Take advantage of every moment your protagonist crosses from one symbolic place to another. Every threshold has the potential to alert the reader, audience that the character is transitioning from the known to the unknown = creates excitement, expectancy, and an element of fear of the unknown in both the character and the reader.The use of crossing a threshold is especially effective when the character moves from the Beginning (1/4) to the Middle (1/2). After the scene that represents the End …
Blah Protagonist
Character makes the story. Character draws us into the story. The reader and the audience have to like the characters before they will commit to the story.A blah protagonist, passive, and pretty quiet (like writers often tend to be) makes for a blah, passive, quiet story.To spice up the protagonist, give her a goal. The goal has to be specific and quantifiable. Gets her moving. Gets the story moving.Give her something to do.Start the story with a dramatic question:Is she going to... or not? Will …
Connecting to the Character
People read stories and go to the movies 70% for the character. We love to peek into other people's lives, even if the other people are mere characters in a book or movie.This last writer's story is filled with dramatic action, which makes for an exciting story. I find myself anxious to hear what happens next, and what happens after that. The writer masterfully provides more and more compelling action, and does so seamlessly through consistent cause and effect. The Dramatic Action plot line …
Caution: Writing May be Hazardous to Your Health
Not every writer I work with admits to her flaw(s) but many do. The more prevalent flaws I encounter operate exactly like the protagonist's flaw in a story = the internal flaws of feeling not good enough, smart enough, or producing enough do more to sabotage the writer (and protagonist) from achieving her goals than any outside antagonist ever can.Writers who have labored for years start when hopeful and stop when fraught with insecurity and fear (both of success and of failure). They do this …
Author Plot Interview
Most writers have a preference for writing one plot line over another. Some are Character-driven writers. Others are Action-driven writers. Some have strengths in both. Not many are Thematic-driven. The deeper meaning of a story comes up out of the story itself over time. Thus, the Thematic Significance plot line is generally saved for the last or ignored or overlooked all together. The more aware a writer is about their own personal themes, the more attuned the writer will be in the search for …
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