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The Pantser’s Guide to Story Planning – Part Two

February 19, 2010

The Minimum First Tier Things an Organic Writer Needs to Know About a Story Before It Will Work
The second installment of a two-part series.
(Read Part One of this series here.)
The Nine Things You Should Know Before You Begin Writing
This reminds me of that old Steve Martin joke: How do you avoid paying taxes on [...]

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The Pantser’s Guide to Story Planning – Part One

February 18, 2010

The Minimum First Tier Things an Organic Writer Needs to Know About a Story Before It Will Work
The first installment of a two-part series.
Over the course of this debate about story planning versus organic, seat-of-the-pants story development, I’ve come to realize several things.
Most notably, that we are all in the same boat, planners and pantsers [...]

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The Thing About Sub-Plots

February 17, 2010

Certain storytelling questions keep popping up.  One of them, and a goodie, is this: does a sub-plot follow the same principles of linear structure as the main plotline? 
In other words, does the sub-plot also – like your main plotline – unfold over four contextually different parts, each separated by a succinctly defined milestone story-point?
This can [...]

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A Slightly Off-Color Joke for Anyone Who Has Published a Book, or Wants To

February 15, 2010

(Disclaimer: this is a moment of good-natured humor, though of a slightly — and only slightly — less than Sunday morning nature.  There is no sexualty, it’s a language thing, though only implied and alliterative.  If you don’t know what that means you’re already in the wrong place.  Storyfix is an equal opportunity offender.)
If you [...]

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Deconstructing Avatar – The Final Act

February 13, 2010

The stories we write are like life itself.
I’m not referring to how they reflect life – which they absolutely should do – or how poignantly you’ve rendered a character and how powerful your themes may be.
No, I’m talking now about structure and exposition.  About what happens.  The way we close out our lives is also [...]

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Deconstructing Avatar – The Second Half of Act II

February 11, 2010

A closer look at the third quartile of a two million dollar home run story.
Since the last post a reader got in touch to share his opinion of Avatar, story-wise.  Not so good.  Which prompts me to clarify, and to seize the teachable moment.
I’m not qualitatively endorsing the entertainment merits of Avatar.  That’s your call, [...]

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Deconstructing Avatar: Act II (The First Half Up to the Mid-Point)

February 10, 2010

Avatar is a clinic on story structure.  Every element is right where it’s supposed to be, which is both a relief and a revelation. 
The relief is for me – imagine my disappointment if I’d have gotten halfway through this deconstruction only to find the film is a structural mess.  The revelation is for all of [...]

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We Interrupt This Series (Avatar) For An Important Announcement

February 8, 2010

With humble apologies to those who are impatient with my infrequent efforts to make a buck from this site (hey, all this good stuff is free, and I do appreciate your support when these moments arrive), but I’m excited to break this news today:
I’m announcing the release of my new ebook…
The Three Dimensions of Character: [...]

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Deconstructing Avatar – The Second Half of the First Act

February 7, 2010

An Analysis of a Two Billion Dollar Story in Context to Accepted Structural Modeling
In the first post in this series we analyzed the first 19 of the 30 scenes that comprise Avatar’s opening act, or in novelist terms, Part 1 of the story. 
If you’re doing that math, you’ve already red-flagged this, and are likely composing [...]

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Deconstructing Avatar – Part 1 of the Story

February 5, 2010

An Analysis of a Two Billion Dollar Story in Context to Accepted Structural Modeling
Allow me to open with what this is, and what it isn’t.  Actually, the other way around is better.
What this isn’t is a sequential description of the movie on a scene-by-scene basis.  For that you can simply go see the thing in [...]

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