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faster than anticipated
Sep. 5th, 2017 11:00 pmSo our underage hero meets up with two responsible adults who will do their best to help him and the three younger students he's (mostly) in charge of.
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through the door
Aug. 28th, 2017 11:18 pmA bunch of supervillains with no need for a gun came crashing through the metaphorical door.
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contemplating shipwreck
Jul. 25th, 2017 11:35 pmThere's a shipwreck. With my heroine and her companions on the ship.
Now, is it just before the story opens, or does it open the story?
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Now, is it just before the story opens, or does it open the story?
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faction and motives
Oct. 22nd, 2016 10:19 pmAh, time for the faction sheet.
A useful sheet, like the character sheet, to help you keep track of what's going on. There's nothing like multiplying the number of different things that characters want to make the story complex. (As long as you keep them clashing. It matters a lot less how strong the desires are than that they can't all get what they want. )
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A useful sheet, like the character sheet, to help you keep track of what's going on. There's nothing like multiplying the number of different things that characters want to make the story complex. (As long as you keep them clashing. It matters a lot less how strong the desires are than that they can't all get what they want. )
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philosophy on fighting for fugitives
Oct. 9th, 2016 11:11 amA new fledged superhero, the classic flying brick with flight, supersenses, invulnerability and strength, and I was meandering along and -- put him in a fight.
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bildungsroman for the birds
May. 1st, 2016 09:26 pmA bildungsroman has a lot looser weave in its plot than other stories. Even if the heroine turns into a dove on occasion. . .
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bridging conflict
Dec. 23rd, 2015 12:00 amPondering a story, I realized I could move the inciting incident much earlier than I had thought.
But not to the beginning. There was still some set up needed.
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But not to the beginning. There was still some set up needed.
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where to begin
Dec. 20th, 2015 11:52 pmsigh
Two fairy tale stories. One I begin when the hero is seven, and he meets up with a wild man of the woods, with consequences that rebound throughout the story -- but not until he's fourteen or so, except for the coldness it creates between him and his father.
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Two fairy tale stories. One I begin when the hero is seven, and he meets up with a wild man of the woods, with consequences that rebound throughout the story -- but not until he's fourteen or so, except for the coldness it creates between him and his father.
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comes a letter
Oct. 26th, 2015 11:29 pmI had thought nothing of it. The three students still on speaking terms with parents or guardian and not within easy walking distance got letters.
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ensemble plots
Sep. 11th, 2015 10:45 pmOne complication of an ensemble plot is sometimes you put in an event that affects them all.
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The opposite end of the Harry Potter situation where even the two most major characters barely get subplots is the ensemble, where many characters are important, sometimes leaving the main character role split up.
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rear echelons and research
Jun. 6th, 2015 11:15 pmMost military stories -- and non-fiction -- are about the front-lines. That's where the drama naturally graviates.
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plotting without the problem
May. 16th, 2015 11:59 pmSo I sit down with an outline and some scenes and ponder. I have the characters, I know who they are, and I know they find themselves alone in the space station with odd lights glowing places, and no one else around.
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flirting with a formula
Nov. 4th, 2014 11:06 pmSeries can be divvied up by how tightly connected they are. They can also be divvied up by how formulaic they are. Which is not in itself a bad thing. It can produce a difference like a poet's book titled Poems, and one titled Sonnets.
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Sometimes you just know that the events of the story that you know about have to be farther off in the future.
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wrong sort of gun
Mar. 8th, 2014 11:02 pmWhen in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand. . . I may have given one the wrong gun.
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with a gun in his hand
Feb. 19th, 2014 08:28 pmPatricia C. Wrede, in Wrede on Writing, wrote that you should not just throw action into the story just to have it.
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