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
Welcome to StoryWeaver
Here’s step 1 in our 200 step StoryWeaver story development software. Follow the steps and you’ll go from concept to completion of your novel or screenplay. Look for a new step to be posted each week. Step 1 – Welcome … Continue reading
Posted in StoryWeaver Software
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What’s in a Name?
What’s in a name? Choosing names for your characters can be perfunctory or can provide your readers or audience with insight into your characters’ natures, add humor or surprise, or even at the very least break out of ordinary monikers … Continue reading
Posted in Building Characters
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How to Avoid Stereotypes
Coming up with characters can be as simple as looking to our subject matter and asking ourselves who might be expected to be involved. But that only creates the expected characters – predictable and uninteresting. Building characters that are intriguing, … Continue reading
Posted in Characters
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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
Posted in Story Development
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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
Posted in Story Development
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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
Posted in Story Structure
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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
Posted in Story Structure
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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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