Create those vivid scenes the audience will always remember– Building Bolder Scenes course.
Listen to the Plot Blueprint podcast
- Point of View in filmWe've talked about character viewpoint in written fiction. That's pretty fundamental, because fiction is created out of words-- words of description and thought and feeling, and it's usually a character doing the describing, etc. Now let's examine how POV works in a very visual medium. You can learn more and enroll here! Building Bolder Scenes with […]
New Post, starring the Beatles! and Heroic Flaw: Characterization Workshop - Free Replay
New Post, starring the Beatles!
The Fab Four Synopsis-Creation Method
Alicia PRESENTS A FREE WEBINAR- REPLAY HERE
Heroic Flaw: Characterization Workshop with Alicia Rasley
Deepen your characterization with the Heroic Flaw
The Heroic Flaw: To deepen your characterization, learn to create "The Heroic Flaw": That which makes them great brings them down! We'll discuss how to use the character's great strength against them, to bring them into conflict, and force them to change.
This workshop was presented Feb. 12 by Alicia Rasley, award-winning writer, experienced editor, and affirmative teacher.
The Character- Plot Journey
Braiding the Character with the Plot
If you think of the plot as the protagonist's journey, you can overcome a lot of the Fear of Plotting. So let’s talk about the journey, and then connect it to the parts of the plot.
WHAT IS HIS/HER JOURNEY? Read more!
Sneaky Plot Problems: The Top 10 Countdown (FREE)
Plot Problem #10: Backstory Blunders
The past is prologue, for sure, but you can tell too much too soon dragging your plot down, if everything about the characters' past is explained right upfront in Chapter One. (Click here for more problems.)
Five Bad Habits of Good Writers
1. Bad habit: Thinking that you have only one book in you. Many writers start out because they want to tell one particular plot, a story that’s been inside them for a long time. They write that story in a white heat, and then… then what? Are they done being a writer now that they’ve written that one book? No. Other bad habits here!
Three Quick Tricks to Powerful Pacing
I think of pacing as making sure that important events happen frequently enough that the reader doesn't get a chance to quit reading. That doesn't mean every scene has a turning point, but every scene has to have some event that affects the overall plot, or that scene is basically "skippable". And every scene can help set up for a later turning point.
There should be some measurable change that happens because of this event. I have to say, as soon as I started applying this rule, my pacing picked up, because the plot had more events and more changes. Read more about pacing.
Here are a few quick tips for creating dazzling dialogue.
#1 Keep it short
Three to four lines between "--", then insert an action, change speakers, switch to a quick thought. This creates more white space, suggests more movement, forces you to be cogent and quick.
More Than a Hook: The Scene’s First Paragraphs (FREE)
There’s a trend recently that calls for opening each scene "in media res"— with some kind of clever line (the "hook"), or sudden action or a line of dialogue. This can be effective in drawing the readers in, but keeping them in requires more than clever lines. It requires a paragraph or two that anchor the scene in some specific place, time, and situation.
