Caine asks: How do you stick to a genre structure, without spilling the beans?
Resources Mentioned:
Agatha Christie
Robert Bloch
Rear Window
Best American Mysteries of the 20th Century
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Tag Archives: story structure
Questions 462: Finding the Climax
Robert asks: Do you do anything different when writing the climax of your book?
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Questions 347: When is a beat a beat?
David asks “Is a story event still a ‘beat’ if it becomes significant to the characters/plot later on in the story?”
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Questions 240: Series vs. Multi-Volume Stories
Cheyenne asks:
“I’m finding myself more interested in events in volume 2 of my story, and it’s making it hard to write volume 1. What do I do?”
Resources mentioned:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Dune by Frank Herbert
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Questions 215: Graphing Story Structures (Writing Instruction Series 9)
In this ninth installment in our miniseries on teaching students how to write, Rob asks:
“I use the classic pyramid plot diagram to teach story structure. Is there another way that’s more engaging?”
Resources mentioned:
Kurt Vonnegut’s Story Shape Graphs
Dan Wells’s 7-Point Plot Lecture
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