Tag: plot
-
Wheel of Time: A Case Study in Series Pacing
A few weeks ago, I delved into the pacing of a rather interesting novel, A Deadly Education. But that is one novel (admittedly, the first of a series), and it led me to ponder: compared to individual novels, what does the pacing of an entire series look like? And, with those thrilling sneak-peek images for…
-
A Deadly Education: A Case Study in Pacing
It is always pleasant to be taken by surprise with a novel, and, a few cultural missteps notwithstanding, A Deadly Education provided just that. (For the concerned reader, I do plan on delving into this in my book review, but this post is already long enough as it is.) The author, Naomi Novik, uses world-building…
-
Let’s Talk Tropes: Happily Ever Afters
I’m not sure when happy endings fell out of fashion, but I do know that present-day narratives generally strive for a distorted concept of realism where the grittier and darker it is, the more “realistic” it is. At the very least, this is the case for fantasy novels, so much so that the concept of…
-
Let’s Talk Tropes: Love Triangles
To the dismay of many young adult readers, the number of love triangle plot-lines exploded, in thanks, no doubt, to the success of the Twilight series. Fortunately, it did not become a staple of the fantasy genre, but a reader browsing the shelves still wouldn’t be surprised to find that a book’s synopsis hinted at…
-
Story-Beat Study: The Mysterious Benedict Society
As my second middle-grade reread challenge, a book I haven’t read in years, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into with this book. It’s not fantasy. An evil, egotistical genius makes a machine that can be broadcast through the television that brainwashes the general population to think there is a big Emergency from…
-
Let’s Talk Tropes: Instalove
Look, in a single book, there’s only so much time that two character has to fall in love with each other. Books take place in a single time-frame, and often, it’s one that spans days, weeks, or maybe months. Rarely years. Even Wheel of Time, a massive fourteen-book series, only takes place over the course…
-
Let’s Talk Tropes: The Quest
Our last tropes discussion talked about Chosen Ones–ironically, one of the biggest character tropes in the fantasy genre. Today, I decided to focus on one of the best-known plot tropes of the genre: the quest. A quest is a trip that one or more characters–quite often, a group–embarks on in order to accomplish some important…
-
Story-Beat Study: I’m Not Dying With You Tonight by Kimberly Jones & Gilly Segal
A few nights ago, I finished reading I’m Not Dying With You Tonight. It’s the first realistic-fiction novel I’ve read since graduating college, and one of the first of which I’ve read by choice in a very long time. You guys know me. I’m a fantasy nerd. But if you only study fantasy to write…
-
A Web of Stories
In previous blog posts, I’ve discussed how you can use characters to generate plot. Naturally, you can also use known plot points to determine essential character traits that will need to be incorporated. If you know there will be a scene where your character will have to decide to trust someone, then, until that point,…
Katie Bachelder 