Imposter Syndrome can strike anyone, and it certainly strikes me on an alarmingly regular basis. It’s the belief that any success or recognition you’ve received in your work is undeserved. That you’re a fraud and soon everybody will notice. But I believe we should fight it. And I believe we can.
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 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.
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.
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 you come up with an initial idea for a story, it can be very exciting. Perhaps you’ve invented a world, or thought of a character you want to write about. It fills you with creative urge and you’re dying to start pouring your story out. But then you sit down to write… I’m going to talk you through the process of brainstorming that initial story nugget idea so you can turn one small idea into the plan for a story.