Write Your Novel
Step By StepTry it Risk-Free for 90 Days! Follow 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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Category Archives: Story Development
Write Your Novel (or Screenplay) Step By Step
Step 1 | Introducing a new approach to story development For most authors, the hardest part of writing is the raw invention needed to come up with an intriguing plot, compelling characters, a meaningful theme, and an involving genre. Once … Continue reading
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Developing Your Characters’ Points Of View
Although you have a clear plot that you have created from the position of author, it is going to look quite different to each of your characters, depending on their particular situation and tempered by where they are coming from … Continue reading
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Characters Have Two Jobs
Characters have two jobs. One, they must respond as real people so we can identify with them. Two, they must function as part of your plot to they contribute to the message. Characters who don’t ring true drop your readers … Continue reading
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How to Create Archetypal Characters
Archetypal characters have a bad name. Many writers think such characters are two-dimensional stick figures that come off more like plot robots than real people. But the truth is that archetypes represent essential human qualities that need to be explored … Continue reading
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Plot Points vs. Plot Events
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. Still, how you reveal what happened to the characters can … Continue reading
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Characters: 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
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Letting Go of Characters
Over the course of the story, your reader/audience has come to know your characters and to feel for them. The story doesn’t end when your characters and their relationships reach a climax. Rather, the reader/audience will want to know the … Continue reading
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Throughlines – And How to Use Them!
Some time ago I wrote an article that described the difference between the two basic forms of story structure with the following phrase: You spin a tale, but you weave a story. The common expression “spinning a yarn” conjures up … Continue reading
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Creating Characters from Plot
Introduction If you already have a story idea, it is a simple matter to create a whole cast of characters that will grow out of your plot. In this lesson we’re going to lay out a method of developing characters … Continue reading
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Finding Your Story’s Core
Every story has a core – that concept at the center that pulls all of the story elements into a cohesive whole, establishes meaning and message, and provides the story with an overall identity. There are four fundamental kinds of … Continue reading
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