Story Development

Our most popular articles on story development provide tips, tricks, and techniques for sound story structure and passionate storytelling.

You can also explore our newest story development articles or search the entire library.

Be A Story Weaver – NOT a Story Mechanic!

How to Create Archetypal Characters

The Hero Breaks Down

Character Likes & Dislikes

How to Structure Your Story’s Theme

Ending with Success or Failure

Creating Extra Tension with Consequences

Don’t Forget the Requirements!

Characters’ Personal Goals

The Collective Goal

Revealing Your Goal

Character Arc 101

Flashbacks and Flash Forwards

Out of Sequence Experiences

Non Causality

Building Importance

Message Reversals

Meaning Reversals

Red Herrings

Building Size

Encoding Theme

Characters: The Attributes of Age

Creating Characters from Plot

Creating Characters from Scratch

Fire Your Protagonist

Character Development Tricks!

The Big Picture

Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex

Love Interests and the Dramatic Triangle

Writing From a Character’s Point of View

Character Affiliations and Beliefs

Writing a Character Description

Writing an Initial Thematic Synopsis

Writing an Initial Plot Synopsis

Writing an Initial Character Synopsis

Writing a Story Synopsis

Choosing Your Story’s Title

Characters in the Middle of Act 3

Your Plot, Step by Step

Introduction to Storyforming (video)

Adaptation

Subjective Characters and the Objective Story

Blowing the Story Bubble

Comparing Writing Software Paradigms

Tricking the Muse: The Creativity Two-Step

Story Structure for Passionate Writers

How to Beat Writer’s Block

Finding Inspiration

The Measure of a Hero