By:
Joe Abercrombie
Character A goes to location B, takes
action C, and achieves event D. This sentence might have the minimal elements
of a plot, but it’s not a story. A story grabs you, pulls you in. A story has
ups and downs, a plot that twists and turns, it has surprises and drama, it has
action and heart. It’s easy for anyone to come up with a basic outline for a
story, a vague summary of events where good triumphs over evil, but when it
comes to writing it, to actually telling the story, there’s so much more to it.
It’s not enough to cast your characters
and have them make a beeline for whatever quest they’re set on. That kind of
straight line plotting leads to bland and generic storylines. Nothing should
ever be that simple in a book, at least not if you want to keep people
interested. The story should grow organically as you write it, branching out
through the world of the novel. The line of your story arc can go off in odd
tangents, twisting and warping into brand new shapes, so long as it doesn’t
spoil the pacing. The key skill is to try and make every part of the story
interesting, to never let a chapter or scene be dismissed as “filler,” you can
tell the great writers by the way they make a character going to get coffee
something you want to read.
The easiest way to liven up a story or
scene is to add conflict, it can be as simple as having your hero squabble with
a stubborn shopkeeper over prices, or as epic as two great armies clashing. A
bloody clash will always have an impact, but that stubborn shopkeeper with the
quirk about selling his last pair of travelling boots also has the potential to
stick with the reader and provide a moment of levity. It doesn’t even have to
be an external conflict; it might be within the mind of your characters, in the
form of phobias or neuroses. A writer can make even a seemingly pedestrian task
into a riveting mini story.
.
. .
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~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
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- Writing With Confidence http://ow.ly/Rfl3s #writetip
- 5 Ways To Boost Your Productivity http://ow.ly/Rfl6T
- Mind mapping a pantsers path to the perfect story | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/Rflda
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- Anne R. Allen's Blog: What Happens to Your Blog when You Die? Why You Need to Appoint a Social Media Executor NOW http://ow.ly/Rflm2
- How to Write a Fantasy Series | Now Novel http://ow.ly/Rflqz
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- Unleash a Surge of Email Subscribers from Your Guest Posts With This Simple Landing Page Strategy - Copyblogger http://ow.ly/RflvB
- Author FAQ: Money matters for writers | Michael J. Martinez http://ow.ly/RflNY
- Fiction University: The Problem With Flash Forwards as an Opening Scene http://ow.ly/RflRq
Calibre : Adding a blurb to the front of a book - Dear Author http://ow.ly/RflT2- Max Gladstone on writing urban fantasy in a secondary world | Bibliotropic http://ow.ly/RflY8
- How To Liven Up Your Story | Fantasy-Faction http://ow.ly/RflZt
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Novelists - The New Yorker http://ow.ly/Rfm1f
- After The Hype And Drama: Balancing Trad And Indie Interests | Thought Catalog http://ow.ly/RfmhB
- Blab
. im Brings Group Video Broadcasts to Business: This Week in Social Media Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/Rfmkp - Kindle Unlimited Scores a Knockout - The Wayfinder - Hugh C. Howey http://ow.ly/Rfmoe
Pinterest Update: More Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest! - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/Rfn5b- Boost social media success with these 3 image types - Build Book Buzz http://ow.ly/Rfn6M
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