hence ‘pantser’) and write without an outline for their plot. ‘Free-writers’ is the more recognised name for them. Plotters meticulously plan the whole thing in advance and effectively write to their own brief.
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Arcs, Pacing and Plotting
Do you sit in front of the TV or a book and admire the character arcs, pacing and plotting? Just me, then. This is the stock-in-trade for the jobbing author and essential craft skills I have to master for the current challenge.
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The Legacy of the Rings
What I call Tolkein’s Legacy of the Rings doesn’t kick-start the fantasy genre. It originates in the roots of story telling. …
In Medias Res
‘Starting the story in the middle’: that’s the Latin term in medias res. The Greek playwrights understood it well. Don’t start with a boatload of exposition, get into the action and explain things as you go. Horace named it but writers have been using it since writing began.
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