You’ve heard me go on about the critical third layer of your big-picture story structure: your characters’ Goals and Motivations. But recently I was reminded that this element of storytelling is so critical to our understanding of story, period, that we can’t even quite tell what’s going on in a logline that omits this. Here’s the definition of a logline (a term from … Read More
Come see me this month!
Last month I appeared at the Writing Brave Summit, and presented a masterclass called The Heart of Story. (Thanks to all who attended!) This month, I’m appearing at the Write Anyway Summit (October 21-24) and presenting a masterclass entitled The Bones of the Thing (a nod to the spooky season, as this class will take place on Halloween). If you … Read More
You’re the most important part of your story
Today I dug back into my work-in-progress after a week or so off and read it from the beginning (I’m at around 50 pages now). And wow, I’m not going to lie. I was not all that impressed by what I found there. Will readers care about these characters? Is the plot unfolding in a way that will hold the … Read More
Falling Down at the Finish Line?
I had the honor of presenting a class for Jane Friedman that you might think of as the expanded, class-sized version of one of my most popular posts for her, The Alchemy of Emotion. In this class, I covered the ways that emotion is generated in long-form fiction at three very important, very distinct levels: At the level of the story … Read More
