I’ve written before about the difference between the Protaognist and the Antagonist in your story and how you use them, but in some stories you’ll want to use multiple antagonists. I’ll give you some examples of how multiple antagonists can be used in one story, different kinds, and the effect it has, using one of my favourite films in the whole world as an example: Jurassic Park.
When your reader or view is particularly observant and notices the small details in your story, you can reward them by making those small details pay off later in a way that is really satisfying. It takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.
Non-Linear storytelling is when you break up the chronological order of your story, and tell different sections at different times, so you’re writing in multiple timelines. There are different ways of writing a non-linear story, so I’ll a deep dive on the different styles in a future piece, but right now I’ll do an intro and cover a few different ways or writing non-linear.
If you’re writing an ensemble cast, rather than just a single protagonist and antagonist, you may need to be able to write with multiple Protagonists, and understand what that means and how to do it well. However, an ensemble cast doesn’t necessarily mean you have multiple protagonists, you may have a large cast revolving around a single Protagonist. They’re only a Protagonist if you’re directly following their story.
“Pantsing” comes from the expression “fly by the seat of your pants.” If means to be making your story up as you go, and finding out what’s going to happen along the way. “Plotting” is where before you start writing, you work out who you characters are, key events in the story, what page count you’re aiming for etc in advance, and then you follow that plan as you work.
Writing effective and interesting prose is something we all have to work on to be good writers. Too much and it’s boring and tedious, too little and it’s too sparse and you don’t feel like you know the characters feelings or the environment they’re in well enough.
The Death Of A Mentor is a technique used in story to motivate the Protagonist, by killing the person who has taught them to do what it is they do.
Your first act is setting up what they want, the second act is where they start to pursue it, and the third act is where they’ve learned what they need to learn to go about getting it. Your midpoint comes at a point where your story pivots into a new setting or a new scenario.
A three act structure is like a framework for your story, and is how you move your plot along in a controlled way that keeps your story organised and making sense. However, as with most things there is fluidity to it and if a three act structure doesn’t work for your story that’s okay, but if it does work, and it does help you, then this is a good guide on how to implement it and why you might want to.
If you’re a reader who loves certain writers and is heavily inspired by them, how do you prevent those writers influencing your work so heavily you lose your own unique voice.