• How to form your story’s basic structure
In every story, something happens. These events form the structure of your tale. Plot, then, is the drama and action through which characters come to life.
• Conflict: The heart of every story
A good plot is about at least one character under adversity. Conflict typically arises from the characters’ perceptions, needs and wants. As each character has an urgent personal agenda, your plot really is a synthesis of its individual characters’ efforts to achieve their agendas.
• What is an ‘inciting incident’ in a story?
A vital part of any story is the opening lines, also known as the inciting incident. In this section of the story, we learn who the main character is, the central problem facing him, and a little about the setting.
• Basic guidelines for your story’s rising action
When developing the rising action section of your story, there a few simple guidelines to follow. Ensuring these guidelines aren’t violated will help keep the story moving forward and increase the dramatic tension.
• Write your story’s penultimate scene
In every story, there comes a turning point or an ultimate moment in which the situation has become so intolerable that the main character must take a decisive step and emerge victorious. This scene is known as the climax.
• Descend the mountain with falling action
Though your story may have reached its climax, the tale isn’t over yet. The author also should briefly describe the effects that the climax has on the characters. This section of the story is known as the “falling action.” It’s what happens to the main character as he descends the mountain that he has spent the entire story climbing.
To understand the basic rules for constructing your story, you’ll want to examine:
• Plot’s role in storytelling
What is a story? An idea or a setting or a character alone do not make a story. A fictional story is all of those and more.
• Common plot pitfalls
Sometimes when writing a story, what seems to be a great plotting strategy actually leads you to a dead ed or creates new problems for you to solve. Here are 14 common plot pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid.
The structural guidelines int he above articles work for any genre, whether you’re writing a serious literary piece or penning in any of the escapist genres from romance or science fiction to mystery or fantasy.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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