No matter how we got here, We find our self's in the occupied territories of turtle island. And despite the proclamations of the enlightened empire, we each have a choice to make. Do the work of colonialism, or act like we live here.
Renowned art dealer Christina Bowbridge is selling a portrait of His Royal Highness Prince Edward IV, and you want to purchase it. You’ve heard rumors, however, that the painting is not genuine. You want to inquire about inspecting the work of art before buying it, but Bowbridge is both enthusiastic about her work and adores the monarchy; it would be quite easy to offend her and lose the chance to buy the painting entirely. You’ll have to write a letter, and it’ll take good penmanship, the right words, a few flourishes, and . . . at least 3d6? That’s because you’re not just writing a letter, you’re playing Quill: A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player!
Renowned art dealer Christina Bowbridge is selling a portrait of His Royal Highness Prince Edward IV, and you want to purchase it. You’ve heard rumors, however, that the painting is not genuine. You want to inquire about inspecting the work of art before buying it, but Bowbridge is both enthusiastic about her work and adores the monarchy; it would be quite easy to offend her and lose the chance to buy the painting entirely. You’ll have to write a letter, and it’ll take good penmanship, the right words, a few flourishes, and . . . at least 3d6? That’s because you’re not just writing a letter, you’re playing Quill: A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player!
Quill: A Letter Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player is the creation of Scott Malthouse/Trollish Delver Games. The premise of the game is quite simple: you are playing a character who, for one reason or another, is writing a letter. You are attempting to impress or otherwise get something from/through to the recipient of the letter, but in order to do so your letter needs to be well-written, wisely worded, and tailored to the personality of said recipient.
Character creation is very simple, in that you choose from one of several characters such as a Monk, Knight, or Poet that come with established ranks in Penmanship, Heart, and Language. These ranks are Poor, Average, and Good, which equate to a d6-based dice pool of 1, 2 and 3 respectively. You then choose a Skill, which can add an additional die to a single roll of one of those abilities once per scenario. Then you pick a scenario and start writing. and I do mean start writing: part of the fun of Quill is actually writing out the letter, in-character no less!
A scenario will detail who the recipient is, what you’re writing to them about, and any special conditions for the scenario (a recipient might particularly like receiving letters from a Courtier, for example, or might highly value beautiful calligraphy and thus make Penmanship more difficult). Over the course of five paragraphs you have to write a letter to fit the scenario and achieve your goal, and once per paragraph you must include a word from the scenario’s Inkpot. This is where Language comes in: you roll the number of dice, and if you get a 5 or 6 on at least one of them then you can use the Superior Word from the Inkpot, which gets you a point. Fail to do so, and you have to use the inferior version, which gets you nothing.
Heart allows you to add Flourishes in the form of adverbs or adjectives to your Inkpot words, but you must choose to roll Heart before you roll for Language. If you succeed on the Heart roll you add the Flourish, and if you then succeed on the Language roll you get two points instead of one! Add a Flourish to an inferior word, however, and you’ll actually lose a point off of your final score! Finally, Penmanship is rolled at the end of every paragraph; success means your writing was particularly eye-pleasing, and nets you an additional point.
Once you’ve finished your letter, you count up your total points. Every scenario has different results depending on the recipient and what your goal was. Less than 5 is the worst possible outcome and can have dire consequences indeed, while 5-7 is a success that still gets some negative feedback. 8-10 is quite good, and gets a wholly positive response from the recipient. 11 or more points meant you really swayed your reader, achieving your goal and then some!
I gave Quill a try using the Poet character, in the Art Dealer scenario described in the opening paragraph, and was surprised by how much fun it was. I had a bit of a slow start but quickly got into the groove of things, and rolling to see if I got to use a Flourish, wrote down a Superior Word, or had good penmanship (which neither I nor the Poet have) was actually pretty exciting. Unfortunately an unlucky Flourish on an inferior word, combined with truly abysmal Penmanship, meant that the result was that Bowbridge “takes great offense to my letter and responds with a scathing letter about my character. She will not sell me the painting . . . ever.” Alas. Good news is that I can always try with a different character, and even if I try again with the Poet there are more than five choices in the Inkpot so I can try and write an entirely different letter to the Art Dealer.
Quill has essentially managed to gamify a writing prompt. It’s a fun little role-playing game for a quiet night on its own terms, but it could have some other applications as well. Looking at what some other folks have to say about it, I have to agree that it proves useful as a creative writing exercise, and with a scenario made by a GM or player could be a useful tool for establishing/getting into character for a different tabletop RPG. I could even see it as a mini-game in something like D&D when your character has to correspond with someone else, rather than just a single skill check. Of course, if you don’t like creative writing than Quill is definitely far outside of your bailiwick. On the other hand, the gamification of a writing prompt could be a way to get oneself more familiar with creative writing if you’re not a fan in the first place. Something to consider.
The game has some expansions that provide new scenarios and even characters for you to write with, including Quill: Love Letters and Quill: Coal and Parchment. Coal and Parchment is actually published by Shoreless Skies Publishing, made possible by the fact that Quill was created under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, meaning that so long as credit is given anyone can write material for Quill! That means we may just see a great variety of scenarios, perhaps even for different settings like with Coal and Parchment.
All of the linked products, from the basic Quill to the expansions, are available at the always delightful price of Pay-What-You-Want. So grab a hot drink, find a quiet corner, prepare your Inkpot, and get writing!
Thanks to Leslie for pointing me towards the game!
Lately, I’ve been bombarded with dire predictions that ChatGPT will render college writing instructors obsolete. These doomsayers clearly wouldn’t know the first thing about teaching if it hit them with a red-inked rubric.
I think programmers overestimate llms in creative tasks while there’s no ambiguity in code but multiple interpretations of creative writing and art in general. I do believe that chatbots will replace SOME of programming jobs but creative work produced by humans will be only better. #ai #art #CreativeWriting #chatgpt #Claude #mistral #llm #HumanArt
Eggcorns are like linguistic muffins—deliciously mixed-up but oddly satisfying! They remind us that even our brain blunders can spark creative brilliance.
🤖 AI 🔴 OpenAI’s New Model Excels at Creative Writing
🔸 CEO Sam Altman says OpenAI’s latest model is “really good” at fiction writing. 🔸 Altman shared a sample story about AI and grief, praising its metafiction accuracy. 🔸 OpenAI's focus on creative writing hints at significant model improvements.
Hi everyone, I had a little bit of time, and so I thought I’d write some more Writing Tips for writers who find crafting children’s stories as difficult as I do. You can find parts one and three of this series here and here.
So, without further ado, here are another five.
Be Prepared Writing any kind of sto
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Writing Tips – Writing Children’s Stories 2
Hi everyone, I had a little bit of time, and so I thought I’d write some more Writing Tips for writers who find crafting children’s stories as difficult as I do. You can find parts one and three of this series here and here.
So, without further ado, here are another five.
Be Prepared Writing any kind of story is dauntingly hard work, but writing for children can be particularly challenging. You need to think about language and structure in a different way to how you would when writing for adults, so be prepared to work hard and don’t give up if it all starts to get too much. Take your time.
Messages and Themes While messages and themes can each be an important part of a children’s story, sometimes, a story can just be a story with no hidden meaning, messages or themes such as ‘right and wrong’. Sometimes a kid just wants to be entertained with a good tale.
Be Literal Be as literal as possible. Children tend to be very literal in the way they talk and understand things, so complicated metaphors will more than likely be confusing. You should make things clear without oversimplifying your ideas. In most children’s stories, everything is straightforward and black and white. There are no grey areas.
Don’t Panic Your first draft may stink. It may be the worst thing to land on paper in the history of the written word but don’t panic. For most of us, this is very normal. Nothing is ever perfect first time around. The whole point of a first draft is to get all of your ideas out onto the page. You can make sense of everything in your second draft and polish it all to a beautiful shine in your third.
Slang Try not to use slang words in your children’s stories because, by the time anyone gets to read your hard work, the slang that was common when you began to write, will more than likely have grown out of use and your characters may sound outdated. If you really want to use slang in your dialogue, you could always try making up your own slang words.
Thank you, as always, for reading my words if you have, I really do appreciate your time.
Writing can be hard work, especially if you’re a beginner, so I thought I would share some of the tips that I have picked up from various places over the years in my attempts to hone my skill. So here goes:
Write As Though Nobody Will Ever Read Your Work If you write as though nobody will ever read your work, then you’re sure to be a lot more open and honest with whatever it is you’re writing about, and you’ll no doubt feel less awkward about describing deeply emotional and personal subjects.
Try To Write A First Draft In One Sitting Getting a first draft down in one sitting can seem a daunting task, but it can be done. Even if you need to miss out large chunks of plot, just aim for the end. At least you’ll have your basic story completed and a guide to reference when you come to write your second draft.
First Drafts Are Supposed To Be Rubbish Everybody writes a crappy first draft. The point of the first draft is to get everything – the whole story (or as near enough to it) out on the page. Second and third drafts are for making things perfect. Of course, you can write as many drafts as you need to create your art.
Write Every Day Writing every day helps you to form a writing habit. This is useful because the more you write, the better the writer you will become. It will also help you to get into a routine so that you can be more productive.
Create Deadlines Creating a deadline for yourself is another way to ensure productivity. You should start small, setting a certain amount of words or even pages to be completed by a set time. This gives you something manageable to work towards, and you can always set larger goals as you become used to working within deadlines.
Write The Ending First The ending, at least for some, is always the hardest part of the story to write. Getting it out of the way first can help you to see what needs to happen in the rest of the story in order to get to the end point. It’s always better to know where you’re going and to have something to work towards.
Write The First Draft Without Editing Try not to edit your work until you have completed your first draft. This will speed up your writing and help you to accomplish more. It can be hard to stick to because if something just doesn’t sound right, you might be tempted to play around with it until it does, which takes up valuable time.
Thank you for spending your valuable time here with me, I appreciate it. Look out for more tips in ‘More Writing Tips‘ or find the rest of my Writing Tips series here.
The Algorithmic Life of Verse: Certain poetic traits act as reliable catalysts for virality, triggering an algorithmic reflex of appreciation and backlash.
In procrastinating a dreaded revision of my current project, I have decided to write a follow-up to my previous post Writing Tips. After all, I’m always learning and finding out new ways of doing things and some of the information I post may be useful to somebody. Or not. I don’t know, but here we go anyway with another six:
Don’t Write for the Market You might think that writing to the whims of the marketplace is the way to go, but the market changes all the time. Instead, write for yourself. If you find something interesting the chances are others will too.
Create an Outline I had always been a ‘pantser’, writing without an
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More Writing Tips
In procrastinating a dreaded revision of my current project, I have decided to write a follow-up to my previous post Writing Tips. After all, I’m always learning and finding out new ways of doing things and some of the information I post may be useful to somebody. Or not. I don’t know, but here we go anyway with another six:
Don’t Write for the Market You might think that writing to the whims of the marketplace is the way to go, but the market changes all the time. Instead, write for yourself. If you find something interesting the chances are others will too.
Create an Outline I had always been a ‘pantser’, writing without an outline or a roadmap of where the story was going. The problem is though, writing this way, at least in my experience, doesn’t get you very far. The story just seems to peter out as you run out of steam and become bored with your project. An outline gives you a sense of scope and allows you to craft your beginning, middle and end.
Stick to One Project This is good advice, but it’s advice that I still find difficult to follow. There have been many times when I have begun to write one story only to have an excellent idea for another one. I often find that I am unable to focus on what I had been doing and begin to write the new idea. I have learned to (sometimes) write until I’m finished, and if a brilliant idea happens to jump into my head, I just write it down and work on it when I have completed the current project.
Electronics are the Devil Specifically smartphones, tablets and anything else that allows you access to Facebook and Twitter. I can pop onto social media for a ‘quick sec’ to check my notifications and look up an hour later wondering where the time has gone.
Read Your Work Aloud Reading your work aloud can help you to work out whether or not your sentences are flowing the way you think they are. More often than not, something can look right written down but sound completely different when read aloud.
Remember, You’re not the Best There will always be better writers than you so it may be a good idea to keep that in mind when you’re writing. And although you’re not the best, there is still nothing wrong with striving to be better. I often feel self-doubt rearing its ugly head as it tries to persuade me that my writing is not good enough. It tells me that I’m a terrible writer, but then I remember that I’ll never be the best writer in the world and that’s okay, as long as I keep trying to improve then that’s all that matters. This tip also helps relieve a little bit of the stress and pressure to complete a project, and I can get back to enjoying my work.
Thank you very much for your time if you read this, I very much appreciate your time.
Writing can be hard work, especially if you’re a beginner, so I thought I would share some of the tips that I have picked up from various places over the years in my attempts to hone my skill…
All you need to create your outline are 60 index cards, a pen or a marker of some sort and a large space in which to spread out the cards.
This method utilises the Three Act Structure which is a useful structural tool not to mention an excellent way to outline a story. I would suggest taking a quick note of the key points of the Three Act Structure before you begin, though it doesn’t really matter if you wait and do it at the end.
Take your 60 index cards, which you can buy from almost anywhere (I just make my own from whatever’s handy) and a pen and write out the 60 most important things that will happen in your novel. Just a single sentence to give an idea of what the scene or event will consist of is enough.
Since there are usually about sixty scenes in a novel (there can be more, or even less) it is a good idea to use 15 each for the first and third acts and 30 for the second. This is where the primary focus of the action will be and where a huge chunk of the story is told.
This part might take a bit of thinking, especially if you have not begun to outline your story yet, or even thought about what might happen from beginning to end.
Once you’ve written the single sentence event on all sixty cards, spread them all out in front of you. I use my coffee table because it’s large enough, though you can use a dining table or even the floor if you like.
Take a good look at all of your events. Are they all in the order they need to be in?
Now, remember that list of key points from the Three Act Structure that you may or may not have made a note of? Well, we’re going to use that now, so if you haven’t jotted down the points, you may want to do so now.
First, all of the parts that belong in the beginning, or Act I go in one pile, all those that belong in the middle, or Act II, go in another and finally, all of the events that belong in the end, or Act III, go in a third pile.
Next, take the scene cards in the pile for Act 1 and match them to the elements of this act (you won’t be able to match every card, but you’ll have a sense of where they’ll need to be placed in the story.)
For example, take the scene or event that you think is your exposition or set up. This is where the character is going about their normal, day to day life. This scene should be first, and the scene that you think describes your inciting incident (the scene that changes the protagonist’s world or forces them out of their normality) – goes next, and so on and so forth until you matched up all the cards with the key points of the three acts as best you can.
Having sorted your cards into their respective acts and matched them with their corresponding points, you can go back to them and add any other information you need to.
A good tip here is to keep a blank sheet of paper handy and that way if you run out of space on the index card, you can mark which card you’re working on and continue on the paper. This is what I do when I use index cards because I never seem to have enough room. However, you don’t need to do this if you are able to use the space available or have a great memory.
You can add things like setting and which characters are involved or even things like which POV your scene will be written in along with any other information that jumps out of your head.
That’s it really. When you’ve done all of that, you should have a relatively detailed outline of your novel.
While this outline was presumably designed to be used for novel outlines, I don’t see why it can’t be modified to work for any form of writing.
A short story of 7 scenes and 10,000 words could conceivably be split up into a 2, 3, 2 formation of index cards for the beginning middle and end. This is just an estimate, and of course, you can experiment with it yourself and see what works. The 7 scenes and 10,000 words are just what appeared when I googled ‘how many scenes are there in a short story.’ The truth is there is no set number, just as there is no set word count. I don’t think I’ve written a short story yet that was over 6,000 words.
Anyway… I’ve gone on for long enough. Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate it!
Writing can be hard work, especially if you’re a beginner, so I thought I would share some of the tips that I have picked up from various places over the years in my attempts to hone my skill. So here goes:
Write As Though Nobody Will Ever Read Your Work If you write as though nobody will ever read your work, then you’re sure to be a lot more open and honest with whatever it is you’re writing about, and you’ll no doubt feel less awkward about describing deeply emotional and personal subjects.
Try To Write A First Draft In One Sitting Getting a first draft down in one sitting can seem a daunting task, but it can be done. Even
... show more
Writing Tips
Writing can be hard work, especially if you’re a beginner, so I thought I would share some of the tips that I have picked up from various places over the years in my attempts to hone my skill. So here goes:
Write As Though Nobody Will Ever Read Your Work If you write as though nobody will ever read your work, then you’re sure to be a lot more open and honest with whatever it is you’re writing about, and you’ll no doubt feel less awkward about describing deeply emotional and personal subjects.
Try To Write A First Draft In One Sitting Getting a first draft down in one sitting can seem a daunting task, but it can be done. Even if you need to miss out large chunks of plot, just aim for the end. At least you’ll have your basic story completed and a guide to reference when you come to write your second draft.
First Drafts Are Supposed To Be Rubbish Everybody writes a crappy first draft. The point of the first draft is to get everything – the whole story (or as near enough to it) out on the page. Second and third drafts are for making things perfect. Of course, you can write as many drafts as you need to create your art.
Write Every Day Writing every day helps you to form a writing habit. This is useful because the more you write, the better the writer you will become. It will also help you to get into a routine so that you can be more productive.
Create Deadlines Creating a deadline for yourself is another way to ensure productivity. You should start small, setting a certain amount of words or even pages to be completed by a set time. This gives you something manageable to work towards, and you can always set larger goals as you become used to working within deadlines.
Write The Ending First The ending, at least for some, is always the hardest part of the story to write. Getting it out of the way first can help you to see what needs to happen in the rest of the story in order to get to the end point. It’s always better to know where you’re going and to have something to work towards.
Write The First Draft Without Editing Try not to edit your work until you have completed your first draft. This will speed up your writing and help you to accomplish more. It can be hard to stick to because if something just doesn’t sound right, you might be tempted to play around with it until it does, which takes up valuable time.
Thank you for spending your valuable time here with me, I appreciate it. Look out for more tips in ‘More Writing Tips‘ or find the rest of my Writing Tips series here.
Writing as though nobody will ever read your work can be a difficult task to master. It involves opening yourself up, lowering your guard and allowing all of the emotions and memories you keep locked privately in your head to trickle down your arm and out onto the page.
When we write for ourselves, say, in a journal, for example, we generally write without a filter because we know that nobody will ever see it. We can be as honest about our thoughts and feelings and as forthcoming with information as we choose.
However, writing something that we intend to show to other people can sometimes mean the opposite; our guard can go up and, subconsciously or otherwise, we try to make sure that our personality is clean and polished to a nice, bright shine while plastering a big metaphorical smile on the face of our work. In other words, we lie, and we do it because we fear rejection.
We pretend to be what we’re not because we think the world wants to read nice, pleasant stories, which, of course, is true, but the world also wants honest, frank and genuine stories, no matter how dark or gritty.
The problem with writing through a filter is that ‘you’ as the writer don’t come through on the page. Sure, a ‘version’ of you does, but the reader isn’t getting to know you through your work. If everything is all Stepford Wife-like and false in your writing, then it probably won’t leave an impression.
Writing is supposed to give something of the writer to the reader, even if it’s just a slight glimpse into the writer’s mind. At the very least, a reader should be able to pick up on the writer’s point of view or opinion and compare it to their own.
A good way of practising how to write unfiltered and like nobody will ever read your work is to think about something of which you feel strongly and uncage your mind and emotions and just write about it. Tell yourself that its only for you, that nobody is going to see it.
It’s hard, but with practice, it will get easier, and in time you’ll feel freer for it. The more honest you are in your writing, the better chance you will have of readers being able to connect with you on a more personal level than if you had watered your work down with self-editing.
As always, thank you very much for reading if you did. I do appreciate it!
All you need to create your outline are 60 index cards, a pen or a marker of some sort and a large space in which to spread out the cards.
This method utilises the Three Act Structure which is a useful structural tool not to mention an excellent way to outline a story. I would suggest taking a quick note of the key points of the Three Act Structure before you begin, though it doesn’t really matter if you wait and do it at the end.
Take your 60 index cards, which you can buy from almost anywhere (I just make my own from whatever’s handy) and a pen and write out the 60 most important things that
... show more
Creating an Outline with Index Cards
All you need to create your outline are 60 index cards, a pen or a marker of some sort and a large space in which to spread out the cards.
This method utilises the Three Act Structure which is a useful structural tool not to mention an excellent way to outline a story. I would suggest taking a quick note of the key points of the Three Act Structure before you begin, though it doesn’t really matter if you wait and do it at the end.
Take your 60 index cards, which you can buy from almost anywhere (I just make my own from whatever’s handy) and a pen and write out the 60 most important things that will happen in your novel. Just a single sentence to give an idea of what the scene or event will consist of is enough.
Since there are usually about sixty scenes in a novel (there can be more, or even less) it is a good idea to use 15 each for the first and third acts and 30 for the second. This is where the primary focus of the action will be and where a huge chunk of the story is told.
This part might take a bit of thinking, especially if you have not begun to outline your story yet, or even thought about what might happen from beginning to end.
Once you’ve written the single sentence event on all sixty cards, spread them all out in front of you. I use my coffee table because it’s large enough, though you can use a dining table or even the floor if you like.
Take a good look at all of your events. Are they all in the order they need to be in?
Now, remember that list of key points from the Three Act Structure that you may or may not have made a note of? Well, we’re going to use that now, so if you haven’t jotted down the points, you may want to do so now.
First, all of the parts that belong in the beginning, or Act I go in one pile, all those that belong in the middle, or Act II, go in another and finally, all of the events that belong in the end, or Act III, go in a third pile.
Next, take the scene cards in the pile for Act 1 and match them to the elements of this act (you won’t be able to match every card, but you’ll have a sense of where they’ll need to be placed in the story.)
For example, take the scene or event that you think is your exposition or set up. This is where the character is going about their normal, day to day life. This scene should be first, and the scene that you think describes your inciting incident (the scene that changes the protagonist’s world or forces them out of their normality) – goes next, and so on and so forth until you matched up all the cards with the key points of the three acts as best you can.
Having sorted your cards into their respective acts and matched them with their corresponding points, you can go back to them and add any other information you need to.
A good tip here is to keep a blank sheet of paper handy and that way if you run out of space on the index card, you can mark which card you’re working on and continue on the paper. This is what I do when I use index cards because I never seem to have enough room. However, you don’t need to do this if you are able to use the space available or have a great memory.
You can add things like setting and which characters are involved or even things like which POV your scene will be written in along with any other information that jumps out of your head.
That’s it really. When you’ve done all of that, you should have a relatively detailed outline of your novel.
While this outline was presumably designed to be used for novel outlines, I don’t see why it can’t be modified to work for any form of writing.
A short story of 7 scenes and 10,000 words could conceivably be split up into a 2, 3, 2 formation of index cards for the beginning middle and end. This is just an estimate, and of course, you can experiment with it yourself and see what works. The 7 scenes and 10,000 words are just what appeared when I googled ‘how many scenes are there in a short story.’ The truth is there is no set number, just as there is no set word count. I don’t think I’ve written a short story yet that was over 6,000 words.
Anyway… I’ve gone on for long enough. Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate it!
There are four main points of view when it comes to writing fiction: first-person (I, Me, We), the rarely used second-person (You), third-person limited and third-person omniscient (He, She, They).
The point of view through which your story will be told will depend largely on a couple of things, such as, the type of story you want to tell and who will be telling it.
Each point of view will give your narrator a distinctive voice, so it is important to think about whether or not your story works in the one you have chosen.
First-Person Writing in the first-person, for some, feels easy and natural because we speak in I, Me, and We.
By using first-person, you are able to help the reader to connect more easily to the character because while they are reading the story, they imagine themselves in that role.
A disadvantage of using this point of view is that the main character or narrator can only speak to events they have witnessed or have been told about previously. If they were not ‘on stage’ so to speak for a major event, how would they be able to relay to the reader that it had happened?
Another drawback is that it is harder for the main character or narrator to describe themselves. After all, it would be a little contrived to have them stand in front of a mirror and tell the reader what they look, like unless of course there is a specific reason for doing so in your story.
Second-Person Second-person narration is when the main character is ‘you’ as in ‘you run out down the stairs and out of the door, and realise that you have forgotten to brush your teeth.’
This point of view is rarely used because telling a compelling story this way can be extremely difficult, though not impossible as it has been done.
Using second-person narration does give you the option of being different, however, but be aware that it can be jarring to the reader, who is essentially at least on some level, being told that they are doing this or that. It can be enough to pull a reader so far away from the story that they decide to stop reading.
Third-Person Limited This is probably the most common point of view from which stories are written. Third-person narrative uses He, She, They and character names with the narrator being outside the story looking in. The limited part is in relation to what the narrator has access to in regards to the characters.
In third-person limited, only the thoughts, emotions and experiences of the main character are known to the narrator. Just as in first-person, the main character or narrator cannot know about events that they were not present for.
Third-Person Omniscient Third-person omniscient has all the hallmarks of third-person limited, except, instead of knowing only what the main character knows or experiences, this narrator has access to everything. Think of the omniscient narrator as being an all-knowing deity who can know and see everything.
The omniscient narrator can see inside the minds of each and every character and know what they feel and what they want.
The only problem in writing from this point of view is that it can be very easy to ‘head-hop’, that is to jump around too quickly from the mind of one character to the next without allowing the reader time to catch up.
An excellent way to avoid head-hopping is to wait until the end of a scene or a chapter before switching characters, and when you do, begin the scene with a line that will suggest to the reader whose head they are in.
As always, thank you very much for reading, I am grateful for your time.
I used to hate the words ‘story structure’. I had always tried to ignore the concept and just ‘do my own thing’, writing whatever came into my head, or ‘pantsing’ if you will.
I regarded the idea of forcing my thoughts into such a formal format, or that they should be formatted at all with indignance and I suppose I was a little bit arrogant too. I believed (and I still do to some extent) that creativity should just be free-flowing and not bogged down with formal structure.
As with outlining, I was very wrong. You see, I hadn’t ever tried structuring my stories, and I kept telling myself that I didn’t need to. Then, a few years
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Story Structure
I used to hate the words ‘story structure’. I had always tried to ignore the concept and just ‘do my own thing’, writing whatever came into my head, or ‘pantsing’ if you will.
I regarded the idea of forcing my thoughts into such a formal format, or that they should be formatted at all with indignance and I suppose I was a little bit arrogant too. I believed (and I still do to some extent) that creativity should just be free-flowing and not bogged down with formal structure.
As with outlining, I was very wrong. You see, I hadn’t ever tried structuring my stories, and I kept telling myself that I didn’t need to. Then, a few years ago I watched a video on youtube of a woman who was explaining the whole concept of story structure, and she was making a lot of sense, so I decided to (although somewhat reluctantly) give it a try.
Now, there are a hundred gazillion ways to structure a story and, as I found out, they can vary quite considerably in complexity.
The simplest form that I had been able to find is called Freytag’s Pyramid. You can find a full explanation of it here on Wikipedia, but I’ll give you the gist:
Basically, I draw a pyramid on an A4 sheet of paper (landscape). Then I mark out all the fundamental points of a story. The one I draw has six of these: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.
Now that I understand what story structure is and what it’s for, I feel as though I had been missing out before. The first time I wrote with structure in mind, everything just seemed to click into place.
Why don’t you give it a try and see what you think?
As always, thank you for reading this if you made it to the bottom.
The Hero’s journey is a widespread form of story structure derived from mythologist Joseph Campell’ s ‘Monomyth’ from his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which was originally published in 1949
There are twelve steps, and as you go through them, you’ll probably find that they seem familiar. This is because a lot of stories are written this way and once you know what to look for you’ll more than likely be able to spot them the next time you’re reading a book.
The twelve steps are:
1: Ordinary World: Here you show your hero’s everyday world; what he (or she) usually does and what his life is like. It shows contrast when he’s taken out of the ‘ordinary’ environment and put in the new ‘special world’.
2: Call to Adventure: Something or someone calls the hero to adventure by way of a problem or a challenge; somebody they care about may be threatened, and the hero is asked for help. His kingdom or something else important to him may be under fire. This step helps to set up the stakes. What happens if the hero refuses the call? (which at first, undoubtedly, he will).
3: Refusal of the Call: The hero refuses the call. He may be scared to take whatever action is necessary for him to accept it.
4: Mentor: The mentor is the Merlin-esque character who guides and motivates the hero. They push him to do the right thing. This doesn’t have to be a person who is physically there, it can also be a memory of somebody from the hero’s past, encouraging him. It can even be some kind of supernatural force who can impart advice or give magical weapons or potions that the hero can use later on.
5: Crossing the First Threshold: The hero commits himself to the challenge, quest or problem from The Call to Adventure and has crossed into the special world of your story. This is where the adventure actually begins, and the story gets going.
6: Tests, Allies and Enemies: Here, the hero is tested by new challenges. He meets new friends and encounters the bad guys, while at the same time getting to grips with the special world. There may even be a reversal at some point where one of the hero’s friends reveals themselves to actually be an enemy, or conversely, somebody thought of as an enemy might really turn out to be one of the good guys.
7: The Inmost Cave: This is the part of the story where the hero prepares himself to face the big bad whatever. He plans and strategises, and he may even need to face up to psychological traumas or learn or build upon skill sets in preparation for battle.
8: Ordeal: The big fight happens here and, usually, the hero wins. This is where we learn that the hero is indeed a hero. In facing his greatest fears, he determines to power through regardless.
9: Reward: After surviving the huge battle, the hero and his friends celebrate. He may take possession of a new weapon, perhaps a magic sword or some magic potions or elixirs that can heal the injured. They may even have learned some new knowledge and gained invaluable experience.
10: The Road Back: In this section of the story, the hero must deal with the consequences of the huge confrontation or battle with the big bad whatever. The bad guys may even try to come after him and his friends again, chasing them as the hero tries to get them all out of harm’s way. Here the hero should experience death, either in dying himself or in another character dying. At the very least, the hero should be close to death.
11: Resurrection: A character who was thought to have been defeated either comes back to life or gains the strength to carry on. The hero sees things differently now. He can never see the world in the same way again. He may also simply realise here that he is a different person from when he first began his adventure.
12: Return with the Elixir: The hero returns to his ordinary world, perhaps returning with a new insight or understanding. Often the hero is set apart from the rest of the people on his return, he is not like the others anymore and becomes an outsider. The Elixir could be treasure found on the adventure or a romantic involvement, it doesn’t have to be a magic potion though indeed, it can be. It is your story after all, and you can do whatever you like.
Some people follow this structure step by step, others mix the steps up, which doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that you write your story, and this is just one of the many ways you can do that.
There are a great many books out there that offer hints, tips and other tidbits of information about both the art and act of writing, some of which are very good and have been an asset to me. A boo…
I have always loved to write. Even from the age of about five or six, I would rewrite my favourite fairy tales in my own words and try to invent different endings for them.
The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears had always been a particular favourite, and I always felt as though Goldilocks, with her brazen breaking and entering, got off with her crime scot-free. To make up for this, I would write endings wherein the Three Bears would chase after her through the forest and, upon her capture, take her to the authorities or, at the very least give her a firm telling off.
As I grew up my interest in writing grew too, and I became passionate about it, writing whenever I got the chance.
There have been many times over the years when I have needed to ‘get away from it all’ and writing is
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Why I Write
I have always loved to write. Even from the age of about five or six, I would rewrite my favourite fairy tales in my own words and try to invent different endings for them.
The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears had always been a particular favourite, and I always felt as though Goldilocks, with her brazen breaking and entering, got off with her crime scot-free. To make up for this, I would write endings wherein the Three Bears would chase after her through the forest and, upon her capture, take her to the authorities or, at the very least give her a firm telling off.
As I grew up my interest in writing grew too, and I became passionate about it, writing whenever I got the chance.
There have been many times over the years when I have needed to ‘get away from it all’ and writing is the only way I know how to do that with any degree of success.
The imagined worlds that I would create became a vacation of sorts from the troubles or difficulties that were happening in my life, and through expressing my thoughts and feelings onto the page, I was better able to understand them, which in turn helped me to grow as a person.
I relish the process of starting with a tiny germ of an idea in my head and then having that idea grow with such intensity that it feels uncontainable – to the point where I just have to get it out onto the page before it boils away.
In the process of doing this, I am creating something that has never existed in the world before. I am turning something abstract into something concrete; bringing an idea to life and even if nobody reads it, I know that I’ve released some part of me into the world that may continue to exist in some form or another long after I’m gone.
All these and a gazillion other reasons are why I love to write. Why do you?
Worldbuilding is an essential part of the writing process when it comes to fiction and storytelling.
The ‘world’ you create for your story (or ‘story world‘ as it is also known) is where your story takes place. It is where your characters live and die and where all of the action happens.
Often, people will confuse the story world with the setting, however, although they are similar in some respects – namely that they are places where things happen and where people live – they are in fact two entirely different and separate parts of the story. The setting, for instance, is the time and general location in which you have chosen to tell your story. For example, you may have opted for a small, English town on the outskirts of Victorian London as your setting, whereas the story world is so much more than that.
It is the small, English town on the outskirts of Victorian London, plus a whole host of other things such as the people who live there, the clothes they wear, the currency they use and the food they eat as well as myriad other minute details.
There are also the neighbouring towns to think of; not everyone in the town of your setting will have been born and raised there. And what about other important towns and cities in your world? Or even countries and continents for that matter?
If you are using our own world as the backdrop for your story then try to make your research of the timing and location as detailed as possible; it is these small details that give realism to your world. However, if your world is entirely formed from the darkest depths of your mind, then you have carte blanche to let your imagination run wild (within reason, of course; things still need to make sense).
The word ‘world’ in the sense that I am using it here is sort of a misnomer, in that not all stories take place in or on a world. Some stories take place on a spaceship in outer space or on asteroids or space stations. In all cases though, you must think about the details that make up your surroundings and society and about why the people in your ‘world’ act the way that they do.
Keep in mind that if you are creating a world that is similar to our own, then there will be a rich history there. Major events will have occurred throughout your world’s past that will have helped to define it and the people who live in it, such as your main characters.
Another good thing to remember is that people will always be people. There will always be disagreements about anything and everything – it’s human nature. There will have been wars in your world (or maybe not it’s your story) and arguments over land and food and, if the people of your world are as diverse as those of our own, there will have been wars over race and religion. After all, whenever you have differences, you are bound to have differing opinions which may lead to all kinds of conflict between the citizens of your world.
Anyway… I think I’ve rambled on enough for now…
As always, thanks for reading this if you have, I appreciate your time and patience.
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
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