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Defining Theme

Larry Brooks’s book, Story Engineering, offers six core competencies of a great story. I’ve covered the first two (concept and character). In my last post, I said my next post was going to be more about character. I’ve changed my mind. I’m skippin… Continue reading →

Fresh and Original Concept

I’ve begun another series, based on a book by Larry Brooks called Story Engineering. My last post began the discussion of Concept, the first of the six core competencies outlined in the book. Mr. Brooks has an entire chapter devoted to the criteri… Continue reading →

Defining “Concept”

I’ve begun another series, based on a book by Larry Brooks called Story Engineering. I’m not covering everything in the book, just the stuff I find interesting enough to pass along. In my last post, I offered the Six Core Competencies Mr. Brooks s… Continue reading →

Six Core Competencies

Larry Brooks at Storyfix.com ran a holiday special last December that I took advantage of, and I thought I’d share (over the course of the next umpteen posts) some of the details I learned from him and his book. I’ll talk more later about what I l… Continue reading →

Say That Again, Please

All of us do it. All of us have them. A favorite word or a pet phrase that gets repeated in our manuscript a little too often, and we’re not even aware of it. I’m not talking about ‘and’ or ‘the’ or ‘it.’ Usually it’s a descriptive word, one with … Continue reading →

Less is More

There’s no need to point it out to me, I’ve faltered on my weekly blog postings. You’ll hear no excuses from me. I just didn’t do them. But I’m here now, ready to get back on schedule. Randy Ingermanson sent out his monthly writing e-zine today, a… Continue reading →

Finding Your Theme

Randy Ingermanson’s book, Writing Fiction For Dummies, has an excellent chapter on Theme. My favorite part was the section of twenty examples. Seeing a theme statement in the book is much easier than trying to envision one myself. I offered some o… Continue reading →

Randy Ingermanson Knows Theme

I’m eight posts into my study on theme. I’ve grasped the concept of what theme is. I cannot, yet, identify theme easily in other’s works (or my own), but I understand the concept. I’ve studied writing books by Larry Brooks, James Scott Bell, and D… Continue reading →

Theme Through Symbol

I’m examining the chapter on Theme from Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. He starts the chapter with a definition of theme, then gives a quick overview of how to build theme into your story. Then he breaks off into a discussion on symbol… Continue reading →