The Nine Plots: Character vs. Setting
Not every villain has a face. In some stories, your hero’s greatest challenge is his surroundings. Jack London’s Call of the Wild is a classic example of the main character battling the elements. More recently, Twister is an excellent example of your character versus his or her surroundings. In case [...]
How to Start Your Story: A Great Beginning
Aside from the obvious, what is “the beginning” of your story? What does it do? What purpose does it serve? I like to think of the beginning as the introduction. It has a lot of responsibility. You need to introduce your setting, characters, and character goals/conflicts while capturing the reader’s [...]
The Nine Plots: Character vs. the Machine
Forget battling people – imagine that your antagonist is a machine. The tension is more than just your protagonist fighting with his computer or printer though. In this plot line, your character goes head-to-head with a thinking, planning machine. A great example of this plot is I, Robot with Will [...]
Author Interview: Kathryn Sue Moore
Hello, and welcome back for another author interview! This month I'm happy to interview a new member of the Great Lakes Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. Kathryn's debut novel released earlier this year, and she's hard at work on book two. Here's how she does it: Hi, and thanks [...]
The Nine Plots: Character vs. the Unknown
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before. There is no better set-up for Character vs. the Unknown than the mission [...]