

Nuanced Thought and Binary Thought in Stories
In some Epics, one inhabits a binary world - good/bad, right/wrong, black/white etc. There are two ways out: the first way, the Old...

Learn what a story really is...
Learn: • what a story really is • what it is actually doing to and for you and other readers ​ • the magnetic power that attracts readers...


Subversion in Literature
One of the most popular and highly esteemed novels in English literature, Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, sold very poorly at first...


Signposts in Fiction
Have you ever read a book which, in the first few pages, fails to make it clear enough whose point of view in the story you should be...


Words, Words, Words
One of the primary channels between your shifting, ever-changing and elusive thought-world and the more fixed, slower-moving and fairly...

How Many Villains Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
Villains in fiction have a lot in common: of course they are generally destructive, but on close examination we find a bewildering array...

Creating an Outline
Here are five tips to creating an outline for your story: 1. Set out five to ten pages, each headed with chapter numbers. You can do this...

Learn what a story really is...
Learn: • what a story really is • what it is actually doing to and for you and other readers ​ • the magnetic power that attracts readers...

What Makes Great Stories Great
Best selling author James Patterson tells us that the most common mistake writers make is not creating an outline and assures students...


The Shadow Protagonist
In the pantheon of archetypal figures who appear and re-appear regularly in fiction of all kinds, there is another kind of antagonist....