Write Your Novel
Step By StepFollow StoryWeaver's path of 200 interactive Story Cards from concept to completion of your novel or screenplay.
Every step of the way you'll know what you need to do and get examples of how to do it, continually evovling, expanding and improving your story.
You'll develop your story's world, who's in it, what happens to them, and what it all means.
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Author Archives: Melanie Anne Phillips
Grow Your Story from a Log Line
This technique is excerpted from our StoryWeaver Story Development Software. Introduction First, write a log line for your story. A log line is a concise one-sentence description of the essence of a story. A good way to approach this is … Continue reading
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How to Master the Creative Process
Writers often begin the story development process by thinking about what their story needs: a main character/protagonist/hero, a solid theme, a riveting plot and, of course, to meet all the touch points of their genre. Because this is just the … Continue reading
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Story Structure Seen As War
Imagine a story’s structure as a war and the Main Character as a soldier making his way across the field of battle. In your mind’s eye, you likely see they whole scene spread out in front of you, as if … Continue reading
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Symbolizing Concepts
It has been argued that perhaps the symbols we use are what create concepts, and therefore no common understanding between cultures, races, or times is possible. Dramatica works because indeed there ARE common concepts: morality, for example. Morality, a common … Continue reading
Posted in Definitions
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How Art is Made (The Battle Between Heart and Mind)
Realize that your mind is a narrative-generating machine. That is why narratives exist in the first place: because they mirror the processes of the mind. But the mind is also a repository of topical information – subject matter – and … Continue reading
Posted in Creative Writing
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The Four Main Kinds of Stories
You can make your story a lot more focused and targeted if you know what kind of a story you are creating. A good place to start is to figure out which of the four basic types of stories yours … Continue reading
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Plot Points – Static vs. Sequential
Some time ago I wrote an article explaining how plot wasn’t the order in which events appeared in a story, but the order in which they happened to the characters. The storytelling order can be all mixed up for effect. … Continue reading
Posted in Plot, Story Structure
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Character Change vs. Character Growth
Main characters don’t have to change to grow. They can grow in their resolve. It is a common misconception among authors that the main character in a story must change in order to grow. Certainly, that is one kind of … Continue reading
Posted in Main Character, Novel Writing, Story Development
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Writing Prompt Level: Expert!
Here is a writing prompt picture I posted recently and the amazingly creative response by writer Bill Williams Bill Williams – This is actually pretty easy to explain. *sips coffee* The cats in the front are feline overlords. They were … Continue reading
Posted in Creative Writing
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Smothered in an Avalanche of Ideas
One of the writers I coach recently wrote to me about getting drowned in a sea of ideas for his story, unable to organize his material, make choices, or more forward. Here is the note I wrote him in response … Continue reading
Posted in Creative Writing
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