Story Structure

Most popular posts

Verbal Irony

The Art of Verbal Irony

Verbal irony is a wonderful rhetorical device you can use to sharpen your character’s tongues and refine their wit. In...

epilogue

“Does my story need an Epilogue?”

Just when you thought a story was done, sometimes there’s still room for an epilogue.  Stories often end with a...

Chekhov's Gun

Chekhov’s Gun: A Foreshadowing Tool

Are all endings inevitably set by their beginnings, or do things occur at random? This question is, in part, answered...

Personification

Personification as a Literary Tool

Personification is a literary device so commonplace that it shows up everywhere in our language. The dictionary definition of personification...

Imagery

Imagery – Writing with All 5 Senses

As writers and engineers of stories, imagery is our bread and butter. In some sense, all the literary devices at...

Irony

What is Irony?

A finely developed sense of irony is a wonderful tool for a writer. In this article, I will discuss different...

Recent posts

Resolution - Freytag's Pyramid

How to Write an Effective Resolution

All stories must eventually come to a conclusion, or “resolution.” As an author, your job is to ensure that the...

Exposition

Exposition – Where should my story begin?

For some writers, just getting the story started is the toughest part. There’s so much you want to say, but...

Theme

Unlock Your Story’s Theme

Theme is a way of making a series of events which are personal to the protagonist universally relatable to a...

rising action

What is Rising Action?

Rising action refers to the series of events that lead from a story’s inciting incident to the climax. In this...

Inciting Incident

What is the Inciting Incident?

With storytelling, if your reader isn’t engaged within the first few chapters, you run the risk of losing their attention....

Falling Action

Your Writing Guide for Falling Action

What happens after a story’s climactic moment? What comes after the protagonist wins the girl, or defeats the bully, or...

Climax

How to Write a Compelling Climax

The climax. This is the moment your reader has been waiting for. They’ve spent hours immersed in your story, falling...

Story - A Journey of Self-Discovery

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...

Exploring the Dilemma

Exploring the Dilemma

At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist...

Character Transformation

TRANSFORMATION | definition, purpose, & your story weapon

Story is the most powerful way we have to express ideas. We can actually see the journey that a human...

The Imperative for Dramatic Conflict

The Imperative for Dramatic Conflict

A director told me once that if you put two actors together in a scene without directing them or staging...

Home

Finding Home

“Home is where one starts from.” – T. S. Eliot There’s nothing more primal than our quest for home. The...