Welcome to episode 169 of the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt. In the next few episodes, I am going to be exploring the fundamentals of story structure. We’re going to look at different perspectives on story and story structure with the help of a number of guests and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say and sharing those insights with you. By way of an introduction, in this episode I want to ask a deceptively simple question, and it’s this: what does a really good story look like? And I am going to try to answer this question by first exploring what I mean by the word “story” and then looking at what the content of a good story should be, and what structures we could use to present that story in the best possible way. ...
It's what your character does, rather than what you say about them, that defines them for the reader. In this episode Andrew talks about how action defines character and gives examples for both heros and villains ...
In this episode we look at stage four of the six stage story process, the Crisis. There is no better time in your story to showcase the strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of your characters. This is also a moment to use all of your creative writing skills to create a poignant moment, to enrich the setting and mood of your work, to add colour and depth to the context for your story. The crisis is the decisive moment, the calm before the storm, the point where all of the choices have been made and the climax must now be faced. How will your characters react? Will they be heroes or cowards, or maybe a more subtle combination of both? Here is your window of opportunity to show all of these things, use it well! ...
