Skip to content

plot construction

3 Steps To Writing A Complex Structure In Your Story

Are you writing a complex structure? As veteran Bangers know, I’m a huge fan of  a complex structure in both novels and screenplays … So when creator of Atomic Blonde Antony Johnston got in contact offering a guest post about writing his own complex structure, I bit his hand off! So if you’re struggling with your own complex structure, check out Antony’s tips and insights. Enjoy and over to you, Antony … Books are like magic tricks   Books require sleight of hand, misdirection, and a grand reveal. But the truth behind any trick is often quite dull … The famous… Read More »3 Steps To Writing A Complex Structure In Your Story

Share this:

10 Important DON’Ts You Must Think About When Writing Your Story

Important DON’Ts Storytelling is much harder than it looks, so I have composed a list of DON’Ts to think about when writing your story. If you find this post useful, please pass it on to your writer friends and followers. Ready? Let’s go … 1) DON’T: Start Too Early If you begin too early in your story, you end up with a ‘top-heavy’ draft. This is no good, because modern readers and viewers do NOT want to wait for your story to start. But how do we avoid starting too early? Well, think about beginning with some kind of EVENT… Read More »10 Important DON’Ts You Must Think About When Writing Your Story

Share this:

Finding Your Emotional Truth: 3 Tips from the Trenches

How To Write With Emotional Truth In the household I grew up in, showing emotions was a weakness. Naturally, my first reaction when learning that I need to “write with emotional truth” was to run for the hills. When I calmed down and came back, I started a long and exhausting process of figuring out what my emotional truth is. It took me a long time to figure out how to start the process. So, here are a few things that helped me get going. TIP 1) Explore and Excavate Emotions The first step is to figure out how you… Read More »Finding Your Emotional Truth: 3 Tips from the Trenches

Share this:

3 Steps To Writing, Editing & Submitting Your Novel

Writing, Editing AND Submitting (Or Self-Publishing!) Your Novel  B2W is best known for its screenwriting advice, but being a novelist and author myself, I also love to write and read about the art of novel writing, too. So, with lots of you Bang2writers out there resolving to write a novel then, here’s my top tips on getting yours written, edited AND out there! Enjoy … 1) Writing Your Novel DYK? Writing a novel is HARD! Le duh. The good news is, there’s a plethora of help online to get us through the process. Here’s some popular B2W articles with the… Read More »3 Steps To Writing, Editing & Submitting Your Novel

Share this:

Top 5 Solutions When You’re Stuck on Your Novel

How To Get Unstuck On Your Novel Are you stuck on your novel? Have you tried several different approaches, only to end up stuck again? I experienced this with my most recent novel, The Beached Ones. It took me years to get past that stuck place. Talk about frustrating! I thought I was going to have to give up on the story. You may be feeling the same way. If so, I’m here to tell you: I got through that stuck place and went on to win a publishing contract for the book. You can too. When You’re Stuck on Your… Read More »Top 5 Solutions When You’re Stuck on Your Novel

Share this:

5 Examples of Story Structure You Should Know About

All About Story Structure Whether you’re writing a novel or screenplay, story structure matters. Building a story structure is like crafting a backbone for your narrative. It helps the audience understand the timeline and meaning of each event, keeping them engaged until the very end. All too often writers focus solely on describing their characters rather than the story’s overall architecture. This has a knock-on effect and an under-developed story structure can literally ruin your characterisation. The truth is that plot building is just as important, if not more, than the protagonist’s quirks and conflicts. So you’ll need to become… Read More »5 Examples of Story Structure You Should Know About

Share this:

The Birthday Party: A Genius Analogy To Help Writers Introduce Their Stories

Feeling Awkward We’ve all been to a party where we don’t know anyone. We stand in the corner, feeling lost. Or where we are introduced to 27 people in 3 minutes and know we will never EVER remember who any of them are. It’s a horrible feeling, isn’t it … … So why would you do that to your own readers? Why??? The Birthday Party Analogy I have an analogy I use when thinking about how to start a script. I like to imagine that my audience/reader is someone I have invited to the birthday party of a friend of… Read More »The Birthday Party: A Genius Analogy To Help Writers Introduce Their Stories

Share this:

Top 5 Tips For Writing A Compelling Antihero

All About The Antihero In recent years, audiences and readers have really got behind the antihero character. I love to write antiheroes in my own work, plus I love to watch them on television and in movies. I also read them in novels too. In short, I am OBSESSED with them just like everyone else! For a long time, protagonists were super-good and antagonists were super-bad. This worked at the time because it’s what audiences wanted … BUT it raised a lot of issues, too. Because of the lack of general diversity, antagonists were often villains that were coded as… Read More »Top 5 Tips For Writing A Compelling Antihero

Share this:

5 Things I Learned From Screenwriter Stephen Beresford (PRIDE)

Talking To Stephen Beresford Stephen Beresford is an actor and screenwriter, who wrote the award-winning British lgbtq+ movie Pride. I had the pleasure of talking with him about getting the film made, his writing process, and any tips he had. Here’s what I learned. 1) There’s value in truth While the UK film industry is only roughly half of its American counterpart ($6.4bn compared to $11.4bn), there’s always something quite special when a new British film comes out, perhaps because the industry is so incredibly choosy. According to Stephen, the UK film industry is very conservative, but having something based… Read More »5 Things I Learned From Screenwriter Stephen Beresford (PRIDE)

Share this:

How HOME ALONE Nails Set Up / Pay Off And How You Can Too

All About Home Alone (1990) The original Home Alone is a stone-cold classic. I was a child when it first came out and as the member of a gigantic, dysfunctional family myself I loved it right from the off. It launched Macaulay Culkin’s career as probably the biggest child star in the world back then. Though his career didn’t have the kind of longevity most of us expected, Kieran Culkin (Fuller McCallister) has proved his acting chops ever since. Combining cartoon-like Tom & Jerry style violence with a Christmas story about a kid fighting off burglars seems an unlikely pairing.… Read More »How HOME ALONE Nails Set Up / Pay Off And How You Can Too

Share this:

Why Novelists Should Write Outlines Just Like Screenwriters

Outlines: For Or Against?  It seems every writer has an opinion on outlines! But often writers will fall into two camps … Those who do write outlines and those who don’t. Generally speaking, novelists who do outline tend to advocate the practice as the ‘common sense’ approach. Their outlines may be super-detailed or broad strokes.  The uber-organised authors may even use spreadsheets to keep track of every minute detail in their book … or they may use bullet points, notes to self or similar instead. In contrast, novelists who don’t outline are often very loud online. Such writers like Stephen… Read More »Why Novelists Should Write Outlines Just Like Screenwriters

Share this:

That’s How It Works: Bob Saenz Offers His Top 8 Screenwriting Tips

All About Bob Bob Saenz is an actor and writer, known for Extracurricular Activities (2019), The Right Girl (2015) and Help For The Holidays (2012). He’s also known for being a legend in online screenwriting groups. After offering his own brand of ‘smack talk’ for new and seasoned writers online, he wrote a fantastic book: That’s Not The Way It Works: A No Nonsense Look At The Craft & Business of Screenwriting. I recommend it to Bang2writers all the time! I was thrilled to jump on a Zoom call with Bob and pump his delicious brain for his top writing… Read More »That’s How It Works: Bob Saenz Offers His Top 8 Screenwriting Tips

Share this: