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Monday, April 30, 2012

Parts of a Story

For once, I'll get to the meat right off and leave my personal exposition until the end. :)

Dave Farland recited to us the nine parts of a story, in order. While at first this might seem pretty obvious, it's interesting to actually map out a plot chart using these. I've never physically drawn a plot chart for any of my books, but doing so might show me areas of weakness. Something I should do this week!

Photo Credit
Parts of a Story:

1. Setting
2. Character
3. Conflict
4. Theme
5. Inciting incident
6. First try/fail
7. Second try/fail
8. Climax
9. Resolution

Extra notes:

  • Start with what the story is about. (Think of Card's MICE: Milieu, Idea, Character, Events)
  • An interesting trick to use with the climax is a reversal: making it look like the good guy has one, but the villain turns the table.


~

In other news, I found out this weekend that an old college roommate of mine (one of the ones I liked!) lives in Moscow! I had no idea she and her husband had moved up there. So, not only will I actually have a friend when I move, but she generously offered to house Husband and I when we go up next week to look for apartments. Hello, I am making her the BIGGEST CAKE EVER.

3 comments:

  1. I like that diagram. It's fun to stare at and pretend everything after the climax is a slide to the finish.

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  2. That's awesome! It really helped that we had friends (though I didn't know them before, only Shinsuke did) in Columbus when we were moving. We found out we didn't want to live in the apartments we had been thinking about so we stayed with them until we found a decent apartment and were able to move.

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  3. Ooh! I love this. I think I need to do this too! I definitely need to bookmark this post so I don't lose it! lol.
    And your friend sounds awesome! Have fun on the hunt for apartments!

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