Tag Archives: plots

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?

HOW TO KEEP YOUR MOMENTUM

FREE DIGITAL PHOTOS

What do we do! What’s next? Where do we go from here? Pete has just decided to dial 911. The reader is relieved. At least help is on the way. I mean, we have no idea what Pete’s father is doing. The “sequel” has been written.

Now we write another scene. Remember the three elements that we need? We need the goal, the conflict, and the disaster. And the key here is the keep the tension mounting. There are a lot of avenues that we could take, but let’s go with one of the obvious ones.

Here’s the goal. Continue reading →

WRITING PITFALLS

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HOW TO DETERMINE THE AMOUNT OF DESCRIPTION YOU NEED

One of the common misconceptions about writing is that you have to be a good writer. False. You don’t have to be good at writing, you just have to be good at planning and story-telling.

People have a tendency to forgive shaky writing, bad similes, and grammatical errors if the story is worthy of a read. Now if you have all of these bad elements and a terrible story, Continue reading →

FILLING THOSE HOLES

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THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION

Let’s resettle back onto the discussion of plot holes. The question does arise of how can these holes be filled? We have discussed about the inconsistencies themselves, but it’s another thing to actually have to do something about it. And let’s face it. Simply saying, “Just fix it,” ain’t gonna’ help.
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FREESTYLE FRIDAY

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Writing With Pictures

On Fridays, I would like to take an instruction break and do some style training per my blogrollees at Fresh Ink. This is where we take a picture and describe it. Please feel free to join in with insights. Either add to the story or start your own. Either way, let’s see that free style writing flow!

Our first test will be the image at the top of my page. Here it is again for the sake of format:

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PL T HOLES: Part 2

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Where’s That Blasted ‘O’??

Ok. So we’ve found a plot hole. How do we cover it? And not just cover it. But how can we pack the dirt so tight, that no one even notices that there is something buried alive down there? We start with this. Plot holes want to live! They are the Frankensteins of our day.

And why do they want to live? It’s because if we keep them, then we don’t have to work hard to fix them, and we use our God-like powers to force our helpless little protag along the way.

I stopped watching the Underworld series within the first twenty minutes. Why? Besides the fact that it was a bad movie, I could not get passed the fact that the protag, Selene, is being chased by werewolf down a hallway, and what does she do? Does she jump out the window? No. Of course not. That’s too easy. She uses her unlimited ammo in her two handguns and blasts a circle around her feet so that she can drop through the floor of the apartment building. Sigh…. Continue reading →

PLOT H LES: Part 1

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I THINK I LEFT OUT AN ‘O’

Plot holes unfinished when not. What did you just say?? Oh, I’m sorry. Plot holes are like unfinished sentences when they are not filled in. They are like glaring, bright lights from the oncoming cars along a dark, winding country road. You can’t see where you are going, and it’s hard to focus. In essence, plot holes take you off the road…err out of the story.

We can highlight a couple. Every piece of work is up for criticism, and I cringe at the thought that one day my work will be critiqued just as harshly. Nevertheless, we begin.

In Black Swan with Natalie Portman, there’s an enormous plot hole. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know the ending, skip down two paragraphs. In the end, Natalie Portman’s character dies from a self-inflicted stab wound. Before she dies, she dances the most amazing dance ever. But then she falls off the back of the stage and dies with the blood spilling out onto her dress. Continue reading →