It hit me the most clearly during a rewatch of Iron Man, and since I did a post on Captain America last week, I decided to do an Iron Man post today. And maybe next week I'll do Thor. Because it's Marvel and because I can.
Recently I've been discovering an element in stories--and particularly movies--that I feel ramps up both the tension and the stakes of the story, and that swings the hero's character arc forward several degrees. It's a small element--it's usually just a few sentences in the story or a short shot in the movie--but it's powerful.
It hit me the most clearly during a rewatch of Iron Man, and since I did a post on Captain America last week, I decided to do an Iron Man post today. And maybe next week I'll do Thor. Because it's Marvel and because I can.
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The midpoint of a story is often a turning point. While you may not even be aware of what your story's midpoint is, or even that it should be important (I wasn't for much of my writing career), don't decide it's unnecessary fluff and skip on it. There are many purposes of a midpoint but one of the top ones is that it lets your readers know that you, the author, know where this story is going and that you're working hard to get it there--not simply meandering around and having fun in your newly-created story-world. The midpoint is a moment for refocusing the events of the story.
"Why do I want to create problems? I have enough problems in my life!"
Don't worry, these are problems for your character to face, not you. Every story starts with a character with a problem--he needs a job, he's afraid of the dark, his world is in peril--that sort of thing. The subsequent events of the story are usually caused by the character's efforts to fix said problem (and yes, quite often those efforts only make the problem worse). But it's not enough to give your character a problem and call it a day. Your character needs a problem that will resonate with readers--that will cause everyone who reads the story to really care whether or not the problem gets solved.
Recently Aimee @ To the Barricade! blogged about classic books that aren't boring. She covered a lot of awesome books and I enjoyed her post so much that I decided to do one as well and add a few books to the "classic but not boring" list.
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AuthorA. M. Potter Some other great blogs...
Chasing Daisies Go Teen Writers Helping Writers Become Authors To the Barricade! Life of Lily Archives
November 2017
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