Isn’t she adorable? I found her picture while cruising websites for images to add to my blog, although I think she’ll be much more than that. I want her to be a character in a novel–something with a fairy-tale feel.…
Blog Archives
What Was I Thinking? Maybe I Should Quit Writing
Let’s face it–we all have them. Days where nothing goes right. Nobody enjoys them, but if you’re a writer, you’re particularly vulnerable to them. Writers need critiques to write their best. Sometimes, everyone needs some outside eyes on their work.…
Three Act Structure–Epilogue and Prologue
In a serious discussion of this topic, a basic understanding of what an epilogue and prologue are will help. I’ve read quite a few definitions, and in my opinion, Wikipedia has the best. First: “A prologue…is an opening to a…
Three Act Structure–Third Act
Act three is where your protagonist either succeeds or fails utterly. It should comprise around the last 25% of your book. Right after the second plot point, the dark night of the soul, your protagonist has to devise a new…
Tagged with: act three, Cathleen Townsend, climax, denouement, resolution, story structure, third act
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Three Act Structure–Act Two
Act two is the middle of your story–the largest part, at least 50%. The best description of the second act I’ve ever heard came from one of Brandon Sanderson’s teaching videos on YouTube, which I highly recommend. He said that…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, dark night of the soul, first pinch point, midpoint, plot point number two, second act, second pinch point, story structure, three act structure
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Three Act Structure–Act One: The Point of No Return
You’ve written your hook, messed up your character’s life with the inciting incident, and now it’s time to finish act one. Your character must initially come to grips with this thing that’s happened to them. In National Treasure, Ben Gates…
Tagged with: act one, Cathleen Townsend, first act, first plot point, point of no return, three act structure
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Three Act Structure–Act One: Inciting Incident
So, you’ve got your story idea, and it’s a good one. Now you want to write it up and do it justice. Being smart, you’re going to learn about story structure first, so you don’t write 80,000 words and then…
Tagged with: act one, Cathleen Townsend, inciting incident, story structure, three act structure
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
The Hook
No matter what story structure you use, or even if you don’t consciously use story structure at all, every writer should have an understanding of the hook. It is, of course, so named because you want to hook readers at…
Watch Out for Homophones
Misspellings in general are always to be avoided, but homophones (aka homonyms) are particularly tricky, because Word and other word processing programs won’t catch them. You’ve used a correct English word—it’s just that you’ve used the wrong one. 1)There—they’re—their There…
Three Act Structure–An Overview
The three act structure is arguably the oldest around, if you accept that it began with Aristotle’s assertions that stories must have a beginning, middle, and end. But while this is a decent start, it’s not particularly useful for storytellers.…
Tagged with: Brandon Sanderson writing course, Cathleen Townsend, novelists, screenwriters, three act structure
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Cathleen Townsend 