Why Conflict Drives Story
Life without conflict equals bliss. My wife and I have been married more than half a century. We’re not only lovers, but we’re also friends. We like each other and look forward to reconnecting every day. Naturally we don’t agree on everything, but if a disagreement becomes testy, we actually compete to see who can […]
4 Ways to Avoid a Dead-End Writing Career
A writing career isn’t easy, but these four things will help you avoid a dead-end one. Have you ever seen a talented new writer rise to seeming stardom, only to crash and burn within a couple of years? I recall being a new writer and studying my contemporaries with a mixture of awe and fear, […]
Strong Act Structure Creates Stronger Stories
In storytelling structure, people use the term “act” rather broadly and vaguely. Most in the writing community break stories down into three acts: beginning, middle, and end. But if you asked many writers what an act actually is, they would probably give you blank stares. Despite acts being key structural units in stories, they don’t […]
The Value of a Logline
A logline, or log line, is a simple description of a story that is only a sentence long. It boils the story down to its essence. Unlike the tagline, which is created as a marketing hook, the logline gives the basic premise of the story. Here are three loglines for three famous movies: Luke Skywalker joins […]
The Value of a Tagline
A tagline is a single sentence that describes a film or book in a defining way. Choosing a tagline early can help you write your story with the proper tone. When writing a screenplay or a book, one of the first things that a writer may do is create a tagline. This is a single line […]
