Climaxes mean a lot more than you think. Just a few minutes of screentime or chapters in a book can completely change how viewers (or readers) consider the value of a story. And if they’re done well, a climax can elevate a rather boring plotline to become an incredibly valuable story. Last week we looked…
Love it or hate it, Star Wars is undeniably a big part of our culture. The original trilogy sent shockwaves through the storytelling industry that are still reverberating today, nearly half a century later. So when LucasFilm announced that, after 42 years of movies, prequels, and sequels, they were finally closing the nine-part Skywalker movie…
What’s the last story that made you laugh? And I don’t just mean a little chuckle. I mean a bursting, out loud laughter. What was the last story to give you that breathless feeling? It’s a writer’s dream to provoke laughter like that, but it can be difficult. Some humor doesn’t translate well to the…
They say a picture paints a thousand words. But not all writers can paint. And we as writers miss out when we can’t include them in our novels. Art can have a truly profound effect on emotions, actions, and even how we understand complicated concepts — results most writers have to find a substitute for….
Manipulating your reader’s emotions is one of the best ways to make an impact with your story. If any of your words have left someone feeling hopeful, joyful, or excited, you have done well as a writer. But some of the most powerful moments in storytelling are the dark moments. And often writers struggle to…
Recently I read a mystery novel (the first in a series) that ended the first book with a cliffhanger. The mystery hadn’t been solved, the character arcs weren’t concluded, and the biggest questions that the author had been leading up to throughout several hundred pages remained unanswered. I had enjoyed the book up until that…
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was an incredibly inspirational book (my favorite from the entire Hunger Games franchise actually), yet the recently-released movie earned some disappointing ratings. Why is that? Could it be because the screenwriters neglected to capture the protagonist’s internal dialogue again? That the acting was dry? That they changed too many…
Some characters are just plain awesome. They’re memorable, we root for them, and they become impossible to forget. They generate so much interest around the plot, setting, and story just by being who they are. But others seem like cut-outs. They aren’t necessarily cliched, but they speak and act just like the other characters in…
In a previous article, I’ve mentioned how villains should not be shoved under a morally right light. How the writer shouldn’t try to make the bad guy, who everyone is supposed to hate, some misunderstood hero. But what should you do if you want to write a book about the villain’s backstory? When your villain…
I watched a comedy sketch recently that voiced some criticisms about Home Alone — specifically the crazy loops the family jumps through to make leaving their son home alone believable. The skit was fairly funny and the inconsistencies were certainly worth pointing out, and yet… almost no one does. Home Alone is a beloved Christmas…