Dystopian fiction deals with a future where the world has been changed, and not for the better. They are entertaining because they’re high drama, and they’re important because they can teach us something important about our humanity. Dystopia takes away the freedoms of the people, in a variety of different ways, and then explores the consequences.
A story prompt is the seed of a story. It’s a sentence or an idea designed to spark your imagination. From that little seed, you can start to grow your idea. You could be given a name, an idea, or a sentence, but from that little idea you grow something new.
2021 can be the year of your story. The year you finally get to write “The End.” And I can help you. The world needs more stories, so let’s make yours one of them.
The Protagonist of your story is the main character. It’s the person you will spend the most time with, the person who’s story you’re following. When you set out to write their story, you need to ask yourself why. Why this character, why now? If you don’t have an answer to those questions, your Protagonist won’t really matter, so your story won’t really matter either.
The problem with henchmen is that if you’re writing a hero who is intended to be morally pure, you can’t have just slaughter the henchmen. I’ll be talking about the different ways of writing henchmen for different styles of story.
The best stories take characters on a journey. They are changed and shaped by the events in your story and come out the other end as different people. This is emotional journey is known as your character’s arc. Usually a Protagonist will arc towards greater strength, learning from their errors, and an Antagonist will arc to greater evil.
When you’re writing your story, it’s a good idea to write from the perspective of one of the characters. It allows your story to feel more real and personal to your readers, and they will connect to your character as they share their experiences. However, sometimes you’ll want to hop perspectives to see the story through different eyes.
The belief that in a Universe so huge, so vast and undiscovered, that some huge power would choose to change and shape the world to tell your story is cosmic narcissism. It’s the over inflated sense of self importance that comes with classic narcissism, but without the need for validation or tendency towards bullying. Of course, a cosmic narcissist could also be a toxic narcissist, but not always.
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.