Category Archives: Relationships

By Melanie Anne Phillips There are two story lines in every complete story, and you can either run them in parallel or you can hinge them together to form a dramatic triangle. The first story line is the overall story that … Continue reading →

If you don’t have this, YOUR STORY WILL FAIL This video really illustrates the philosophical conflict between the Main Character and the Influence Character, which is the heart of your story’s message. Once you have viewed the video, note that … Continue reading →

The minds of characters work very much like our own. People think both in terms of time and of space.  Our time sense gives us the ability to predict what is likely to happen next.  Our space sense gives us … Continue reading →

Character relationships should come under strain over the course of your novel or screenplay so that tension in the relationship rises. To accomplish this, you need to create dramatic moments in which outside pressures put each relationship in an increasing … Continue reading →

Perhaps the most complex relationships among characters are the emotional ones because they can grow to any degree in any direction AND because both characters don’t have to feel the same way about each other! For example, how many stories … Continue reading →

Relationships begin with a “baseline” and then evolve. You will need to establish how your characters feel about one another at the beginning of your story. Later, in as things unfold, you’ll describe the growth of these emotional relationships over … Continue reading →