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The Plot-Device Machine – Motive
A story is its people. We all know that, and that’s why Motive is different from the other Plot Device points. We’ve seen how Movement and especially Knowledge can organize the plot around the...
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Deals, Decoys, and Dirty Tricks for your Characters
Your hero’s trapped by his enemies, no way to run or fight—unless he can take what those goons really want and use it against them. Your villain needs to slip past the police lines to work his sinister...
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The Prologue Checklist
“What’s past is prologue.” –William Shakespeare, The Tempest It’s only natural—you’ve got a powerful story to write, so you open with a prologue. It’s your chance to show off a clever idea, it...
View ArticleThe Plot-Device Machine – Strength
Welcome to the whole story… or at least a chance to step back from looking at single aspects of writing, like the last two Plot-Device posts did. Now that we’ve explored how characters’ movement and...
View ArticleDarth Vader Missed It and Dracula Never Tried – Character Plot Twists that...
What single choice could make a story? Sure, we writers have dozens of strengths we might weave into a tale, but could there be one clear decision that pushes it to a whole other level? It’s been on my...
View ArticleWriting a Character Arc – Through Other Characters
If the heart of a story is the conflicts it puts a character through, and especially the choices he has to make… could there be a pattern underlying that to guide a plot into deeper insights and keep...
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Babylon 5’s One Key to Character Arcs
One way. There just might be one irresistible way to track and reveal how a character evolves—and make the most of how that arc drives the whole story. In my last post, I said the key I found was...
View ArticleBeen There Done That? Similar Problems with Writing Similar Scenes
There are stories that rely on their central concept to shape much of their plot into their favorite kind of sequence, and try to make it our favorite too. It could be: a type of action the hero takes,...
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Who’s On First – A Character System for Variety in Scenes
Are you using all your story? All the characters, all the possibilities and combinations that a tale has ready to unleash? On the one hand, it’s a lifelong study—we writers try to make every book dig...
View ArticleA Jessica Jones Experiment – Take the TMI Test
So Season 2 of Jessica Jones is out. And this time it’s almost perfect. As a show, Jessica… how do I say this? Her first season was the only series that’s ever made me rethink Buffy The Vampire-Slayer...
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