I have a small collection of books on writing and screen writing, all of which I have read at least once. One of the benefits of having the collection is going back and reading them again to find a nugget or two that I might have missed the first time around. One of the books …
Tag: Story planning
Story situations
In this blog I want to look at a different way of looking at story structure that is not events-driven (such as the hero’s journey). All stories are by their nature about ‘situations’ that form the central conflict of a story. However, not all situations are big enough or complex enough to drive a story …
Storytelling – the bad guys
Not all stories are about good versus evil. But when you have a super hero or heroine it’s almost compulsory in storytelling. What would Batman be without the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler; Superman without Lex Luthor; Thor without Loki: or the Avengers without Thanos? Okay these are comic book heroes and blockbuster movies. …
Storytelling – the reveal sequence
Recently, I was reviewing John Truby’s new book “The Anatomy of Genres - How Story Forms Explain the way the World Works,” with a view to using it as material for my latest blog. However, the more I studied the book, the more I realised I needed to go back to Truby’s earlier work, “The …
Evaluating New Story Ideas
As a writer, the hardest choice to make is what to write about. Ideas for novels are everywhere, but can they be developed into a good story? How do we choose the best ideas for the best chance of success? Way back in 2019, I wrote review of Erik Brok’s book , “The idea - …
Plot Points, Turning Points and Reversals
If you're a writer and interested in the art of storytelling then you can learn a lot from the world of movies by breaking down stories into their component parts. In my previous blog I focused on how the story narrative can be broken down further into sequences. Yet another way to break down the …
Sequences and Tension
In last month's blog, I covered some aspects of sequences for writers, and in particular Darrin and Travis Donelly's '10-day Screenplay'. This month I want to look again at sequences from a slightly different perspective by looking at the use of 'tension'. In Paul Joseph Gulino's book, 'Screenwriting the sequence approach - The hidden structure …
Another look at sequences for writers
Recently I was going through my kindle library and I came across the "10-Day Screenplay" by Darrin Donnelly and Travis Donelly. It's been a long time since I read it, and so I started to flick through the pages. I know the first time I read it, I thought it presented nothing new on the …
The Heroine’s journey
Recently, I came across a book about "The Heroine's Journey" by Gail Carriger. It piqued my curiosity since I had done a lot of research the Hero's Journey and I wondered how the Heroine's journey could be different. Joseph Campbell was first to use the phrase, and his ideas where developed and expanded by Chistopher …
Story Structure — Character Arc
In my previous blog I showed how a traditional Three-Act Structure can be broken down for practical purposes into four acts of approximate equal portions, with eight sequences, 8 plot points, and 8 stages of character arc. I don't claim credit for any of these ideas. The diagram is the result of simply fusing together …
JMJ Williamson 