Articles about techniques you can use to make your story better.
For a successful series, you need more than just the long form conflict. Something needs to happen each episode to tell a short mini story, a mini conflict. For this, you need a conflict engine. In this post, I’ll explore what one is, why it matters, and how to create one.
When you’re reading about a romance between two characters, assuming they’re adults, sex is a likely outcome. Letting your audience into that incredibly personal experience can be very rewarding. However, a badly written sex scene is just awkward and uncomfortable.
When you’re watching a film or a play, the setting of your story is immediately apparent. It’s created by set designers for the story to move through and around. However, when you’re writing a book, it’s your job as the writer to fill in that scenery.
I’ll be exploring how making your characters suffer is important for keeping the conflict active, keeping your story entertaining, and giving your character an interesting arc.
There are various ways you can keep your audience invested in finding out what happens in your story, but here I’ll be talking about Unresolved Sexual Tension.
When your audience comes to your story, whether reading or watching, they won’t necessarily know what your story is about. They might have a blurb or a synopsis, but often that doesn’t tell them very much. I’m going to talk you through how to tell them quickly, and why it matters.
When it comes to constructing a villain in your story, you need to put as much care and time into that character as you do the hero. No matter how interesting your hero is, and how exciting the conflict is, a boring villain will make your story boring. I’ll be exploring how to make sure your villain is an interesting character.
When you first start writing your story, and you’re introducing your characters, it can be easy to feel stalled. There will be lots of world to explore and lots of people to meet, so you may find you have lots to write about, but nothing’s actually happening.
The Protagonist of your story is the main character. You join them at the beginning of the story, and ride with them until the climax. At points you might move into the Point Of View (POV) of other characters, such as the Antagonist, but for the most part you stick with the Protagonist. In this post, I’ll be explaining about how to transition your Protagonist from a passive character into an active one, and why it matters.
Show don’t tell is a popular piece of advice given to writers, but it isn’t always explained well. Previously I wrote about how to use this advice for demonstrating your characters emotions and feelings to your audience. For this piece, I’ll be explaining how to use show don’t tell to set the scene for your story.