-
Three Ways to Increase Tension in Your Story
Tension is the thing that keeps your reader reading. Conflict can help build tension, but there are other ways to do so as well. Here are just a few. Raise the Stakes to Increase Tension Ugh! I remember hearing this phrase as a beginning writer and being befuddled. What are stakes? How do you raise them? Easy peasy. Just think of it like this. Stakes are what your character has to lose. That’s all. Your main character should always have a type of death at stake. I can be physical death, psychological, professional, etc. They need to be risking more than a hangnail. In order to get to this level,…
You May Also Like
How Conflict is the Core of Your Story
-
A Plot is a Plot is a Plot
Fail to plot, plot to fail. If structure is the thing that gives substance to your story, then plot is structure’s show-off fraternal twin. The two are tied together (conjoined twins, maybe?). Plot consists of all of the happenings in your story; the things that take your inciting incident all the way to your resolution. The defining factor of what is plot and what is filler is cause and effect. Plot is Propelled by Cause and Effect Each scene should have a cause, and each scene should have an effect. This is what propels your story forward. If you have a scene that has no story cause and has no…
-
Are You a Plotter or a Pantser?
Do you have a solid idea of what you will be writing when you sit down? Have you spent oodles of time thinking about it, writing ‘off the page’? Or do you have a solid structure in place? Are You a Plotter or a Pantser? I can type until the end of time about the strengths and weaknesses of plotting versus pantsing. That’s been done to death. So I’ll just give you a short overview. Basically, plotting means that you have your structure all mapped out. You know what your Main Character will be doing in this scene and the next and the next. J.K Rowling is a plotter. Pantsers…
