Your story, be it fantasy, action, or romantic comedy, is about a character going in pursuit of what they want. They want something, they go out to get it, and things get in their way. The story resolves when they either have it, or have accept they won’t get to. But to make your story really powerful, you need to think about what they have to give up during that journey.
World Building is the technique of telling your readers what world your story is set in, whether the laws of nature match ours, whether there is magical lore they need to understand, and how the society functions. World Building is essential for most stories, other wise your readers won’t understand how your characters function throughout the story, but it can be done badly. I’ll write about how to World Build effectively, and mistakes to avoid.
The stories that stick with you, make you think long and hard after they’re over, will often blur those lines between good and evil, and show the rich complexity of life. I’ll be explaining how and why we blur those lines in stories.
To write interesting characters is one of the most important parts of story craft, and one of the ways to do this is to make sure they grow and change through the course of your story. I’ll be explaining why it matters, and how to do it.
Your Protagonist, the main character, of your story usually need to be likeable. I say usually, because having a Protagonist who is unlikeable happens occasionally and it can work, but it makes it harder for your audience to connect to their journey. A likeable Protagonist will draw your audience into following their story, and make them invest more easily.
Show don’t tell is a piece of writing advice that is regularly given to writers, but without development it can be hard to understand. I previously wrote about showing not telling your character’s environment and actions, but for this I’ll be focusing on what show don’t tell means in relation to your characters emotions and feelings.
One of the key ingredients to a successful story is for your characters to be well motivated. Your Protagonist, your main character, wants something and is motivated enough to after it, and you write that journey. But the conflict lock is what turns it from some random events into a real story.
Your story “continuity” is making sure that from one scene to another, nothing changes about the people or the environment they’re in, that wasn’t intended to change and tracked by the writer. In film and TV errors, continuity errors can happen due to wardrobes changing suddenly, placement of props on the set, or weather, but I’ll be focusing specifically on the written word because as a writer the story continuity is your responsibility to control.
When you’re writing a story, usually you use with first or third person. First person refers to the Protagonist as I, and third person refers to the Protagonist as He or She. I’m going to be explaining the use of a POV (Point Of View) Character in third person, and how you can use them for connecting your reader to the other characters in the scene and the setting they’re in, without overloading your audience with unnecessary detail.
I’ve written before about how powerful fiction is, and how we can use our stories to do good in the world. Today I’m writing specifically about how we can use our stories to fight the problem of oppressive, and regressive, gender stereotypes.