Notes

A hero is as strong as their antagonist.

Mentioning that something happening but delaying to say what makes things interesting.

Observation exercise: observe place/person/item/idea/act/fact through all the 5 senses and through different possible visual angles.

Ask: what impresses/interests/charms/moves me about the thing I'm observing?

Ask: What whould I want to do with it/say about it/see happening to it/learn about it?

Some of the ways to begin a story: with a setting (which would set the space and mood)/with a topic or idea / with a statement or quote (such as: "at the airport we must always show good behaviour")

First draft

- Don't censor/criticize odd-sounding things

- Ask "what would happen if". Also think of reverse outcomes.

- Can connect two things that don't match together, such as snowmen and sunbathing.

- Can empower by connecting memory and imagination (e.g. a character walks into a place that means a lot for another's past. Or describing a fact and inserting a personal memory/anecdote e.t.c.).

Sense of truth: it's enough if the writing moves the readers.

Lie, exaggerate, magnify, pretend, play, go to the edges, become heroic, decorate. Turn up the heat (but not too much)/

Sarah Vogel used to re-write by focusing on a different side of her piece each time. 

Others rewrite different editions of the same piece, e.g. each from a different person's point of view.

Delete anything that does more harm than good at the story itself. And if you cannot make a piece work well, deleting it usually solves the problem.

When two words are combined to create a new one smoke + fog = smog) it's called a portmanteau.

More tips

• Start at the climax of your story and work backwards (already having a vision of how your protagonist is transformed at the end).
• Pay attention to coherence and meaning as you generate story ideas
• Link dramatic action to emotional development
• During a walk, visualize yourself plotting the scenes.
• Hang a plot planner on the wall to remember the story sequence.
• Try showing a character's emotional growth in linear form on a plot planner that's separate from the dramatic action planner. Then compare both to see how they interact.

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The beginning - comfort and separation

• Introductions (characcters, theme): Who/What/Why. Dramatic action, character emotional development to happen, thematic significance.
• Grounding: When/where.
• Beginnings are times of grandiose dreams of escape, success, change,and possibilities.
• Introduce one character at a time, beginning with the protagonist. Give the reader a chance to become grounded in the style of the story, to become familiar with the setting, to focus on the main character. Don't overwhelm them.
• Establish the story's time and place
• Setup the dramatic action and underlying conflict that will run throughout the story
• Introduce major characters, giving an idea of who they are, their emotional makeup and the weight they carry in the story.
• Allude to the theme
• Introduce the protagonist's short-term goal and think on his long-term goal
• What do you promise your readers the story is about? 
• Place alerts to the limitations of your story
• Don't tell a character's backstory until the readers had a chance to meet him
• Begin by showing the character on his best behaviour, hint at weaknesses and flaws, but leave them at the background. Then the reader will be more forgiving.
• Consider how curiosity works! The longer you wait to deliver the backstory, the explanation of what in the past made the character who she is today, the greater the impact of the relevation.
• Flashback / dumping details in-dialogue / what you leave out is as important as what stays in
• You can inject backstory info through word choices, mood, tone, actions, reactions.
• In rare cases, infodumps work.
• Rather than backstory, show what the character is unable to do due to flawed beliefs. The middle then becomes a journey to relearn / reattain a skill / knowledge lost / forgotten / stolen necessary to conquer his greatest challenge at the climax. 

Middle

• Resistance and struggle
• The characer is confronted with a strange new world that's fertile ground for exploration/exposition. The old rules and beliefs no longer apply.

Halfway point

• The next major turning point.

The crisis

• Often, before the true road appears, failure, brokenness, fear, emptiness and alienation cause suffering and loss, and the old must be destroyed

The writer's way

• Staggering from metaphorical death and pain, you enter a threshold. Choices: (1) resist what is and become a victim (2) yield to what is and become a victor.
• Stripped of everything at the crisis, you already see your protagonist's story mirror your own.

End, transformation and return

• After the crisis, the energy of the story turns down briefly and then expands.
• The pieces of the story begin to form a bigger picture.
• The end begins when the protagonist takes the final steps necessary for the completion of his long-term goal.

Climax

• Reconnect with ultimate destiny. The promise of transformation is fealized and released.

Resolution

• The sum of the character's actions. Gives the reader a sense of what the story would look like now that the protegonist is transformed.

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• Foreshadowing = anticipation
• Write a synopsis of your story
• Diagram: revisit the theme bubbles. Cross out all but the strongest themes. Keep tewaking the theme by combining the smaller bubbles differently.
• Accidents are a rebellion against authority. 

More writing tips

About knowing the past (historical / other)

• The most common bias in historical records is omission, not adding things.
• Identify how long has it been since the event and the time between the event and recordings. 
• Which recent events hold sway in that historical narrative that could impact the motivation and thinking of your characters?
• People who may not have all the facts to explain why (x) happened: how do people see events that they cannot fully explain?
• What happened vs what people think that happened
• Don't give any major event a single cause or consequence: give it 3 causes and consequences in different dimensions. The timelines should interact.
• History: how static are the records? Who records them?

Six Pillars of worldbuilding

•  Geographical / Religious / Political / Cultural / Economical / Technological 

Scene pacing & narrative pacing

• Short, punchy sentences give the feel of speed
• Action-reaction: the instant switch between decision and consequence compresses time -> no time to ponder
• Slow pacing in moments of introspection to let the reader feel the emotional turmoil and emphasize the difficulty of character growth. Rushing through such things would make the decision or trauma feel inconsequential, or easily resolved.
• You can squeeze tension out of a few seconds by stretching them / making the reader wait. Consider doing that once per scene (not too much).
• Pacing is about keeping the story moving.
• Good pacing is about whether the reader feels they're getting closer to the big thing.
• Fast-paced beginning isn't about beginning with a fight scene, tense argument, or fast-pacing technique. It's about how quickly the author puts the reader on the track towards the big thing (done with the hook). And, after that, how quickly the reader feels that they take the next step towards the big thing.
• Lack of subtext can undermine pacing, because there's less info in the same words. If used intelligently, subtexts can help the reader feel they're getting closer to the big thing.

Does the obstacle:

• Fundamentally alter the ending?
• Fundamentally develop your MC's character? Or
• Reveal something new in a mystery to the reader?