MrCBalls

The Trackless Wasteland known as: The MIDDLE -----Original Message----- The middle (of a story) KILLS me. I freeze when I have to decide which way things are going to go, and how, and that happens during the middle for me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- Middle, middle, middle... It's the Slough of Despond! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- The Middle is where I usually fizzle out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The middle is DANGEROUS territory. Why? Because the Middle of a story is where you have a million-and-one options, a million-and-one directions to choose from, and a million-and-one ways to really sho

On Basic Sentence Structure for Fiction   (Grammar Nazis BEWARE!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everything I ever learned about writing Fiction DIDN'T come from school; not even college. In fact, the way one writes fiction is almost the complete opposite of everything I learned in school about writing. In order to make my stories crystal clear in my readers' imaginations, I write in precise Chronological Order, in the order events actually happen, PLUS in the order that the eye sees it. Case in point, when describing a character, I describe them from top to bottom, in the order that the eye notices them. Face, hair, upper body, arms, hands, then lower

One way to add excitement to your story is by adding lots of bad-guys, also known as EXTERNAL Conflict. Another way is by adding INTERNAL Conflict, more commonly known as Angst. I'm sure most of you have noticed by now that most movie characters, and far too many book characters, are One-Dimensional. They do stuff, but they don't face any personality issues: a hang-up, a fear, paranoia, a moral code, a love interest, a strong dislike… Or worse, they do have all these things, but they never really affect the story. There's a Plot Arc, things happen, but no Character Arc. The things that happen don't affect the characters emotionally. W

Every genre has core elements that make that genre that genre. In order to Cross Genres properly, you need to know each of your genre's distinctive elements and make them Equally Important in the story. Simple, no? However... One of the most common mistakes I've seen in every genre of fiction: IGNORANCE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Most of the common mistakes come with any writing that isn't so good—bad characters, bad plots, bad writing. The ones which are peculiar to alternate histories (fantasy and sci-fi) are bad research and bad extrapolation." -- An Interview with Harry Turtledove -- http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue298/interview.html ~~~~

The Subtle STATIC TRAIT Secret Weapon of the Clever Writer The Static Trait is the small personal HABIT an individual character displays which reveals their personal Neurosis, their driving NEED, especially in stressful situations. This habitual or even ritual behavior acts as both their greatest source of trouble and the linchpin to their success. It's the individual character's "Accident Waiting to Happen". The most obvious place to find visible Static Traits is in both Comedies and Tragedies. These stories (and movies) RELY on their characters' Static Traits to linchpin the plot. What made Laurel and Hardy so funny, were the little neu

Building the DUAL-NATURED Character Let's start this lecture with a HUGE secret: -- There are Three Essential Characters in every story:   >  Adversary – The one causing all the trouble.   >  Proponent – The one trying to keep things the way they are.   >  Ally – The close companion of one or the other caught in the middle. In other words, you can tell any story with ONLY these Three Characters; perhaps not with any real detail, but you could still do the entire basic plotline. And each essential character is governed by one of three SPECIFIC aspects, or Drives

"I am – I Need – I Desire…" Goal, Motivation & Conflict - SIMPLIFIED Goal, Motivation and Conflict seems to be the BIG MYSTERY of fiction writing. Everyone says that they're essential to good writing – and they're right, they are. Absolutely. But this stuff can be a little confusing. Let's begin at the beginning… -- What are all these things and why do stories need them? Goal is what your character THINKS they are after. Motivation is what makes them WANT to go after it. Conflict is what Gets In Their Way. -- Internal Conflict being ANGST or Drama. -- External Conflict being the PLOT or Events. The Plot (

10 Second Tip: Stuck on a SHORT Story? Stuck on what to put in your story? -- This is the list of things I check off when I create a story: Do you have a Setting in mind? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Sci-fi - Historical - Modern day - Fantasy Do you have ONE big main event for the story to focus on? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - A battle - An escape - A love scene - An act of revenge - A sacrifice - A treasure to claim - A magic spell - A transformation Do you know what you want to SAY with your story? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Love sucks. - Friendship is forever. - No good deed goes unpunished. - A snake can only ever be a snake. - Sometimes