John Mullan incorporated novels and TV series into a recent essay on plot. A good plot engages the reader by posing questions. The ideal plot hides its own structure in plain sight. Plot is often regarded as the domain of…
Blog Archives
Inspirations: Umberto Eco Gives us a License to Thrill
More than 60 years after the first James Bond novel, 007 is still a cultural icon. Umberto Eco described the elements that made Ian Fleming’s novels so successful. Fleming’s novels combined a few narrative elements in various ways. Bond’s role…
Tagged with: Ian Fleming, James Bond, Literary analysis, Narrative Structures in Fleming, Plot, Thriller, Umberto Eco
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Introducing Characters with George and Lennie
Characters must be introduced with very few details. In Of Mice and Men, of George and Lennie’s introduction tells us what is important without a word of description. Putting contrasting characters together brings out the salient points of their personalities.…
Tagged with: beginning, Characters, Description, Introduction, John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Opening, Plot
Posted in Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Posted in Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Fractal tension over the red line
Today’s pontification, Fractal Tension, is posted as a guest blog at The Red Line. It’s well worth a look around The Red Line, home of short stories from around the world. Many thanks to the Red Line crew for the…
Tagged with: Characters, Guest blog, Microtension, Planning, Plot, Setting, Story development, Tension
Posted in Notification, Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Posted in Notification, Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Character v Plot: A False Dichotomy
Spend any time around writers’ groups and there are certain conversations you can’t avoid having. Topping the list are debates over genre definitions, discussion of the comparative merits of traditional and self-publishing, and mystification about how certain authors have become…
Tagged with: Characters, Lee Child, Plot, Story development, structure, Tripod
Posted in Story development, Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Posted in Story development, Wednesday Pontification, Writing
Self-editing
Once past the happy clappies of finishing a draft, it’s time for a reality check. Few publications worth bothering with have an acceptance rate above 5%. Most are considerably lower than that, as shown by the statistics on the Submissions…
Tagged with: draft, editing, Lee Child, Planning, Plot, Story development
Posted in Story development, Writing
Posted in Story development, Writing
Outline: the story skeleton
We’re getting very close to the first draft now. There’s one more thing to do and one more choice to make. The thing we need to do is to convert the chronology into an outline. As I said a few…
Tagged with: Cliché detector, Outline, Planning, Plot, Story development, structure
Posted in Story development, Writing
Posted in Story development, Writing
Integrate the characters with the chronology
We have the elements of the story. We know who the characters are and what is going to happen. The next step is to integrate the two. This needs yet another version if the chronology. It will differ from the…
Tagged with: Characters, Chronology, Integration, Planning, Plot, Stephen King, Story development
Posted in Story development, Writing
Posted in Story development, Writing
The Story Tripod: Ideas to Framework
The first step is the hardest. Every writer I know is buzzing with ideas. Even the ones that haven’t written anything yet. Of all the writing difficulties I’ve ever heard aired, I don’t think ‘I haven’t got any ideas’ once.…
Tagged with: Characters, Ideas, Planning, Plot, Setting, Story development, Tripod
Posted in Story development, Writing
Posted in Story development, Writing
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