Read the Science Fiction Thriller

From the founder of Storymind

Man Made follows a mysterious force as it sweeps around the globe erasing anything man made - from buildings, vehicles, and technology to medicines, clothing, and dental work.

Governments stagger under the panic, religions are at a loss for an explanation, scientists strive for any means to stop or divert the phenomenon, and the world’s population from families to individuals struggle to prepare for The Event, which will drive humanity back beyond the stone age.

The Event is coming.

Are you prepared?

Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips

Free Writing Resources

Introduction

Over the last twenty-five years, I’ve written thousands of articles on story structure and storytelling.  Here, I’ve gathered together a few of the best on the topic of storytelling.  I hope you find them illuminating in concept and practical in application.

Table Of Contents

Trick 1 - Building Size (Changing Scope)

Trick 2 - Red Herrings (Changing Importance)

Trick 3 - Meaning Reversals (Shifting Context to Change Meaning)

Trick 4 - Message Reversals (Shifting Context to Change Message)

Trick 5 - Building Importance (Changing Impact)

Trick 6  Non-Causality (Out of Context Experiences)

Trick 7 - Out of Sequence Experiences (Changing Temporal Relationships)

Trick 8 - Flashbacks and Flash Forwards

Trick 9 - Designing Your Plot – Multi Appreciation Moments

Trick 10 - Revealing Your Goal

Trick 11 - Genre: Revealing Your Story’s Personality

Trick 12 - Character Dismissals

Trick 13 - Introducing Characters in Act One

Trick 14 - The Big Picture

Trick 15 - The Collective Goal

Trick 16 - Characters’ Personal Goals

Trick 17 - Don’t Forget the Requirements!

Trick 18 - Creating Extra Tension with Consequences

Trick 19 - Success or Failure?

Trick 20 - Writing from a Character’s Point of View

Trick 21 - Fire Your Protagonist

Storytelling Tricks For Novelists

Trick 22 - Novels Aren’t Stories

Trick 23 - Get Into Your Characters’ Heads

Trick 24 - Keep A Daily Log Of Tidbits

Trick 25 - Don’t Hold Back

Storytelling Tricks For Screenwriters

Trick 26 - Screenwriting 101

Trick 27 - Teaser

Trick 28 - Remember your audience

Trick 29 - Don’t be overly literary in your scene description

Trick 30 - Don’t get stuck in a genre trap

Trick 31 - Use “Tracking Dialog”

Trick 32 - Find interesting and believable ways to drop exposition

Trick 33 - Don’t preach

Trick 34 - Give your Main Character a personal issue as well as a goal to accomplish

Trick 35 - Characters don’t have to change to grow

Trick 36 - There are many kinds of ending

Trick 37 - Use index cards to work out the scenes in your script

Trick 38 - Break up long monologs among several characters

Trick 39 - Use “Red Herrings”

Trick 40 - Don’t say it if you can show it

Trick 41 - Drop exposition through arguments

Storytelling Tricks for Multi-Story Ensemble Series and Soap Operas

Trick 42 - Subplots

Trick 43 - Relationships of Subplots to Plot

Trick 44 - Multi-Story Formats

Trick 45 - Stretching Time

A Grab Bag of Tricks for All Media

Trick 46 - The Rule of Threes

Trick 47 - Avoiding the Genre Trap

Trick 48 - Genre – Act by Act

Trick 49 - Genre: Revealing Your Story’s Personality

Trick 50 - Characters – The Attributes of Age

By Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator of StoryWeaver

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