Posts by Kevin
A story is about main characters trying to overcome a conflict. The ending is happy if the characters succeed. The ending is sad if the characters fail. The ending is mixed if the characters overco...
There is a formula! Mechanically, stakes are rather straightforward; The protagonist has a goal. The antagonist (or antagonistic force) is doing something that gets in the way of said goal. In th...
I don't have a lot of respect for the three-act structure for exactly the reason you've run into: It doesn't get you any mileage out of the second act. In fact, I'm going to go further than that: T...
A strong character has two elements: Its motivation, as revealed through its choices, and Its personality, as revealed through its dialogue and body language. So let's talk about how those appl...
I think you'll be surprised by how little detail you need to include in your story to get the point across. If you're worried about how to include all of your ideas thoroughly enough to tell the st...
In the eternal battle between pantsers and planners, I'm a very hard planner. I don't feel comfortable writing the first page of a story until I know the overall structure and the main characters, ...
Don't worry about it and use "and" when you need to. Some words in writing are effectively invisible. They perform such basic grammatical functions that it is very rare for readers to be grated by...
I wrote an answer to a similar question a while ago: https://writing.codidact.com/questions/34255#answer-34261 Like in that answer, to be honest, I think you're spending too much time thinking abo...
Good writing isn't good because of the specific words or style used. Good writing is good because it communicates an idea clearly, in a well-organized structure, and with a style that is pleasant t...
The specific details you choose don't matter as much as how you wield them. You want to start out with details that are incredibly subtle. These are less to clue your readers in and more to reward ...
I think what you're trying to ask is, how do I have a main character who isn't given a bunch of nice things by the author just to make them stand out. How do you have a chracter who isn't given "wi...
One option is to move the twist even earlier in your story! If you want to focus primarily on Hero 2, compress Hero 1's journey into just the prologue. Not necessarily literally the first chapter, ...
You need to figure out what your story's theme is. And then you need to take Joyce on a journey that forces her to make decisions about that theme. That will define whether she's good or evil withi...
With that many characters, you're dealing with an ensemble cast. That means you're going to have to carefully structure your story so that each major protagonist is introduced to the story in a way...
This website shows the rubric used to grade SAT tests. It does not discuss contractions anywhere. So I believe that as long as you use a style that fits the criteria described by the rubric, whethe...
You can structure a story so that the decision to do things differently is the climax, and thematically, the conflict is finding the fortitude to make that decision. It's a little abstract, but it ...
One of the strongest advantages of the medium of the written word (as opposed to, say, movies) is that you can describe something that is impossible to experience, and readers will still accept it....
You seem to be looking at picking a genre as signing up to follow a very tight straight-jacket on your writing. I don't believe that's what genre is at all. Rather, genre is a very loose set of rel...
This can work. I'll even give a couple examples of boss fights that pull off this kind of pacing and feel very satisfying. But it's difficult to pull off, and there are a few things you have to get...
The other answers to this thread say not to sweat it and just write a beginning to get off the ground. I'm a heavy plotter myself, so I wouldn't be comfortable taking that advice. Instead, once I h...
One thing to keep in mind is that your setting bible is an internal document. Your players (or readers or viewers or audience) will never see it. As a result, the moment you spend a single second w...
I would say it's best not to write this as a series of shots. The reason is because whether to break that up into multiple shots is a decision for the director and cameramen to make, not for you. ...
Just to be clear - I'm not trying to change the amount of work, or the reduce time it takes, I'm merely asking for ways to avoid excessive editing (something I don't enjoy) by doing other things s...
There are three things that make a Mary Sue. You want to avoid all three of them: The character has a backstory that is desperately tragic, but doesn't encounter serious problems in the story. (T...
There are two things that every fictional character needs to be likable: a clear motivation or goal and a distinct voice or personality that comes through their actions and dialogue. Real people a...
