Hidden from the Reader’s View
A vital consideration in plotting your story: what is hidden from the reader’s view? Author and coach Susan deFreitas posed […]
Plotting
Posts on plotting a story
Make Inciting Incidents Happen Sooner
Forget the old ‘rules:’ make inciting incidents happen sooner. The same conclusion I reached over a year ago came from
The Badly-Plotted Deus Ex
How many stories fall into the badly-plotted Deus Ex Machina ending? A miraculous resolution to a seemingly doom-laden ending, the
How to Escalate a Series
It’s a common writing challenge: how to escalate a series. How do you create a bigger ‘bang’ for books two,
Cross-country Travel in Fiction
Chase, quest, military campaign; suddenly you’re an expert in cross-country travel in fiction. Listen to the audio version on our
Enter Late and Leave Early
Valuable writing advice: enter late and leave early. It applies to scenes, chapters and whole stories. You’re welcome. You want
Maximise the Midpoint at the Core
How do you maximise the midpoint at the core of your story? According to writing coach Abigail Perry, the midpoint
Embracing Scene Structure in Story
Embracing scene structure in story took me longer than it should. While I recognised the scene as the basic unit
Three Plots Make One story
Mastery of plot structure isn’t about a single thread, more like three plots make one story. So says writer and
Internal versus External Plot
What really makes a story is the interplay between internal versus external plot. I upset some folks when I say