Viewing entries tagged
plot
Ask a reader why they like a story and they are likely to mention the characters. Your reader must care about your characters. If you have boring characters, it doesn’t matter how engaging your story or how eloquently written, your readers will lose interest. Characters bring your story to life. And, it’s not just your characters themselves that make the story engaging, it’s the change they undergo throughout the story. This is the character arc.
One of the questions writers are asked the most is ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ Generally, this question is met with a shrug of the shoulders, a rolling of the eyes or a flippant reply. Many authors find it difficult to articulate where their ideas come from because they arrive in such a variety of ways. The truth is story ideas are all around us, we just have to be open to the possibility of them.
Many writers struggle with the middle. It’s at this point that your story is likely to wander off as you wrestle the two ends of your tale together. You may find yourself suffering from writer’s block as your characters reach a lull in the action or you’re simply unsure of what comes next. Luckily, this is a problem that has many solutions! In this article, we’ll look at what you can do to avoid a sagging middle.
Many writers, whether complete beginners or seasoned authors, struggle with the question: “Should I use story structure to guide my writing?”
With story structure, you have a clear set of plot points and story beats to work towards—and for some writers, that is unacceptably restrictive. So the question becomes—how can you use story structure, without giving in to a formula?
Nailing your plot can be problematic. It sounds straight-forward. After all, it’s just the telling of your story. The difficulty, however, is telling that story in such a way that the reader is enticed by the characters and compelled to find out what happens. That’s where plot questions come in. These 5 questions will help you plan out your story so you avoid common writing pitfalls and begin writing with a clear outline.
James Patterson and John Grisham swear by it. Stephen King and Margaret Atwood are dead set against it. Outlining is not for every writer, nor is there one right way to outline your novel. As with all things writing, the trick is to find what works for you. To get you started, here are six tried and tested ways to outline a novel.
