Gather 'round…
Act I is all about the Ordinary World. It is where we meet our Hero. Where they live - most of the time. Eventually our stories will rocket them into a Special World, but before we go there, we need to have a strong sense of what normal is for our Hero and our world.... Continue Reading →
First off, we need to understand the language Christopher Vogler utilizes. His is the mythic story structure model, and as such, it employs mythic vocabulary. The whole thing is a giant metaphor that we will, should we choose to follow his advice, recreate within our own pages, with our own hero, our own quest, and our... Continue Reading →
OK, I'm a bit behind schedule. Summer and all that. Let's get through the Hero's Journey a little faster. I'd like to finish it up before my next writers' group meeting, so it looks like roller-coaster ride ahead. Buckle up! First off, did you do your homework? You're not allowed to read on until you... Continue Reading →
So there we have it... after a brief Boundary Waters-induced hiatus... Larry Brooks' Story Engineering structure model in a nutshell. It was necessarily abbreviated, quite severely. But it gives us an idea of what he believes needs to happen in our novels. I hope that my notes help you a tiny bit in your quest... Continue Reading →
Finally... Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Part Four, the final ~25% of our story. And here we are. We've made it to the culmination of all our hard work. The end in in sight. Time to bring it all together into a satisfying sign-off. Our hero has come through a lot, and has earned the... Continue Reading →
Get ready... Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Second Plot Point, the turning point at the 75% mark of your story. Again, it is time for a change of context. This time were shifting into the resolution box of our story, and our hero is becoming the martyr, the selfless heroic champion of everything good and... Continue Reading →
Attaaaaaack! Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Part Three, the next ~25% of our story. Up until this point our hero has been rather un-hero-like. He's a great guy, and we all love him, but he hasn't done anything exceptionally heroic, at least not in regards to the story at hand. That is all about... Continue Reading →
Keepin' the wheels a-turnin'... Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Midpoint, the turning point in the... umm... middle. OK, we're halfway there! It's time for a revelation, for our hero, and our reader, to keep us plugging along. The midpoint serves up a new bit of information that changes the understanding of the reader, or of... Continue Reading →
Story Begins Here! Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Part Two, the next ~25% of our story. Our second box is our response box. This is where the story truly begins. We're past the point of no return and we must plunge on. We've introduced our world, our hero and some other characters, we've alluded... Continue Reading →
Time to get things rolling... Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): First Plot Point, the turning point at the 25% mark of your story. The First Plot Point, the moment we've been working up to. But what have we been working up to? Here, we have a context shift, we go from setup mode into response mode.... Continue Reading →
OK... Nitty-gritty here we come... Story Engineering Model (four-part story model): Part One, the first ~25% of our story. Part One, or box number one, is our setup box. Our story has yet to be launched in earnest, and before it can do so, our readers must enter into our world. Part One is where our... Continue Reading →
To begin, we’ll take a broad look at the Story Engineering model Larry Brooks puts forth. Four parts, brilliantly named (wait for it…) Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four (you may applaud now), will form the main chunks of our story framework, The Four-Part Story Structure (yes, I’ll wait…). Once we’re seated... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 