Posts tagged as:

Structure

A Scene Is Not A Story

05.06.2010

I see a lot of new writers’ work. I edit a lot of it, too. And what I see a lot of are scenes—scenes in lieu of stories. Often, these scenes are well thought out and well done. But they are not stories. The difficulty is the writer thinks they are. The difficulty is getting [...]

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Begin with Who

11.02.2010

Sometimes students tell me they can’t come up with an idea for a story. I’m never surprised when I hear this. For a story to get off the ground you want to think character, not plot. Stories are character driven. Let be backtrack. Strong, memorable stories are character driven. Begin with an ordinary child, with [...]

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Story Arcs—In A Nutshell

17.10.2009

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of manuscripts from students that have something missing. A story. I get lots of scenes, most of which are lovely. But, with apologies to Gertrude Stein, there’s no there, there. The basic story idea is a good start, but nothing happens. The characters look to be interesting, but they [...]

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