To create a character with depth you need to create a character with internal conflict, a character who has “issues” that they need to...

A story protagonist is not always a hero and an antagonist is not always a villain, even though the terms are often used interchangeably....

It might surprise you to know that the Thriller and the Romance story structure have some things in common. Firstly, and most importantly, both story structures revolve around emotion and a relationship. In the romance the relationship is between the two protagonists or lovers and the central emotional arc is the discovery of love. In the thriller the relationship is between the protagonist and the antagonist and the central emotional arc is the destruction of love and the ex

We all love an Anti-Hero, think Han Solo in Star Wars, John McLane in Die Hard and most of Clint Eastwoods characters. Venom, Lucifer Morningstar, Wolverine, Tony Stark, Rorshach, Magneto and Loki… the list is long. Female Anti-Heroes are less common, but some delicious examples are the Widow from Into the Badlands, Jessica Jones from Marvel comics and Yennifer from The Witcher. The quintessential example of an Anti-Hero from the Egyptian pantheon is Set. The Anti-Hero is a

How to Create a Powerful Anatagonist Want to create a powerful antagonist that readers will love to hate? Read on. Interested in building an anti-hero? See my post on creating an anti-hero character and get the anti-hero template. I always had difficulty with antagonists. They seemed to me to fall into two categories: the melodrama villain, committing evil acts for the sake of it, or sociopaths revelling in their graphic cruelty to the protagonist. Both types repelled me,

Plotting Definitions for Novels Story structures for novels have largely been adapted from the pure story telling structures of film. But there are differences in the way scripts and novels are organised so it can sometimes be difficult to figure out how to adapt one to the other. When working with story structure, you begin at the highest level with the 3 (or 5) act structure which is devolved into story points or plotline elements. These are the points in the story stru

Exploring Story Structure for Plotting Pantsing vs Outlining Pantsers argue that trying to structure their story ahead of time makes...