Helping Writers Become Authors

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

If the character cannot powerfully transition into the final act of life, the risk is that of sliding into the Crone's shadow archetypes.

Out of fear and egoism, the Maiden's shadow archetypes would prevent her from embracing a new perspective and completing her journey.

Each positive character archetype inherently represents a struggle with related shadow archetypes--one passive and one aggressive.

The powerful and mysterious Mage Arc--the final archetypal character arc--turns its attention to questions of power and surrender.

The Crone Arc begins the final act of the “life arcs” by presenting an inevitable and imperative Underworld Journey.

Although the plot in a King Arc can be absolutely epic, it is a fundamentally spiritual arc--more so than any that have preceded it.

The majestic Queen Arc builds upon the lessons learned in the Hero's Journey to create an archetypal character arc that offers a worthy sequel.

The Hero Arc is the story of the conquering champion--the ingenuous but perhaps immodest youth setting out to do a great deed.

As the "youngest" of the archetypal character arcs, the Maiden Arc represents the quintessential coming-of-age story.