Hey, all! It's been a while, huh? I know I have a different Workshop written up elsewhere, but it's been in development for so long that I must have just forgotten about it. Anyway, I was having a chat with one of my clients when we got into the discussion of how many scenes should be in a chapter. It turns out that the term "scene" isn't as self-evident as I thought it was. What if people were confused by my usage of the term "act" in my previous Workshops? Seems to me like I should go

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All of us are embedded with ideas and concepts we've picked up from our culture. These ideas appear in our stories so easily that oftentimes we don't realize that there could be any other way to tell it. I'd like to take this moment to look at these assumptions and illuminate some alternate possibilities. (Think of this as a prototype Formula Breakers.) For starters, let's check out:

The Call to Action

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I'd like you to take a moment and look at a list of all of your characters. Beside each character's name, write either "Good Guy" or "Bad Guy." Now, here's the question: was that task easy for you, or was it difficult? In lots of media, this won't pose much of a challenge; every character is either thoroughly aligned with the heroes or unrepentantly evil. Perhaps your story fell down those same lines; let me assure you that this is perfectly fine. But perhaps you might like to take a moment and

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All fiction is, at its core, a morality play. By which I mean, every story is meant to convince the reader of the goodness of some method of thinking and the badness of some other one. Children's TV is much more overt about it, of course, but in the end, everything does this to some greater or lesser extent. This is that central inequity I'm always talking about. You write the story with two different, conflicting approaches in mind, then you prove through your story which one will make your

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Seriously, what the heck does that even mean? "Show, don't tell," I mean. You're writing as best as you can, but then some jerk editor like me writes, "Show, don't tell here" on your work like it's a gift from the gods, drops the mic, and walks away. And you're left staring at your story wondering what you did wrong. Truth be told, it, like all writing advice, is very complicated and not always correct. But I'll try my best to help you look behind the curtain and understand what exactly "show,

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As fans of this particular series, we are, in a sense, extremely lucky. Something like 90% of the characters are female in persuasion*; not only that, but we get a wide variety of archetypes and expressions of that femininity. Many shows aren't so lucky. If you're lucky, you get one, maybe two, and they're usually generic girl characters, a token effort to make the story more inclusive. The truth is, the writing world is still trying to figure out who these strange creatures we call "women"

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Well, well, well. It's certainly been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry it's been so long. I've been meaning to get back on the saddle, but you know how it is. Always some easy distraction close at hand. Well, this year, no more! (Ignore the last time I said that then didn't update for six months.) I'm going to pump out regular Workshops and make the most of it! Today, I thought I'd cover a topic that recently came to my attention: comic relief. What is it, and how do we use it in stories? That's

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No, that's not the name of my new law firm. It's three different concepts to help you make every part of your story interesting.

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Hey, all! Time for another fun little lesson. This time, we're gonna talk about writing backstory and how much you need to set up beforehand. Let's begin.

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Hey, a double feature! How 'bout that? Let's go back to my roots and talk a little bit about verb tenses and points of view. Basically, when you start writing your story, you choose one of two tenses, past or present, and one of four points of view, first-person, second-person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient. What do all those mean? Let's dig in and find out.

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AlicornPriest is a great friend of mine and has helped me a lot on many of my projects. I feel the quality of my writings are almost 100x greater than they were before he looked at them. I ain't exaggerating. I really feel he's helped me grow as a writer - and he wants to help you, too.

Check this out - AlicornPriest's Writer's Workshop Compendium

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For today's lesson, we'll be talking about two fancy-pants Latin terms that define ways to open a story: ab ovo and in medias res. One of those you've probably heard of, the other... probably not. XD On the other hand, for how famous in medias res is, I have a feeling people have some misconceptions about it. So let's dig in, and I'll try and clear the air.

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You know, it occurs to me. I've talked about conflict a lot on this blog: Equity and Inequity, Making Characters Matter, the Influence Character,

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Today, I'm gonna teach you about a famous storytelling model called "Freytag's Pyramid." And then I'm going to tell you why I don't like it and propose a completely different model instead!

So to start with, what is Freytag's pyramid? Well, it looks like this:

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"Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." ~Benjamin Franklin

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Have you ever heard this term before: "establishing moment?" Or perhaps, "take time to establish your character?" How about the phrases "Save the Cat" and "Kick the Dog?" Well, whatever the case, let me talk a bit about what exactly those terms mean and what they're trying to do. This one's... gonna be tough, actually, because while I think establishing your character is important, I also find it annoying? You'll see what I mean.

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I. love. technobabble. But I recognize as well as anypony else that you've got to be careful with it. When done properly, it creates a sense of distortion, unease, and "behind the curve"-ness. But bobbled, or worse, done to cheat, and it just seems lazy, contrived, or pointless. But to ease us into this talk, let's cover the audience surrogate a bit.

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The idea for this Writer's Workshop came to me on accident. I was answering a question about characterization (using my three-Aspect method, naturally), when I stumbled onto a characterization staple that I've essentially overlooked. It's also a common term that you may not really understand: "chemistry." Who better to talk about character chemistry than the writer with a major in chemistry? (It's true. Double major. Tell your friends.) So let's explore the chemistry of character interaction

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What an oddly appropriate topic for a post that's two weeks late. I'm sure literally every writer has been here at one point or another. Whether you've planned the entire story out or just write scene to scene, you've gotten to a point where you have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B. I mentioned once that, as soon as I could get Twilight and Jade on a train in "A Call to Vespers," I could write the next section. Now, oddly enough, in "Mother and Child" I'm having trouble getting

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Hey, everyone! 'Sbeen a while, huh? Here's something to talk about. When you write a story, you pick a Main Character to be the emotional focus of the story. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. But here's something else to think about: what makes the Main Character important to the story is that they are the only one with the power to reach the Goal. Makes sense, right? Even if they're not the one actively reaching for the Goal, it's their presence that makes it work out in the end. Let's

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