So you know that your favourite stories explore themes, like Good and Evil, or Poverty and Class. You want your story to operate on this plane as well, but how to do it? By the end of this article you’ll be a theme-guru, writing plays, novels, and screenplays that deliver on theme. Pick Your Theme! … Read more
Arc Implies Change So you’ve been told to improve you character arcs, or you’re just curious about how to write great ones. First of all, what are they? An arc is really a journey from one state to another. Transformation is something that has obsessed story tellers from the earliest days – look at Ovid’s … Read more
Exposition is story information. It’s the facts or bare bones of your tale that the audience needs to know to appreciate what’s going on. There is a lot of skill involved in delivering exposition in story at the highest level. So what are exposition dumps? How do we avoid them? Exposition dumps are when a … Read more
Having an agent can vastly simplify the task of finding a publisher, or a producer for your writing. Whether you are a poet, a novelist, a screenwriter, a playwright, a non fiction author or any other kind of writer, an agent will send your work into the world, and hopefully to the right people. An … Read more
We all know that characters encounter obstacles in stories, but how do we write really good ones? What sets a bad obstacle apart from one that enhances the story and leaves the audience desperate for more? Read on to find out. Perfect obstacles get bigger throughout the story, they reveal character, they are closely related … Read more
So you have written a story and you are excited to get it out into the world. For many writers their first stop is sending the work to a writing agent to try to get representation. The agent can then submit your work to publishers or producers. But do you have to write the letter … Read more
Novelists have been writing prose since Apuleius penned (quilled?) The Golden Ass in 2nd Century CE Rome. For thousands of years readers and critics have been trying to determine which novels represent the very best of prose. Who is the Best Prose Writer? Contenders for the title of best prose writer include Cervantes, Twain, Hemingway, … Read more