I’ve been on a journey of sorts over the past decade. I wanted to understand--intellectually, but also on a blood and bone level--the elemen...

The end goal of character creation, the Holy Grail, is for your reader to feel empathy for your character.  Jim Butcher writes: “...if you c...

Before we talk about the general structure of a Murdoch Mystery let's look at the specific structure on one murdoch mystery. I wan...

Every day in November I’m going to lay out the structural bones of a crucial story scene.  I'll then break this scene down for three ...

“When you exclude plot, when you exclude anyone’s wanting anything, you exclude the reader, which is a mean-spirited thing to do.” — K...

I was going to take a break from talking about story structure but I came across a fabulous post by Chris Winkle over at Mythcreants, “ ...

I’m reading “Story,” by Robert McKee and kicking myself for not doing this long ago. I’ve reached the part where McKee talks about th...

Last time I broke the structure of short stories into six discrete parts:  1. Setup 2. First Complication 3. New Plan 4. Maj...

Let’s talk about story structure.  When I read a story or watch a film I always try to identify where I am in the story’s structure...

Today I discuss Jack Bickham's advice about how to transform your story ideas into a novel. All quotations are from Mr. Bickham'...