Write The Story

Stories that ‘work’, touches something inside of us. They have a sense of magic to them that reach the reader on a fundamental level. But how do we create a story that ‘works’? Do we focus on the characters? The plot? The theme? Something else…?

With the Internet booming with advice, and associated acronyms, it’s like tumbling down a bottom-less rabbit hole of confusion. 

Great stories aren’t about the plot. It’s about how we deliv...

The time has come to develop the characters further; especially Dramna, the protagonist. 

Jesper and Autumn discuss character roles - also for the secondary characters, making a Priestess much more interesting - before, in the second half of this episode, the focus is on developing the personality for the protagonist of the story.

Do you want the book, Jesper and Autumn are using as a guide for this podcast series? Get it here: htt...

When creating stories they consist of some cornerstones. Autumn and Jesper call these Plot Posts.

Plot Posts are intended as a “catch all” phrase for the major turning points of a novel. There are seven of these Plot Posts: The Intro, Inciting Incident, Reaction Phase, New Info (or Dark Night of the Soul), Develop Plan, Climax and Wrap Up.

In this episode of the Write the Story Podcast, Autumn and Jesper discuss the first four of t...

Develop Plan – or at times Autumn and Jesper refer to it as the Planning Phase – makes up the second half of the middle of your story. There’s actually quite a lot to achieve here before we bump into the next Plot Post, the Climax.

In this part of the story, you’ll be setting up the conclusion to the character arc while simultaneously allowing enough time for both the hero and the villain to make the necessary “chess moves”. 

Throu...

All the work done so far was leading up to this point – the Climax and the Wrap Up.

While it’s fair to assume that everyone understands that the Climax is the final showdown, where the protagonist will either achieve or fail the goal, it’s not as safe a bet to expect that the true purpose of the Climax is always that clear. Unless you’re able to tie beginning and end together in a satisfying way - confirming to the reader that this...

Sub plots can add to the context and complexity of a novel or they can derail the entire plot. Why one sub plot works and another doesn’t, isn’t always clear.

In this episode, Jesper initially believes that there isn’t much more to add in terms of sub plots to their short story, but he will soon think otherwise once he and Autumn starts discussing story structure.

Sub plots are like the instruments of a symphony orchestra. The wond...

In the eight, and final episode, of Write the Story podcast, Autumn and Jesper starts out by reviewing whether the introduction of the protagonist in chapter one has been handled well enough.

After that, they take a closer look at the opening and closing lines of the story.

The opening line is the first chance to snare the reader’s attention and get them into the story. Such a demand could suggest an impossible mission for a single...

Do you want to write a stronger story? Would you like to worry less about plot holes and weak characters? 

Some writers shy away from outlining, believing it their worst nightmare, and state that time is better spent writing a novel than planning it. Then there are those who’ve tried plotting, perhaps more than a few times, only to get lost in the weeds and overwhelmed by frustration.

Stories that work all follow a certain structur...