Welcome!
Fiction writing starts with our ability to create a story.
If you need help, you're in the right place to explore posts and topics about storytelling on Jami's blog, including story planning, story structure, and beat sheets.
(And don't miss the pages exploring the topics of Writing Craft, Career & Publishing, and Process & Miscellaneous posts.)
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Highlighted Posts within Storytelling Topics
Brainstorming, Planning, or Plotting the Elements of Our Story
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Posts about Story Planning
The Planning Your Story category of Jami's blog is filled with story planning tips and advice to give your story a strong start.
Sample topics:
* improving our storytelling skills
* making our stories more meaningful
* techniques for those who write by the seat of their pants
* deciding on story ideas, etc.
Below, check out the category's featured posts, as well as some of its latest posts.
For more posts on this topic, click the button at the bottom of this section to explore the whole category.
Featured Post
Escape Generic Storytelling by Asking “Why?”
The most important question we can ask to get in touch with every aspect of our story is “why”—even helping us escape generic or cliché storytelling.
Featured Post
What Does “Plot Reveals Character” Mean?
We might have heard that the purpose of the plot is to reveal character. What does that mean and how can understanding it help our storytelling?
Featured Post
Storytelling: Taking Readers on a Journey
When faced with the many decisions of writing our story, the best choice is whatever tells the story we want to tell, but what does that mean? Let’s take a look at what storytelling really is and how we can improve our skills.
Featured Post
Character Arc Development: Is There a Best Approach?
There are almost an infinite number of ways we can develop our story. As long as we end up with a finished book, our process works. And just like the variety found in the overall writing processes we might use, we have many options for how to come up with our protagonist’s arc as well.
Featured Post
Plotting Tip: One Simple Step to Ensure Our Story Works
Either plot events affect the character and the story, or they don’t. If we understand the difference, we can learn what to look out for and know how to fix any problems.
Posts about Story Structure
The Story Structure tag of Jami's blog is filled with story structure tips and advice to ensure all the elements of our story work together.
Sample topics:
* building a story
* exploring the major and minor beats of a story
* developing story beats into a cohesive story thread, etc.
Below, check out the tag's featured posts, as well as some of its latest posts.
For more posts on this topic, click the button at the bottom of this section to explore the whole tag, and find more posts about each of a story's turning points and scenes — from prologues, story openings, and bridging conflict to black moments, resolutions, and epilogues.
Featured Post
What’s the Difference Between an Inciting Incident and a First Plot Point?
To get from our opening pages to the rest of our story, can an Inciting Incident story beat help us? How is that beat different from the First Plot Point?
Featured Post
What Should Our Story’s Climax Include?
It’s tricky to tie up all the threads in our story’s Climax and even harder to give guidelines for how to write it, but let’s try to identify some story aspects we might want to include.
Featured Post
Story Structure: What’s the Purpose…for Readers?
Ever wonder how many writing “rules” have a reason beyond “because I said so”? Story structure exists not just because it makes our story stronger, but also because the story beats help communicate with readers–and understanding how can help us write and revise our story.
Featured Post
Why Story Structure Matters
Story structure isn’t just about the “rules” of story beats. It lies at the core of our ability to tell a story. Let’s take a look at what that means.
Featured Post
How to Avoid a Sagging Middle in Our Stories
The middle act of our story isn’t about delaying until the “good stuff.” Instead, it should set up obstacles to make the final act more satisfying.
Posts about Beat Sheets
The Beat Sheet tag of Jami's blog is filled with beat sheet tips and advice about how to use these important tools for ensuring our story has the necessary turning points.
Sample topics:
* what is a beat sheet
* how to use Excel with beat sheets
* how to place story events on beat sheets, etc.
Below, check out the tag's featured posts, as well as some of its latest posts.
For more posts on this topic, click the button at the bottom of this section to explore the whole tag, and find more posts like how we can use beat sheets with Scrivener.
Featured Post
Developing Our Story: From Beat Sheet to Scene List
My regular readers know that I’m a pantser, but I’m naturally a planner/plotter in the rest of my life. So when a reader asked me how to build a scene list from a beat sheet, I didn’t shudder and scream in horror. Instead for my plotter-loving friends and readers, I figured I’d put together a real answer.
Featured Post
Ask Jami: Can We Use Beat Sheets with Multiple POVs?
Stories with multiple major characters—with their own point-of-view (POV) scenes—can make story structure complicated. Do we have to make beat sheets for each character? As a romance author, I write with multiple POVs all the time, so let’s see if we can figure out how to make beat sheets work in those situations.
Featured Post
Using Examples to Learn Beat Sheets
One technique for drafting or editing our stories into shape is using beat sheets, but it can be tricky to understand how to use them. Here’s a round-up beat sheet and story structure resources that might help us understand beat sheets.
Featured Post
How to Place Turning Points on a Beat Sheet
Is a Catalyst the same thing as an Inciting Incident? (Answer: Yes.) How do I know? It’s not because there’s a secret cheat sheet with translations for every beat sheet term. *smile* If we know the functions beats fulfill in a story, we’ll always know where a story event belongs on a beat sheet.
Featured Post
NaNo Wrap-Up: Beat Sheets 101
Not familiar with beat sheets or spreadsheet programs? Learn what the different columns and rows mean and how we can update the details for our unique story.
Posts about Character Arcs
The Strong Characters tag of Jami's blog is filled with character writing tips and advice to ensure readers want to follow our characters' journeys.
Sample topics:
* developing a character arc
* strengthening protagonists and villains
* how to layer character details and make them unique, etc.
Below, check out the tag's featured posts, as well as some of its latest posts.
For more posts on this topic, click the button at the bottom of this section to explore the whole tag, and find more posts like how to build a theme through a character's arc.
Featured Post
How Can We Make Our Protagonist More Proactive?
Why is it important for characters to be active or proactive rather than reactive or passive? How can we fix a passive protagonist?
Featured Post
Strengthening Stakes: It’s Not about Going Big
A story’s stakes are one element that keeps readers turning pages because they want to see if our characters succeed. At first glance, we might think bigger stakes are better for sucking in readers, but not every story lends themselves to huge stakes. Are “quieter” stories doomed to fail the “page-turner” test?
Featured Post
Building a Character Arc: Start at the End
As I mentioned with the worksheet I shared last week, it’s often easier to work backward when we’re framing our story. At the very least, knowing the ending often makes it easier to see our character’s arc.
Featured Post
How Can We Show a Character’s Internal Journey?
I’m a big fan of Michael Hauge’s approach to characters. His insights helped me figure out how to match a character’s internal journey to the external plot. This is often tricky, though, so let’s go deeper into how characters change.
Featured Post
Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Combining Emotional Journeys and External Plots
Michael’s Six Stage Plot Structure describes a character’s inner journey in relation to external plot events. Over the course of six stages and five turning points, a character will stop living in fear and instead live courageously.
Additional Storytelling Resources
Other Favorites in Storytelling Topics
Jami's blog has tons of posts about storytelling, so she couldn't limit herself to just the Featured Posts in the above sections. Here are a few more favorite posts on the topics of storytelling, story planning, and story structure that she couldn't resist highlighting.
Other Helpful Tags in Storytelling Topics
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