Three Things You Have In Common With All Writers

February 6, 2018 by Art Holcomb I’ve seen several thousand students in my career and, from that vantage point, trends and patterns appear. One of those trends details things that all developing writers get wrong in the beginning of their careers. So, today, I want to tell you three truths that you need to face […]

Wanted: Your Thoughts about “The Help”… the Film

It came out this week.  I saw it.  I’m betting you did, too.  Or will soon. You’re invited to share your thoughts here, either in general or in context to our recent deconstruction series on the book.  If you missed it, it’s all available in the July archives.  Dig in and join the discussion! My […]

“The Help” — A Guest Post About Subtext

Please welcome Donna Lodge, who contributes this challenging and rewarding take on the value and use of subtext in our stories. I recently finished reading Linda Seger’s book, “Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath.” It’s a good res0urce, devoted to a often neglected aspect of our craft. Seger discusses how to find subtext, how to write it […]

“The Help” – A Happy Ending… ?

Great endings are hard to craft. Fun to read… easy to take for granted when we do.  Unless it bombs. My favorite author, Nelson Demille, totally tanked the ending of “Night Fall” when he concluded the story with a deus ex machina of preposterous proportions.  After hundreds of pages of rooting for the hero as […]

“The Help”: Recognizing the Screaming Power of Narrative Sub-Text

We all know what sub-plot means.  It’s what’s going on in a story that isn’t – yet – directly connected to, or dependent upon, the main plotline. Like a guy getting newly married to a younger woman who gets kidnapped by his not-so-young ex-wife.  Escaping the kidnapping is the primary dramatic plotline.  The evolution of his pending marriage […]

“The Help” — Seeing the Structure in Living Color. Literally.

By Shane Arthur of Writing Prompts I could write until I’m blue in the face (dressed in black while wearing cool sunglasses) about how the principles of story engineering have helped me see books and storytelling like Neo sees zeros and ones in the movie The Matrix.  My previous Storyfix guest post attests to this eye-opening analogy. […]

“The Help” – Isolating and Understanding the First “Pinch Point”

It has been pointed out that I tend to linger over my set-ups, both here on Storyfix and in my new book.  To pre-sell the point, ad nauseum.  So let me get right to it today: The First Pinch Point in “The Help” occurs on page 184 (of the trade paperback), which is the 35th […]

“The Help” – Fighting the Good Fight in Part 3

(Long post today, but good stuff, I think.  There’s a more personal message at the end, too, if you’re a skimmer.) The mission of the third quartile of a story (Part 3) is to show the hero proactively attacking what stands in the way of reaching of the goal, solving the problem, escaping the danger […]

“The Help” – Part/Act 2 (Response) to the Mid-Point

“The Help” is nothing if not a book of architectural subtleties.  Because the major plot points in this story are primarily contextual in nature.  They always are contextual in nature – that’s the primary mission of story milestones – but in many books and films they’re also loud and self-announcing.   At the typical First Plot Point, […]

More “Help”… Coming Soon

Patience.  Don’t have enough of it.  Appreciate it when I see it.  Love it when I’m on the receiving end of it. We’re in the middle of our deconstruction series on “The Help.”  Last post on this was Tuesday.  It’s Friday, high time for the next installment. But… this series got interrupted by an important family […]