The Continuing Chaos of Concept
The challenge of this whole idea vs. concept vs. premise conversation is that anything can be regarded as a “concept.” “I want to write a love story”… is a concept. It least if you don’t care about the differentiation between those three nuances. Which you should, by the way, if you want to take full […]
“The Thieves of Joy” – A Guest Post By Art Holcomb
“Comparison is the Thief of Joy” – Theodore Roosevelt Good vs. Evil. Right vs. Wrong. Love vs. Hate. Luke vs. Vader. Werewolves vs. Vampires. Obama vs. Romney. The Past vs. the Present. The actual plot of “Lost” vs. whatever the Hell was going on there. What it all comes down to is Opposition – the […]
Left-Brain, Right-Brain, or No-Brain At All
We’ve heard the phrase: it’s a no brainer. Writing a story that works is the absolute opposite of that. So let us attempt to put a fence around, if not quite sequential-ize or formula-ize, the nature of the successful storytelling process. It all breaks down into three unique but dependent phases of story development. The […]
Bold Storytelling Statements That Are Almost Always True
A great concept is the raw grist for a great premise. Not necessarily the premise itself. Idea… concept… premise… for writers these are separate and essential things. Unless they aren’t separate (an idea can arrive in the form of a concept and/or premise). Which rarely happens. The order in which they arrive is not set […]
Three Workshops and a Blog Post
“Strive for perfection. Settle for excellence.” (Don Shula, football player, coach and restaurateur… who knew there is no “n” in that word?) Ask and ye shall receive. Sometimes. One of my goals today was to come up with a worthy Storyfix post. I was jonesing for something with intimacy, a little one-on-one commiseration – it’s been […]
The Psychology of Story Physics
A guest post by Kerry Boytzun There are writers — some who claim to know, others who simply don’t know — who aren’t buying into the notion of a “first plot point” as a useful or even necessary story milestone. Those who believe that an earlier inciting incident is sufficient, wherever it appears, and that […]
The Flipside of Hero Empathy
Or… why you should be following “The Following” (the Fox Television series). Consider a workroom with twelve boxes and a desk. Six of the boxes are labeled “Core Competency: …” and after that colon (one of those amazing double-edged words in the English language, this one with a smirk) there is a different name for […]
A Short Post on Short Stories…
… linking to a longer one. Two months ago I put out an open request for topics to be covered here on Storyfix.com. There were 76 responders, with over a hundred topic suggestions. The most requested topic was this: short story structure. Specific questions come in frequently — daily — and almost always I’m able […]
Case Study: A Concept on the Brink
These are my favorite posts — case studies from story evaluations that demonstrate how a great concept can easily turn into an underwhelming story… and how this process can spot it and turn it around. Yes, it’s okay to learn from the pain of others. Actually, from the resurrection of the stories of others. This […]
The Risky Middle Realm of Character
Avoid at all costs. Writing great characters is tough stuff. In my view, the most challenging part of great storytelling. You can get all the other complicated stuff exactly right – concept, structure, theme, scenes – and your story can still just sit there, a bowl of perfectly prepared oatmeal, without a lot going for […]