Stories are powerful. We all want to know what happened next, how it felt to stare down danger or fall in love or fail spectacularly. It’s exactly those stories that help us connect and feel.
This blog could be like any other out there, sharing the power of story. But what happens if I tell you why stories matter to me? What if I let you into one of my stories before I give you facts on why stories work? Let’s see.
All writers live by the power of their story ideas. How are yours? Do you struggle to come up with ideas? Or do you hit a wall when you try to develop them into something useable?
A treatment is a summary of your script or screenplay idea. They are used for a variety of purposes, but mostly to pitch an idea and approach for a film or video. Writers typically use treatments for corporate work, influencer scripts, YouTubers, documentary films, short runs, and other quick pitches. They are the fastest way to convey your idea for visual or audio formats.
Writers have entire worlds in their heads, filled with characters, locations, stories, and consequences. It’s a lot to keep track of when creating a story or series, which is why series bibles exist.
The final story issue in our series concerns inconsistencies in your story, series, and world. In other words, contradicting facts in your story’s canon.
Mary Sues are perfect in whatever they do. They possess skills at an unusually high level with little or no effort required to acquire those talents. They never have to try and never fail. They are the “chosen ones” or the best at what they need to excel in their world or story. They are beloved by all for no obvious reason. They are simply desired. They are attractive, but lack personality in most cases. But they do have power even if they don’t have to work to achieve their goal.
Identifying and avoiding story-related issues in your writing that weaken the experience and characters. While the following list is not exhaustive, it does reflect some of the most glaring issues facing stories today. Ignore them at your peril. Three are character based and the final issue affects every aspect of story. This is part one of a three-part series. More to come.
There are many ways a plot can go astray, but plot armor, deus ex machina, and plot holes are the most common. So why would you ever want to use these devices? And if you do, how do you use them correctly?
There are many ways a script or novel can go astray. Today, we’re going to review three big plotting issues that face writers: plot armor, deus ex machina, and plot holes. All three fall squarely in the writer’s hands.
In the first part of this series, we looked at the definitions and purposes of concept, premise and story. Now let’s look at how to build a good premise and break down one of the previous examples to see how the author built a stronger story from her concept and premise.
Concept, premise and story are not the same things. Confusing them or using them interchangeably is a common mistake, but one that weakens writing. In this two-part series, we’ll explore what each of these terms means and how to use each technique to build stronger stories.