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Stories are always borrowing from each other, intentionally or otherwise. It’s impossible to completely avoid material used by someone else. Even if you somehow managed it, the resulting story would probably feel stilted and out of touch. When this kind of borrowing is done well, … read more »
We storytellers love giving our characters special abilities. They’re just cool! They add novelty, let us craft different plots, and make a story’s empowerment fantasy more enticing. But sometimes a powerful ability isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I see this all the time in … read more »
A favorite pastime of internet nerds is to put the new Star Wars films under a microscope and ask questions about anything doesn’t make sense. We ask how the First Order became so powerful after the Empire’s fall, how Maz got a hold of Luke’s … read more »
Of all the characters in a story, how do creators choose which one is the main one? This question comes up often in writing workshops. Sometimes writers switch around which character is in focus in order to determine who should be framed as the main … read more »
Storytellers setting out to create a love story face many obstacles, and one of the more serious obstacles is an underdeveloped love interest. This is what you get when the protagonist’s sweetheart doesn’t seem like a complete character in their own right. They might just … read more »
We authors love putting multiple points of view in our stories. It’s just so tempting! Why struggle to show what this character is thinking on the outside when you could give them a POV? Why work so hard to construct a plausible way for the … read more »
Sometimes, stories have to make it clear that a character is bad or at least that they did a bad thing. This vilification has numerous uses, from making us hate a villain to showing us why a hero must seek redemption. Why do we cheer … read more »
In many horror movies, the black woman is a mere friend – cannon fodder, to put it bluntly. She’s there to throw in a splash of diversity before killing her off. Luckily, people in the real world are beginning to acknowledge black women and their … read more »
Conflict is the engine that moves the plot and lights up characters. But what happens when a storyteller forces conflict into places where it doesn’t make sense? That’s when you get contrived conflict, and it’s usually followed by audiences asking things like “Why are they fighting?” and … read more »
A throughline is the core or central plot thread of your story, the problem introduced in the beginning and resolved in the climax. It’s what ties everything together and keeps the audience engaged. Novels without strong throughlines have a difficult time building tension or creating satisfaction, two … read more »