At the Story Fortress, we believe you can learn something from every story. Whether its characters are flawless, the plot is boring, or its the best-written mystery of all time, we believe that you can become a better writer through analyzing any story — and that’s what we’re here to help you with. From the…
The Avengers: Buildup Makes It Matter
There’s something uniquely powerful about the moment the Avengers team up for the very first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU. It’s not just how the music swells or how well done their characters are by the time it finally happens (although those elements are certainly a part of it). There’s another factor…
Agents of SHIELD: Variety Generates Interest
We’ve all been exposed to some of the classic soap opera plot points that are so cliche that they’re not only found in almost every soap opera, but also mocked across other shows and media. There’s always a secret twin, a hidden lover, or a covered-up crime that keeps the audience bouncing from one heart-jerking…
Ant-Man: Rarity Makes Value
Out of all the requests for article topics we’ve gotten, from tips on worldbuilding to character work to theme, the most common question has always been how writers can make sure their emotional scenes matter. If readers are bored throughout the most meaningful parts of a book, or if they feel sappy or overdone, the…
100 Days of Sunlight: How to Give Your Characters Distinct Voices
Sometimes, characters tend to sound like their author. And I’m not just talking about the way they talk in dialogue (although that could be a problem too!) I mean the fact that, although certain stories are supposed to be written from one or two point of views, oftentimes the very perspective of those characters end…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Writing Family Relationships
We’ve already talked about the two types of scenes that have to happen for a relationship to become more than just a group of characters and begin to feel like a family. We explored bigger scenes, which involve the entire “family” and make up the spirit that defines their group. It’s these scenes that give…
Hercules Vs. Wish: A Crucial Element To Making a Strong Desire
It’s no secret that Disney movies haven’t been great in recent years. With only a few exceptions, most of Disney’s live-action remakes and TV reboots have done nothing to inspire their disappointed fan-base. Although you could blame this on their recent lack of animation or music quality, most of their recent movies have flopped due…
Honey Lemon: How to Redeem Your Cliches
Almost two years ago, I wrote an article on how Big Hero Six is a master class in leveraging cliches to the benefit of a story. They strategically placed certain character tropes, archetypes, and cliches throughout their story so that the viewer assumed they knew where the movie was going, only to be faced with…
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio: Writing Your Climax With Confidence
One of the hardest parts of writing your climax is deciding how long to make it. In some cases, having your characters teeter on the edge of life and death for extended pages can feel like you’re stretching the climax to fit your word limit. At other times, the extended suspense can create sky-high conflict…
The Green Ember: How to Use Similarities to Make Your Relationships Stronger
In today’s stories, authors seem intent on including unique characters. Especially when writing relationships, story-tellers everywhere seem to be afraid of repeating even one simple character trait or core desire. Everyone has to be polar opposites from each other. And, it’s fairly easy to understand where this fear is coming from. As writers, we need…
Dean From Iron Giant: How to Write a Minor Character
We’ve all encountered minor characters that don’t really have a purpose. It seems like the writer decided their protagonist needed a friend, so they wrote one in who gets plenty of lines, a few scenes, and one or two characteristics that quickly lose interest and depth. These characters feel like a cardboard cutout of an…