The time has come to chase other dreams.
Our thanks to you, our readers, fans, followers, and especially commenters.
My thanks to Sarah Dodd, Leonard Chang, Sara St.Onge, and Jeff Renfroe for lending their brilliance.
Collected here, for you, are topics covering the “essentials of story” and more. Many of these also happen to be some of our most popular posts.
We hope these are helpful to you as you create and collaborate on your own stories.
Thank you for visiting. Enjoy!
diane j wright
founder & managing editor, THE STORY SPOT
STORY BASICS
- The Logline: Your New Best Friend
- Five Ways to Tame Your Logline
- Outlines, Treatments, & Pitches
- Drama! Dramatize. Dramatic.
- Plot vs. Story
- Ground Rules: Set Them Early
- Breaking the Rules: When. How. Why.
- Characters for an Epic Tale
- Special Guest: Michael Hauge on the Prologue
- Focus on the Protagonist
- Is Your Hero Sympathetic and What the Heck Does That Mean?
- Creating a Formidable Antagonist
- “More on Villians” on What It’s Like
- Throughline & 2nd Act Sag
- Special Guest: Author Blake Snyder on The Midpoint
- Endings Make the Best Beginnings
- Suspension of Disbelief
- Characters Everyone Loves to Hate
- Gestures Illustrated
- Creating Emotion. There IS a Better Way
CREATIVITY & THE PROCESS
- New Writers! Be Unafraid! 10 Tips for Diving In
- Children Are Brilliant. Weren’t You?
- Your First 10 Scripts
- Cory Doctorow’s Tips for Finishing Your Writing Projects
- Writer’s Block Busters
- Five Tips for a Killer Rewrite
- Breaking It Down: Improving Your Scripts
- Story Consulting 101
- Collaboration: Five Ways to Make It Work
- Five Ways to Hone Your Focus in the New Year
- Special Guest: Jim Cirile on Your Agent Relationship
THE BIZ
- How to Be a Script Reader and Give Great Coverage
- Back to Basics: The Query Letter
- Before You Send That Query
- Indie Scripts vs. Studio Scripts
- Story in Memoir
- Story Dwelling: The Emotional Future of Video Gaming
There’s more to explore. Start with our SPOT ON menu in the sidebar.
