The Troubled Soul Plot – The Manga Gold Standard?
There is no one shonen plot to rule them all, but there is a plot that has basically become a “gold standard” for shonen manga targeted at...
November 22, 2022
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How to Start an Isekai Story
Isekai, or “second world,” stories are a staple of light novels and webfiction for many reasons. They start with a natural hook that makes readers interested, and...
Do All Light Novels Share the Same Plot?
Last week, I did a series of posts trying to come up with a new definition of what a light novel is. And among the definitions translated...
How to Write a Good Story – The Essence of Story
On social media across the Internet, there is a single constant refrain- “How do I write a good story?” It comes from new writers eager to make...
June 23, 2017
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Why I Hate Football Plots
I hate Football Plots. I hate them with the passion of a thousand suns. What are Football Plots? Football Plots are when the whole story centers around...
Classic 12-Chapter Murder Mystery Formula
(Note: This has been floating around the internet for years, and I don’t know who first wrote it (if anyone does, let me know!) but it’s worth...
How to Write a Murderously Good Mystery
On her excellent writer’s blog, writer Karen Woodward has written and put together a fantastic collection of articles on writing mysteries that anyone wanting to move into...
Plotting Thread
As I discussed in Prepping Your Novel, there are a vast number of different ways you can go about plotting a story. Currently in the Writer’s Cafe...
Phasing, a Unique Story Plotting Technique
As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for innovative plotting techniques that might improve my output or help me put together a story faster. Recently, I’ve...
Writing Chinese Style, or how to Crank Out 50,001 Words in a Day.
Not everyone knows this, but Chinese and European chefs actually take a radically different approach to cooking. In the European style (which we naturally follow in North...