The other day I needed a home school project for my kids, and being a writer I wanted to do something story related. But my children, and probably most younger children, have difficulty grasping the concept of organizing a story. They do, however, enjoy doodling. So I stumbled upon a very simple way to teach […]
Story Building Mastery 10 – Advanced Complexities
Advanced Complexities RETURN TO THE MENU ARTICLE So, you’ve made it this far, huh? You’ve taken all the basics of story building (The Tri-Core Substructure, the Five Act Structure, Genre, Genotype, Character Development), you’ve carefully designed your story (Five Stage Plot, The Hero’s Journey, Micro Stories, Episodic Reduction), but that’s not enough for you. You […]
Story Building Mastery 9 – Episodic Reduction
Episodic Reduction RETURN TO MENU ARTICLE If you read the previous article on Micro Stories, then grasping the concept of Episodic Reduction should be very simple. It also helps to remember the Five Stage Plot, though not necessarily required. What is Episodic Reduction? It is the reduction of the overall plot into self-contained episodes. Each […]
Story Building Mastery 4 – Story Genotype
Story Genotype RETURN TO MENU ARTICLE This way of classifying a story is perhaps one of the most important yet overlooked items. It’s easily confused with genre…probably because there are a few common genres which actually double as a genotype. Yet there is a distinct difference. Genre is best understood as the designation of the […]
Story Building Mastery 1 – The Tri-Core Substructure
THE TRI-CORE SUBSTRUCTURE RETURN TO MENU ARTICLE This week I want to talk about the foundational layer of story building, the Tri-Core Substructure. Shiny, huh? I made that term up myself because neither my publisher nor I could think of a proper pre-existing term. What is the Tri-Core Substructure? It is the very basic most […]