Writing craft

How the story catalyst blows up the ordinary world

What is the story catalyst? The catalyst is one of the most important moments in a traditional story. Also called the inciting incident, character opportunity, call to adventure, story event, or trigger, it’s the event in the main character’s life that pushes them into action. Importantly, it’s never happened to the main character before, and …

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When to show and when to tell — and give your reader autonomy

What’s the most common piece of feedback on fiction manuscripts, especially early drafts? It might be this: Show, don’t tell. Often writers apply telling when they should be showing. The result is that readers become bored with lack of engagement (more on engagement later). But it also often happens that writers show when they ought …

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How to read like a writer (step 1 to becoming a master storyteller)

I’m often shocked to hear some novice writers say that they don’t read much. I heard this on Reddit recently (I’m paraphrasing): I want to be a writer, but I don’t like to read books — I prefer to play video games. Many video games can reveal storytelling technique. The same goes for screenplays and …

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