Theme is a way of making a series of events which are personal to the protagonist universally relatable to a wide audience. In other words, one doesn’t have to live in a cupboard and be descended from …
Rising Action | Definitions, Examples & Your Secret Weapon
Rising action simply refers to the series of events that lead from the story’s inciting incident to the climax of a story. In this article I will explore how to create a compelling ‘rising action’ …
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Inciting Incident | Definition, Examples & Your Secret Weapon
When it comes to storytelling, if a reader isn’t engaged within the first 20 or 30 pages, you run the risk of losing their attention and having them move on to something else. So, what happens in …
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Falling Action | Definition, Examples & Your Secret Weapon
What happens after a story’s climactic moment - after the protagonist wins the girl, or confronts the bully, or triumphs over evil? The best stories keep your readers (or audience) guessing until …
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Exponential Growth – Don’t Quit Before the Miracle
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” - Albert Allen Bartlett, physicist Whether it is compound interest, bacterial growth, cell …
Climax in Literature | Definitions, Examples & Your Secret Weapon
The climax. This is the moment your reader has been waiting for. They’ve spent hours immersed in your story, falling in love with your characters and becoming increasingly invested in your plot. …
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Story: A Journey of Self-Discovery
Story is always a journey of self-discovery “The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates Embarking on a creative endeavor, especially memoir writing, often brings forth a whirlwind of …
We Are All Connected
“No one is free until we are all free.”- Martin Luther King Jr. It is human nature to search for absolutes. Joe is a liar, while Helen is trustworthy. Abe is punctual, while Ruth is always late. …
Exploring the Dilemma
At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist has a dilemma, but rather, how effectively you've explored it. By exploring your protagonist’s …
Never Give Up
I was a half decent 800-meter runner in high school, not great, but I ran with a lot of heart, and sometimes I placed near the front. It's a tough race, as it requires both speed and stamina. It is …