Tell them what's normal so that they know what's not

Set up expectations, then delay (or delay resolution by slowing the pace, getting in the juicy details, or delay explanations with action)

Misdirection (without lying to the reader)

Don't resque the character: give him a choice and let him mess up

Microtension: must be ever-present. Detected by how reading makes us feel. 

Dancing around the subject

Words that contradict each other can create conflict

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Adventure techniques:

• silence
• delayed regret
• social exclusion
• defense of ideas

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humorous villain? (Build before entrance).

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Give a unique reason as to why a species is dominant is a fantastic worldbuilding tool to create a unique species and culture.

feeding/reproducing/not dying

weather and climate / predators / competition / tax / food and water sources / available resources / terrain / other

technological development / sports / local myths / role of crime / role of media / social etiquette / economy and industry / cooking

Biological pressures and climate affect culture. But higher order species slowly override natural selection and other more socially constructed pressures begin to guide.

(species that used to be slaves?)

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Races have stereotypes but individuals rarely fit them completely

worldbuilding: consistency > realism

Fantasy and alien races are used to explore modern social issues by coding the species to represent a particular group in a society. This is often unconvincing and heavy-handed. Consider having the race face similar issues without being identical.

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What makes a prologue necessary is that it introduces an element fundamental in understanding the novel from that point forwars in a far more impactful way. When it comes to a backstory-prologue, only introduce elements immediately relevant to understanding the first chapter.

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redemption arc

stakes / view of self / view of the world

-do small things differently, then big things

-mistakes/moral failures make the eventual triumph more empowering

-effective redemption often entails some kind of poetic justice and symmetry

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You never want to create characters that sound like a mouthpiece for your ideas. Good writers expose their moral vision slow and subtly, primarily through story structure and the way the hero deals with a particular situation.

The mentor in action-reaction scenes ensures that they see past one of the six steps (goal/obstacle/outcome/reaction/dilemma/decision) that they'd be unable to go alone

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_,_ and _, Bob was exactly what was wrong with the world and he knew it.

My dog is a serial killer.

 Add to your energetic marks of your plot planer the external antagonists in control of each of the major turning points.

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Internal antagonists

The antagonists that represent the inner workings of the protagonist offer the richest area of development. Especially:

1) His flaw: interferes with him attaining his goal. He must overcome it and release the consequent flood of emotion for his final transformation.

2) His fear: (a) we all have fears sparked by universal emotions. The protagonist's fears can be sparked by an external foe: it makes the energy of the scene surge and creates anticipation. (b) other fears: about something that could happen. What one fears gives the reader insight into his emotional makeup and shows what he must confront to transform.

3) His hate: powerful negative emotion. When caught up in it, the protagonist is never in control of his emotion. It controls him.(He can hate an internal or an external thing). Every scene where the threat of what the protagonist hates is nearby creates anxiety in the reader.

past = comfort?

An antagonist doesn't have to intentionally hold the protagonist back.

villain: conscious antagonist, intends to steal the protagonist's goal for himself.

See yourself as the sole creator of your story and your ego will create imbalance. See yourself as the conduit and your cooperation leads to balance,

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Curiosity

Conflict - though the readers think they know how the mc will react, they are curious about what aspects of the protagonist will reveal of himself. Antagonists operate as mirrors revealing the parts of the protagonist that need healing. For each of the antagonists indicate the elements of the protagonist they represent (e.g. fear, strength, flaw, love, hatred, prejudice...)

Emotion

Employ as many antagonists is necessary to display depth and breadth of emotions in your protagonist. The tougher and cleverer the challenges and confrontations created by the antagonists, the greater will be the protagonist's eventual transformation. When he stares down his greatest fear and seizes his prize he wins.

Nature as the antagonist

The protaginist is power to control nature. Rather than treat natural events as random occurences, assign them deliberate meaning in each scene and the overall story. Nature awakens primal emotions in both characters ad readers.

Nature unfolds through four seasons. Ground the reader: season, day/night, day of the week

dawn/dusk: "between times" -> the veil between the physical and the unmanifested, the past and the future, grows thin.

Adversity

Doesn't build character. It reveals what's already there. 

Supporting characters

Mirrors reflecting back to the protagonists the elements he detects on others but is blind to in himself. Every secondary character has something to teach, awaken, challenge and love in the protagonist.

The writer's way

The greatest gift you can give to your story is the courage to allow the protagonist and yourself to fail, appear foolish, lonely, tedious or ordinary. Until a character experiences failure, fear, emptiness and alienation the change can't occur.

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Characteristics of an appealing MC:

- An attractive quality

- Room for growth (beliefs can change)

- Clear goals

- Something to lose

• Provide characters with different roles to play
• Give each character a past
• Use dialogue to convey personality
• Choose unexpected details that are easy to visualise
• Checkov's gun: employ foreshadowing to deliver clever reveals
• Add a twist to familiar concepts
• Life's big questions: raise questions that go beyond the story

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Subplots are like main plots at their core: they have their own individual conflict, story structure, and relevant character arcs. The real difference is one of priority,

Subplots give your reader the sense your story takes place in a larger world, where time passes and people live their lives outside the immediate scope of your story.

If subplots only had ties only to the main plot, they'd still feel disconnected. Make sure each subplot's structure overlaps at key moments of your story. 

1) Plan each of your individual subplots as if they were their own standalone story. After all, they are microstories. They must have:

• hook
• 1st plot point
• midpoint
• 3rd plot point
• climax
• resolution

2) Compare their structures

3) With a chronology created, you now need to shift the events of your story around to overlap the major plot points of your subplots so that they occur close together (or simultaneously).

4) Create an impact. The subplots must matter to both the main plot and one another. To do this in your own novel, simply find ways the events of one subplot could matter to another. 

Subplots have the power to make your story feel real.

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Episodic story structure: each episode resolves the conflic at hand while setting up another conflict for the future. They're connected by a larger narrative or unifying theme. 

Each episode needs to be distinct, while still feeling like a logical part of a single story.

Episodes must have all the story elements a larger novel should have.

Episodes need to progress the overall plot, without stepping on the toes of later episodes.

Needs a connective tissue to bind each episode together thematically.

Three different types of episodic story structure

1) The overarching plot

Just like scenes function as microstories, each episode in this type of story acts as a miniature story within the larger narrative of your novel. They're still individual adventures with a clearly resolved conflict in each episode, but they build towards a clear culmination. Each episode has something to do with the larger conflict in some way. You still need the major turning points from the three act story structure to occur over the course of your episodes.

2) The framing device

Not a single overarching plot. Instead, they are linked by a common thematic element and an outside framing device.

3) The serialization

You just follow the same characters as they face similar conflicts across episodes. They likely change little from episode to episode and no larger conflict is being explored (e.g. Sherlock).

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If you're running out of ideas for fleshing out your story, think about how you can explore your secondary character arcs and give side characters more of a role in your story.

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Decide on what type of story you're looking to tell and then keep that tone consistent throughout your novel.

Juno plot analysis / Flaw / Character emotion

“What makes the first sentence interesting? Its exact shape and what it says and the possibility it creates for another sentence.”

— Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing

Scribophi

End of the begining

By the end of the beginning, the protagonist's emotions have been introduced by showing the readers how he usually responds to the actions around him.

Introductio - introduce the core conflict of the story - the protagonist wants something he thinks he cannot have. Also introduces the reader to every dramatic element. By the end of the first quarter, the readers are grounded in the here-and-now of the story and all the elemts of the climax have been foreshadowed. 

The end of the beginning threshold moment:

The protagonist must choose: (1) fade out/die (2) move into the unknown

In the threshold, you're supposed to see between what has always been and what's coming next. Energy rushes up your spine. As the first quarter winds to a close, a scene of event symbolizes the end of what is. The protagonist separates from all that's familiar. His sense of self is shaken. His attachment to learned attitudes and behavior is severed. The energy surges and the story turns into a new direction, launching the protagonist into the actual story world with a goal that takes on greater meaning.

Halfway point

Forces the protagonist to willingly and consciously commit to the journey. After recommiting to his goal, or the reclutant hero commiting for the 1st time, the protagonist feels the energy in his life turn and rise in significance. This energetic surge is a warning to the reader. Wake up. Be alert. A crisis is coming.

The crisis

At about 3/4 of the story, the energy rises to a breaking point. It's the greatest struggle of the story so far. After surviving it, the protagonist transmutes. But, before he can transform, his old personna must effectively die. Each scene in the mid of your story serves to march the protagonist step-by-step into the crisis. The energy builds up until the volcano erupts, or the river overflows.

The climax

If hard to write, out of not having experiencing it yourself, for now write action only. Stop trying to get into your character's head. Reveal the protagonist through his actions as the powerhouse he can and must be. 

The climax must be the crowning moment of the entire story, when the thematic significance becomes clear to the reader.

All major conflicts are resolved. The energy of the entire story crescends at the climax and is immedietly defused.

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Does what you see on your story planner exite you about writing the story?

Are you calmy confident and ready to move forward?

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"When writing a novel, a writer should create living people" Hemingway

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Juno: short-term goal: figure if she's pregnant. Long-term: find where she fits in life.

The long-term goal often changes at the first energetic marker (end of the beginning/moment of no return). Usually, the mc enters the middle of the story with a revised goal. (E.g. Juno still needs to figure where she fits into life, but now she needs to integrate in the adult world instead of the teen world. Her goal now triggers in the audience their own judgements of what a teen in her position "should" do.)

Obstacles and antagonists in the mid-story force the mc to re-evaluate and redefine her goals. The scene that marks the 2nd energetic marker at the halfway point shows the protagonist recommitting to his goal or shifting that commitment to a new goal. (Halfway: Juno tells the wife she's 104% sure about the adoption.)

At the 3rd energetic marker, toward the end of the middle, the protagonist's goal changes again. The energy at the crisis is enough to knock the protagonist to his knees. He rises from the ashes of his old self with a shift in his external goals to reflect symbolically and thematically who he's now becoming. (The crisis makes Juno to redefine her idea of a perect family, which takes her one step nearer to forgiveness and accomplishing a hidden goal of healing the wound caused years earlier when her mother left her).

1) What's the mc's goal?

- Beginning: figure if she's pregnant

- Mid: Determine what to do with her pregnancy

- End: Tell Bleeker how she feels about him

2) What obstacles interfere with her success?

- Beginning: refusal to accept she's pregnant

- Mid: confusion over abortion, inability to find perfect family

- End: disbelief in the possibility of two people remaining in love

3) What does she stand to lose if she doesn't succeed?

-Beginning: Her youthful excumbrance

-Mid: All control over her life and future

-End: Her bestie and his unconditional love that lets her shine her confident, nonchalant and effortless attitude

The mc's flaw

Juno often acts tough to hide an emotional void. Juno's prickly exterior also keeps people at arm's length, a feature that ultimately interferes with her attempts to find her place in the world.

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potential loss promises transformation

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A balanced story takes advantage of both internal and external antagonists.

External ones challenge him throughout the story, especcially in the middle. They know how to push him, ignite his flaws, create gaps of imbalance, and become what he must overcome for ultimate success.

The character's strength contributes to the forward movement of the story. Because every time he's knocked down he has the strength to get back up and continue towards his goal. 

hate - intense emotion that provides the character complexity.

fear - a character's fear reveals what part of him is missing.

dreams / desires - generally rely on the help of others and a bit of magic and, thus, create an added twist at the end of the story. 

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Character emotional development profile

• flaw(s)
• strength(s)
• hate(s)
• love(s)
• fear(s)
• dream(s)
• secret(s)

Dramatic action plotline

• overall story goal
• what stands in his way
• what does he have to lose

Character's flaw

Flaw: often created in response to a loss of innocence. In reaction, the characer often surrenders some or all the authorit over his life to someone/something else. It's a coping mechanism that arises from the loss of an original state of perfection that occured in the character's backstory. The flaw is designed to compensate for a perceived vulnerability, sense of insecurity, and feeling threatened. No matter how confident, every major character demonstrates lessons learned from the wound inflicted in his backstory that's now lodged in his core belief system.

Beginning - establish who the character is, flaws and all, for the reader to look back and compare to who he becomes. Also foreshadows who he'll become.

Mid - the character's flaw deepens as the energy of the story expands. More and more, the protagonist trips up. Finally, he can no longer deny his own part in his failure. This newfound awareness brings about his ultimate transformation, in the last quarter of the story. 

Flaw - look for a memory that has stayed with you, lodged in your psyche in as much detail as in the moment it first occured. Doesn't have to be something huge. Often, those big issues have been dealt with over the years. Frequently, it's the smaller events that are more profound.

Perhaps, on the surface your backstory moment is seemingly benign, but it has affected in a negative way how you view the world. 

Keep in mind that backstory isn't the story. 

Backstory -> emotions/beliefs -> actions -> external dramatic action -> ext. dram. act. transforms tbe internal plot

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convey emotion: genuine emotions are universal and recognizable. 

If your readers are going to read your story all the way to the end, they need to understand and care about the characters. The most complete way for a reader to identify and relate to a character is through a range of emotions exibited by that character. 

emotional development =/= emotion

Beginning -> the protagonist moves out of his familiar surroundings (mental/physical) into a new and complex world. The further in, the more the obstacles. Unable to function at a superficial level any longer, he begins to experience heightened emotions, ones that touch the core of his being. When prevented from reaching a goal, his emotional reaction changes subtly over time, flicking back and forth in the scene like a trapped fly. Character emotion can turn flat, stagnant scenes into vital and complex ones. The emotion needn't be monumental, but it must convey true feeling. The emotion surface can be flat while the actions show feeling.

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Three-part emotion

Scenes ripe for emotional espression of the mc occur just before each energetic marker and right after it. One scene prepares and sets up anticipation in something coming. A follow-up scene shows the full impact of the event on the character, both physically and emotionally: 

1. Preparation and anticipation

2. Energetic marker and main event

3. Reaction and follow-through

Show the emotional effect the dramatic action has on the character. We learn a lot about each other and ourselves by seeing what motivates a character's choices in respond to individual events. Build the discomfort scene-by-scene and the reader gets a better ad deeper insight into the protagonist's emotional development. 

To depict character emotions beyond the cliches (slamming things, shouting when angry, singing when joyful) think about your own experiences with emotion. Often, emotional upheaval manifests itself in far more subtle signs and actions. 

The writer's way

Art's involved in conveying how people reveal their emotions. Write beyond a simple label and identifiable physical changes. Slip behind the veil to the universality of actually sharing feelings. Our range of emotions narrows as we grow into adulthood and are challenged to generate within ourselves an emotional steadiness. What particularly narrows is the range of emotions we permit ourselves to show.

How do your inner feelings manifest in your external behaviour? In real life, we aren't always encouraged to acknowledge our true emotions. 

Beginning - a character's emotional reactions help introduce and identify the character.

Mid - emotional defenses break, emotions run bleaker and darker.

End - a character's transformation is revealed through the change in his choices and emotional responses.

When we know how the conflict emotionally affects the character, we care about the story.

Push yourself to detect emotional reactions, no matter how subtle, beyond cliches. The more outside the norm you write your protagonist's emotional makeup, the more unique your story and more deeply readers connect emotionally to the character and the dramatic action of your story.

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A protagonist who wants something bad enough to take action all antagonists, internal and external, creates a story.

Plot is how the events in the story directly impact the character.

Plot is made of three elements:

• Character emotional development (decide what the character's willing to give up to achieve his/her goal. This begins the character's emotional plot.)
• Dramatic action (the specific actions the character takes to realize his/her goal)
• Thematic significance (tie the character's private passion to a bigger, more transformative universal subject and a thematic plot is launched)

In great stories, the dramatic action transforms a character.

Plot planner: a visual line that represents the invisible energy of the universal story. It gives a visual accounting of all the scenes in the story. It helps compare scenes (tension-calm). It helps see the story as a whole and determine the causality between scenes and the overall coherence of the story. (Keep the p.p. simple).

Above the p.p. line: scenes with external dramatic action / below: passive scenes, backstories, sceneries, info-dumps

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Elements that can entice your reader sink deeper in the story:

• Characters with whom the reader identifies
• Conflict, tension and suspense that sustain exitement
• Just enough backstory to inform the particular scene
• Clarity about whom and what to cheer and mourn in the story
• Consistency in story pacing
• Strong sensory details
• Enticing foreshadowing 
• No author intrusion
• Turning points in the dramatic action and the characters' emotional arc

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Each scene has a plot structure of its own, and shows the character take a step towards a goal or desire. 

The scene's moment-by-moment action creates conflict and tension as shown through dialogue, facial expression, gestures, and every character's response.

• The scene ends with 
• Failure
• An unanswered question
• A cliffhanger
• A mishap that entices the audience deeper and deeper in the story.

On the other hand, a scene that shows the character achieving a short-term goal but fails to transition effectiverly to the next scene dissipates the story's energy.

Summary parts

In stories that take place over a long time or geographical span, one scene can't always smoothly move into the next. To avoid the story becoming episodic, you must make creative use of the summary in transitions. Also, a story made up only of scenes can inject too much conflict andd become exausting for the reader.

Summary helps move the story forwards quickly, so you cna concentrate on creating scenes that show the most important moments of your plot. Keep in mind, however, that a summary, no matter how well-written, ultimately distances the audience from the character and the immediacy of the story. 

Summary allows you to purge yourself of the story by keeping the intimate and sometimes painful details of your story at arm's length. To write in scenes, you'll have to relive it.

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A goal by itself does not create action that is dramatic.Obstacles to it do. Especially if the character stands to lose something significant.

Questions to help create a character's goals:

• What does he most desire?
• What does he most care about?
• What strongly motivares him?
• What keeps him going focused, committed when the act gets rough?
• What needs to be done, saved, protected, fixed, achieved, figured out, helped that only he can do?
• What's his plan to accomplish that?

A character's potential for growth reflects meaning. Meaning reflects truth.

The thematic significance of the story shows what all words in each scene adds up to.

At its best, thematic significance connects each individual reader and audience member to a moment of clarity about our shared relationship to a bigger picture through a wider complex of thoughts and relationships that exist outside the story.

You determine your own external goals while the Universal Story sets an invisible goal for you: to accept change. What goals will you put everything on the line for today?

Individual elements of the story's thematic significance statement can include:

• loss of family
• rejection
• abandonment
• loyalty
• responsibility
• brothers, husband and wife, father and son, mother and son

Communication at the thematic level is a complex composite of thematic systems. No matter how elusive, the deeper meaning of a story is rich and thick and holds magic. Writing a story challenges you to find what matters most to you.

The thematic significance reflects the story's own view about life and of how people should behave. Explore and develop the deeper meaning your story conveys about life or society and ultimately about human nature.

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Though it may be tempting to tell your readers about your strongly held beliefs, criticisms, and judgements, such thematic micro-focus can quickly turn into an infodump. 

Piling on large quantities of info creates a distance between you and the reader. Even when the info is thematically rich, unless presented elegantly and meaningfully through the character's actions, you'll alienate the reader. Rather than write the dramatic action of the journey the protagonist takes and his ultimate transformation, writers sometimes lecture and argue. When they do create dramatic action and reveal a glimmer of the character's emotional reaction through his actions, their own emotions twist him out of the here-and-now of the story.

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What separates good books from great books is the degree to which an author is able to voice something only she and her unique truth can tell. The deeper meaning of your story and your life fills you with energy to write and live a more fulfilled life. The thematic significance statement reflects the truth of your story. It's not necessarily a universal or eternal truth, but it's true for your story. 

Diving in the thematic significance - that's what the search for meaning looks like, diving in a cool, dark, mysterious pool of water.

Link dramatic action to emotional development

Examples of Social and Emotional Skills Include:

• Displays self-control.
• Expresses feelings with words.
• Listens and pays attention.
• Pride in accomplishments.
• Has a positive self image.
• Asks for help when needed.
• Shows affection to familiar people.
• Aware of other peoples feelings.

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Try showing the 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)

1) Introductions (who-what-why)

2) Grounding (when-where)

Beginnings are time of grandiose dreams of escape, success, change and possibilities. Introduce one characrer at the time, beginning with the protagonist. Give the reader a chance to become grounded in the style of the story, become familiar with the setting, and 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 the 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 goals and hint on the long-term goals
• What do you promise your readers the story is about?
• Alert to the limitations of your story

Backstories

(Don't tell a character's backstory until the reader had a chance to meet him. Begin by showing the character on his best behavior. 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 exploration of what in the past made the character who he is today, the greater the impact of the relevation.

Ways: flashback / summary / dumping details in-dialogue. You can inject backstory info through word choices, mood, tone, actions / interactions. In rare cases, infodumps work.

What you leave out is as important as what stays in.

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 the greatest challenge at the climax.

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MIDDLE (resistance and struggle)

The character is confronted with a strange new world, that's fertile ground for exploration. The old rules and beliefs no longer apply. 

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HALFWAY (the next major turning point)

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THE CRISIS

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

The writer's way

Staggering from metaphorical death and pain, you enter a threshold. Choices:

Resist what is and become a victim

Yield to what is and become a victor

Stripped from what everything at the crisis, you clearly 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 the ultimate destiny. The promise of transformation is realized and released.

RESOLUTION

The sum of the character's actions. Gives the reader a sense of what the world looks like now that the protagonist's transformed.

 To “raise the stakes” means whatever happens (at the Midpoint or anywhere else) threatens or escalates what’s at stake in the story. Doing so has the effect of making the achievement of the goal more meaningful to the protagonist.

Raising the stakes can manifest in many ways, including:

• If stakes go from impersonal to personal.
• If there’s a new or greater threat to the previously established stakes.
• If what’s at stake intensifies, multiplies, or escalates.

By the middle of Act Two (where the Midpoint occurs) the story probably needs a little more fuel on the fire. So raising the stakes – a.k.a. putting the squeeze on the protagonist by making this whole adventure more meaningful and important to him or her – adds that fuel to the audience’s engagement in the story.

When we know the story means more to the protagonist, we care more about the outcome.

Use this simple chart to create a good story, fast