Writing Life

New Tricks to a Better Story

I'm trying out a new story writing method. I use the "Golden Triangle" of James Scott Bell, and the 5 Point Plot by Rob Parnell. Those two methods work seamlessly together. The GT helps me dig a bit deeper into my characters. The 5 Point keeps me on track.

With my Fink the Mink short story, the GT opened up a whole new world to the characters I already thought I knew quite well. After all, I've been writing about them off and on for years. But suddenly, the characters took over their diary entries and I discovered new fears, new motivations, a good part of the story completely changed.

Another thing I've found really helpful came from Parnell - writing a three sentence story pitch before writing.

1. First sentence: What the story is about.
2. Next sentence begins with "When."
3. Last sentence begins with "Now."

I wrote the first one from Falloden's POV. It would have been an ok story, but not that interesting. I wrote the second one from Fink's. That proved to be an interesting story. That's the one we go with. :)

I'd never thought about looking through the eyes of my other characters. I simply go with the character that first popped into my head. But looking at the story through various POV's can open up a whole new world to the story. And, now I know a really fast trick I can do in about 5 minutes to do that. :)