Helping Writers Become Authors

The major plot beats in a story are interwoven with the protagonist's journey. But what is the role of the antagonist in story structure?

Should writers make it a habit to write every day? Here are five pros of writing every day, as well as five potential cons.

Writing a second novel can often be surprisingly harder than the first one. Check out six challenges sophomore writers often face.

Ask these important questions to make sure the passage of time in a story is strengthening rather than weakening its narrative power.

Here are six important considerations to keep in mind when amping up your story's most important scenes--its set-piece scenes.

The question of "how to know when you're a successful author?" offers some obvious answers--and yet the subject is far more complex.

When should you take a break from writing? And once you've taken that step, what in heaven's name are you going to do with yourself?

Creating an amazing supporting cast that can offer important relationship dynamics in fiction will also help develop your protagonist.

Learn how archetypes and story structure mirror each other in any individual book and can be used to further strengthen your story.

Here are a five important questions you, as a writer of fiction, can ask yourself to help you in making story structure your own.

There's nothing incorrect in using confrontation to create conflict in fiction. But to understand conflict as only confrontation is too narrow a definition.

Learn how to increase the health and effectiveness of the writer's inner critic while diminishing toxic effects.

Here are this writer's New Year reflections, focusing on six "gifts" I gave myself and why I believe they were profoundly life-changing.

The two halves of the Climactic Moment require the story's final sequence to offer two very specific beats: Sacrifice and Victory/Failure.

The two halves of the Third Plot Point work together to create a scene arc that moves from the False Victory to the Low Moment.

The halves of the Midpoint are unique in story structure in that they mark the dividing line between the two halves of the entire story arc.

The First Plot Point is often referred to as a threshold, a visual metaphor representing the native two-sidedness of all structural beats.

A series examining the two important "halves" in each of story structure's major beats, beginning with the Inciting Event in the First Act.

Find out what defines repetitive scenes, as well as strategies for recognizing and avoiding them in your fiction.

The archetypal antagonists for the Mage Arc often manifest subtly--not  in obvious "evil," but in an ordinary person's weakness.

The archetypal antagonists for the Crone Arc are represented as a Death Blight and as the subtle Tempter who would lure her from the Truth.

The archetypal antagonists for the King Arc are the Cataclysm and the Rebel, both of which challenge the King to culminate his rule.

Usually the archetypal antagonists for a Queen Arc are represented by the Invader in the outer conflict and the Empty Throne in the inner conflict.

The antagonists for the Hero Arc can be seen archetypally as both the Dragon and the Sick King.

The antagonists for the Maiden Arc can be seen archetypally as both her Authority Figures and a frightening Predator.