In recent months, I have done far more reading than writing, much to the detriment of progress on my latest novel. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed catching up on the works of other Sci-Fi writers from whom I can learn a lot, and I have enjoyed re-reading some of the technical screenwriting material on the subject …
Tag: Syd Field
Plot points and pinch points
If you are a writer, there's a lot you can learn from the techniques used by scriptwriters in story design. The media are different; but they are both about storytelling. In previous blogs I have discussed the three-act structure, sequences, and the mythic structure. All these approaches use plot points in one way or another. …
The Three-Act Structure
Novelists can learn a lot from scriptwriters who have developed a number of tools for story development. One such tool is the three-act structure. Screenwriters often use "Acts" - a concept more familiar to staged drama - to breakdown the structure of their movies into major parts. Of course there are no curtain calls in …
Story structure and story beats
In some of my previous blogs I've talked about the importance of story structure. It's a subject that's fascinated me since I first started writing fiction. Some great writers ridicule the idea of an underlying story structure as being too formulaic. They say it's based too much on the 'hero's mythical journey' or it's not …
Does your middle sag?
I don’t mean your waist line that might be suffering from that late night snack attack. I mean that author’s graveyard – the middle of your story when enthusiasm wains and your characters wonder what they’re doing, and you wonder why you ever started the story. Unless you’re one of the literary giants like Stephen …
JMJ Williamson 