Simon asks: What are the main ways of structuring stories, and can you rate them?
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Tag Archives: story structure
Questions 659: Writing Multiple Timelines
Elizabeth asks: “How do I write a story with multiple interweaving timelines and multiple protagonists – without losing or confusing my readers?”
Resources Mentioned
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
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Questions 632: All About Prologues
Roland asks: “What’s your take on when an author should use a prologue, and how it should relate to the rest of the book?”
Resources Mentioned:
Opening prologue to Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings
Opening prologue to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings
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Questions 616: A Unique Conflict?
Brian asks: “My high school English teacher challenged us to find a story with a unique conflict – outside of the person v. person, person v. nature, person v. society, etc. conflict types we all get in class. None of us could. Can you – or the listeners?”
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Questions 599: On The Heroine’s Journey
Today, special guest Gail Carriger joins us to answer a question on from Andrew.
Andrew asks: “Can you do a deeper look into the heroine’s journey?”
Resources Mentioned
Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
Isis and Osirus
Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World
Wonder Woman
The Iliad
The Epic of Gilgamesh
This episode sponsored by BundleRabbit
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Questions 465: Plot Reveals Through Structure
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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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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