by Shannon Dittemore | Oct 12, 2018 | First Drafts, Grow An Author, Plot, Story Structure
Over the past few Fridays, we’ve been talking about the pitfalls of story middles. Often it’s here, in the dead center of things, that we begin to notice the cracks climbing through the words of our tale. It’s easy to panic and abandon our story for something new and...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 8, 2018 | Editing, First Drafts, Grow An Author
For the past couple weeks, we’ve been talking about story middles. Shannon talked about how in the middle you often find cracks in your masterpiece, and fixing character problems that crop up. I talked about creating a big midpoint scene, and the structure of...
by Shannon Dittemore | Oct 5, 2018 | First Drafts, Grow An Author
Writing a story is no easy task, but it’s fun to dream up new lives and new worlds, and our initial excitement often gives us the momentum to make a fair amount of progress up front. For most of us, the cracks in our stories don’t start appearing until we’ve reached...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 1, 2018 | First Drafts, Grow An Author, Story Structure
Last week, I talked about the middle of your story, and the difference in your main character at the 25%-50% part of Act II, and the 50%-75% part of Act II. (Sometimes it’s easier for me to think of it as Act II A and Act II B when I’m brainstorming my stories.)...
by Shannon Dittemore | Sep 28, 2018 | First Drafts, Grow An Author
Writing the middle of a story should be exciting, right? By this point, you likely have a setting or two in place and at least the edges are starting to take color. Your characters have shape and desire and, when prompted with various issues, they likely have...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 24, 2018 | First Drafts, Grow An Author
I am really looking forward to getting back to our series on crafting a novel and “growing an author,” as Shannon so artfully put it. It’s been a while—since May, to be specific—so let’s review what I’ve covered so far in my story crafting process. I...
