What Is a Throughline in Writing?
What it is, why it's important, and how to create one.
Latest in Throughline
Q&A: How Do I Start My Plot?
Submitted by Murphie,
answered
Episode 340: Subplots
Subplots and exciting Tea Discourse!
Six Signs of a Weak Throughline
If the throughline isn’t working, chances are good that little else is.
Your Plot Is a Fractal
Your story recreates the same three-point structure at every scale.
Five Stories With Anticlimactic Endings
When the climax is a disappointment, the whole story suffers.
Episode 171: Writing Your Passion
We all want to write what we’re passionate about, but sometimes that’s not as simple as it sounds.
Q&A: Where Should I Start My Story?
Answered
The One Big Thing That Most Manuscripts Lack
Without a throughline, novelists can waste countless hours writing in the wrong direction.
Six Novels With Weak Throughlines
If a story's central problem is weak or its focus meandering, boredom ensues.
Episode 131: Throughlines
A throughline is the story’s core, the problem that opens in the beginning and concludes in the climax.
Establishing and Satisfying Plot Threads
How to keep your story on track from beginning to end.
Tying Your Plot Together
How to weave your story's strands together into a cohesive whole.
Sarah West