21 Fast Hacks to Fuel Your Story With Suspense

The Writer's Digest has a great guest article from Elizabeth Sims called 21 Hacks to Fuel Your Story Suspense. This is a great collection and terrific resource to turn to.

Plot the Story in One Shot

This is a nice visual aid that encapsulates the beats of story, showing the arc of the plot. This can help keep you on course.

(Found on the blog Write Learn Create Connect )

Boiling Story Down to the Bare Bones

I saw this breakdown recently in giving guidance for how to put a logline together. Then as I looked at this, it really made me feel like this is a good guide for help to pull a story together and ask the right questions up front. It isn't too big of a checklist. It is compact to the point and gets you thinking in the right direction.


WHO
Who is it about?
(two or three words that describe main character in a way that is relevant to this story.)
Something descriptive of who main character is, in the context of this story. For example: "Young Woman" is far too generic.

GOAL
What is the goal?
(something SPECIFIC that we can identify and understand)
For example: Something more specific, then just "seeking a better life". Nearly everyone seeks (or at least wants) a better life.
What does the main character spend the majority of the movie doing?

PROBLEM
What stands in his way?
(something SPECIFIC that we can identify and understand)
What actively prevents the main character from attaining the goal?

STAKES
What happens if he fails?
(something SPECIFIC that we can identify and understand)

8 Insights taken from Michael Arndt for Setting a Story into Motion

I saw the post on John August's site, Michael Arndt on setting a story in motion, and was inspired by the short video that John shared where Toy Story 3's screenwriter Michael Arndt explores how to get a story started.

Finding Story Goals

In setting out the plot, we need to think about the main character.
What does the character want? What is the character's goal, the long term goal?
The character is striving toward something. It should be a measurable goal, achievable goal, though difficult.
The character's goal is something that the character is passionate about.

So I started banging my head trying to find the story goal that I would use. It is hard to get it out. Then I started looking at these lists to pick one.

• How to Create a Plot Outline in Eight Easy Steps
• The Story Goal: Your Key To Creating A Solid Plot Structure  
• Plot Goals Seeing Is Believing

Story Goals vs Plot Goals: There's a difference between story goals and plot goals. Story goals are the larger thematic goals that usually describe the character growth or the idea behind the tale. They're more conceptual, and work as a guide in determining the types of plot goals your protagonist will encounter. Plot goals are the physical things your protagonist does to achieve those more lofty story goals.
Story goal: To find love again after a bad breakup. (this is what the story is about)
Plot goal: To go to the museum and talk to cute guys. (this is one thing the protagonist does during the story)

From Goal - Conflict - Stakes. Why You Need All Three 

 

Do you have more ways to find a story goal?

Hero's Journey: Beat by Beat

Here is the underlyng structure to most narrative.

1. Hero knows what he/she wants but not what he/she needs
2. Embarrassing incident that brings a dangerous opportunity
3. Hero commits and makes progress by doing it the easy way
4. The easy way leads to a big disaster and loss of safety
5. The hero tries the hard way, dealing with real consequences
6. The hero faces a spiritual crisis as a result of those consequences
7. The strengthened hero deals with the problem once and for all.

This is described in full by Matt Bird over at Cockeyed Caravan in the Hero Project.

Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory”

The Iceberg Theory from kbmorris

Ernest Hemingway from handat

About Plot Points

Great article over at Script Shadow on plot points

• The emergence of a goal (Indiana must go find the Ark).
• A shocking twist (Cole tells Malcom he can “see dead people”).
• An upping of the stakes (they realize in Inception that if they die in the dream, they could be stuck in it forever).
• A mystery is presented (Why is there a naked Chinese man in their trunk in The Hangover?)
• A key character is introduced (Sgt Powell – the cop – shows up to help McClane in Die Hard).
• A key character is killed (spoiler – Schultz is killed in Django Unchained).
• An unplanned interruption of the hero’s life (Neo gets an urgent phone call from Morpheus at work).
• The emergence of a threat (after the plane crash, the wolves start stalking our characters in The Grey).

Full article