The characters are in a crucible. A catalyst starts the action and a chain of cause and effect leads to complications which build through a situation of crisis to a climax (where the hero faces catastrophe, the cataclysm), during which the main character is shown to have changed.
That’s my attempt at summarising plot or story structure. I’m not sure why I did it, or if it has any value. Perhaps you would care to be the judge of that.
- Climax: (catastrophe… the cataclysm).
Just be gentle with me when it comes to the mathematics– because there are, of course, 8 major Cs here (10 if you also include catastrophe, the impending cataclysm). But that didn’t fit the pun for the headline.
I thought I would share this. Great piece in The New Yorker. It’s all about six word stories. There’s a book out at present. The article is a book review. It’s written in six word sentences:
Six words can tell a story. That’s a new book’s premise, anyway. “Not Quite What I Was Planning.” A compilation of teeny tiny memoirs. The forebear, it’s assumed, is Hemingway. (Legend: he wrote a miniature masterpiece. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Slightly sappy, but a decent sixer.)
It is well worth checking out. Please feel free to comment here. But stick to the style please. Six words only in comments too.
Whether your reader is in bed with you, engrossed in your novel, or hunched across the office desk looking over your website, you need to be considerate of their needs and desires. Here’s a few tips.
(This post is a response to the Cosmo headline challenge issue by Brian Clark at Copyblogger. That’s why it’s a bit over the top in places…. It’s all meant in good fun.)
1. Seduction at the start
Whatever you’re writing, be it a blog, novel or love letter, you need to tempt your reader in. Grab their attention and let them know there’s a good thing here, something hot, something they’re really going to get their teeth into.
2. Passion all the way
Write about things you care about. If you’re bored by the subject, it’ll come across.
3. Sensuality
Your writing needs to appeal to all the senses. Paint a picture they can see in their minds. Touch their feelings. Let them hear your words in their head, describe the scents and smells of the world you create.
4. Staying power
Great headlines and intro paragraphs are all well and good but you need to keep your reader hooked all the way to the end. No flagging.
5. Laughter
Use as much humour in your writing as you can, depending of course on the subject and the audience.
6. Excitement
You need to build excitement, and in longer forms of writing you need to pace it as well.
7. Sweet surrender
If you’re writing sales copy, you need to close the deal.
8. A well-toned middle
Cut the flab from the middle of your writing. So many novels, for example, start to stray after a powerful beginning.
9. A climax at the end
Whether you’re writing a novel or a sales letter, you need to build the excitement until it becomes unbearable and the reader is screaming for more. You need a fantastic ending. Now, if I could just think of one….
10. And a quick cuddle
Don’t forget, in all the excitement, to wrap up the loose ends. In a novel, the reader wants to know what happens to all the characters they have come to care about. And every sales letter needs a strong PS (or three). But don’t take too long about it. That just becomes an anti-climax.
