Creating an Immersive Mood in Your Story: Examples and TipsIf you're writing a book, screenplay, or short story, you want to create an immersive experience for your reader. You want to pull the audience into your scenes and deliver strong emotional payoffs. Mood is a powerful literary device than can help you do that. In this article, I tell you what a mood in storytelling is, provide examples, and offer tips. Want to write an awesome story? Download my FREE outlining guide. What is mood in writing?Mood in writing is the overall feeling of a scene. Exciting, lighthearted, and somber are examples of moods. A story can have multiple moods, as different scenes can evoke different emotional responses from the audience. The importance of mood in storytellingThe four key elements of a story are character, plot, theme, and emotional impact. Since mood is based on feeling, it's a great tool for enhancing the emotional impact of your story. Each scene should have a distinct mood that's tied into its central conflict. Is your main character running from a serial killer? Fear would be a natural mood for that scene. If you can play up the feeling of fear, you can evoke a strong emotional reaction from your audience. Pulses will go up as they turn the pages. On the other hand, if the mood you're creating doesn't fit with the central conflict of your scene, you can ruin what might be an otherwise great scene. For example, let's say you're writing a scene where the main character just finds out his sister is missing. A mood of anxiety would be a natural fit. However, if you instead gave the scene a detached feel, where the main character doesn't care much, the audience wouldn't care much either. It would feel flat. How mood relates to tone and genre in writingTone is another literary tactic. It refers to the attitude a writer takes toward the events in a story. Unlike mood, which can show up in a different form in various scenes, a story should have just one tone. Examples of tone would be sarcastic, serious, or nostalgic. The tone you choose for your story narrows the moods you can pull off in it. For example, if your story has a sarcastic tone, a somber scene may be difficult to make workable. If, instead, your story had a serious tone, a somber scene would be a natural fit. The genre you write in shouldn't necessarily limit the mood of any scene, however, in totality, the moods of your scenes should align with audience expectations for your genre. For example, if you're writing a horror story, you absolutely can have a scene with a funny mood. Possibly, toward the beginning of the story, before the killer is loose, you can characterize your protagonist by showing her joking around with her friends. However, if your story goes to have 50 scenes total, and 40 of them wind up having a funny mood, your story won't feel like a horror one. Horror readers expect moods like fear, worry, and excitement in the majority of their scenes. Thus, be mindful of mood expectations in your genre. Feel free to go in different directions, but only in small doses. How to create a mood in storytellingThe characters in your scene are the conduits for creating a mood for your audience. What the characters feel directly impacts what your audience feels. Thus, to create a mood, you want to capture the emotional state of your characters. Here are three tips: #1 Create mood with dialogueDialogue is what your characters say to each other. How the characters feel should be reflected in how they talk (even if they're lying, ie subtext). For instance, let's say one character in a scene is training another for a boxing match. While the trainer yells at the boxer, the dialogue would create a mood of intensity. Or maybe you have a scene where one character is warning others about a terrible storm blowing into town. As the characters worry about the storm, an overall mood of worry will emerge. #2 Create mood with settingWith an effective setting, you can create a mood without your characters even speaking. Let's say you're writing a sci-fi story. Your protagonist, who's from Earth, winds up traveling to a different planet. This planet is technologically about 10,000 years ahead of Earth. When your character first arrives and marvels at all the high-tech infrastructure, a mood of awe will be produced. Your character doesn't need to say she's in awe. The setting alone will get the point across. #3 Create mood with plot eventsPlot events should unfold in a cause-and-effect way, with scenes building off one another. Thus, if your main character appears in scene C, the audience may already have a good idea of what's at stake because of previous scenes A and B. For instance, let's say your protagonist, from Nebraska, has been practicing for a singing competition in Los Angeles. If a scene opens with a plane landing in Los Angeles, a feeling of anticipation would be created. Based on past events, the audience knows the high stakes of the LA trip. Though scenes should follow a cause-and-effect flow, they absolutely can be filled with surprises. A surprise is an abrupt plot event that characters did not see coming. Surprise has the ability to create a strong mood in an instant. For instance, let's say you're writing a scene where two couples are enjoying a beach vacation. The scene has a lighthearted mood. Then, a woman discovers a dead body behind a bush. The mood of the next scene immediately becomes panic. The simple reveal of a dead body is all that was needed to produce this strong mood. Build on the mood you createIf you're able to create a distinct mood for a scene, you're off to a good start. Next, you want to build on this mood, ratcheting up its emotional force. Let's go back to the example of a character running from a serial killer. We've established a mood of fear. How can we escalate the feeling of fear? Here's a possible sequence of events that could accomplish this:
What genres use mood?Mood is used across fiction and narrative non-fiction. Some examples of genres that use mood:
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Foreshadowing - Write a Captivating Story [Definition, Examples, Tips]If you're writing a book, screenplay, or short story, you want to keep your audience glued to your story and deliver satisfying surprises. Foreshadowing is a tool that can help. In this post, I give you the definition of foreshadowing, examples of foreshadowing, and tips for applying this powerful literary device to your story. Want to write an awesome story? Download my FREE outlining guide. Foreshadowing definitionForeshadowing is a literary device that alludes to future story events. Two types exist: (1) Direct foreshadowing announces a story event to come (2) Indirect foreshadowing provides evidence of an event the audience does not see coming. Direct foreshadowingBelow are examples and tips for direct foreshadowing... 5 examples of direct foreshadowingIn these examples, major plot event to come are foreshadowed in a clear way to the audience:
Tips for direct foreshadowingCreate Suspense Direct foreshadowing is a great way to build anticipation. Once you announce an event is going to occur in your story, your audience will start thinking about the implications of that event, most notably, how it will affect the lives of characters. If you've done a good job creating a connection between your audience and characters, your readers will be emotionally invested in the impact these story events have on characters. A feeling of suspense is created while the audience waits to see how the events will shape the lives of the characters. Keep the Stakes High The higher the stakes of an event, the more emotionally invested the reader will become in the outcome, and the stronger the feeling of suspense. For instance, in the example with Hank, a hurricane is a high-stakes event. A hurricane can devastate homes, even end lives. If the reader has a connection with Hank - and others in the town - the reader will start worrying about the hurricane the moment it's mentioned. If, on the other hand, Hank heard about a mild rain that was nearing, the drama would be flat. In the example with Jenny, if the audience has a connection with her, and knows her dream, readers will eagerly await the outcome of a singing competition that has the potential to make her dream a reality. If, on the other hand, Jenny heard about a talent show at a local rec center, yes, the audience may root for her to win, however, the stakes - and drama - would not be nearly as high as her competing in a national contest on TV. Make Them Wait Once you've established a high-stakes story event is coming, the next tip is to wait a while before you take the reader to the event. The wait sustains the feeling of suspense. That's where the "edge of your seat" effect comes from. After Hank hears about the hurricane, before it strikes, you might show him analyzing an in-depth weather report online. You can even have him convinced the warning is a false alarm, and he avoids taking precautions like boarding up his windows. The audience's worry will grow as it waits to see how bad the storm will be. Though people don't like worrying about things in real life, they do in stories. Keep them in this worried state for as long as doable. After Jenny hears about the singing competition, you might show her practicing. Possibly she practices so much, her sleeping suffers. As the contest approaches, she gets sick and loses her voice. The audience's worry will be heightened. Keep the audience worrying until the end of the competition. Be Sure to Deliver Direct foreshadowing is a sort of promise you make to your reader. You're suggesting that a very interesting plot event will happen. If you make the suggestion, and then do not eventually put the event in your story, your audience will feel ripped off. This does not mean the event needs to play out exactly as it's initially suggested. This simply means the event needs to show up in the story in some form. For example, in a horror story, Leah receives a note from the villain saying "I'm going to kill you." This does not mean the villain has to eventually kill her. However, the audience will be expecting the villain to at least try. Even if Leah gets away unscathed, the killer should attack her at some point in a dramatic scene. Indirect foreshadowingBelow are examples and tips for indirect foreshadowing... 5 examples of indirect foreshadowingIn these examples, major plot event to come are foreshadowed, yet the audience would not be able to necessarily anticipate them:
Tips for indirect foreshadowingPlant and Payoff Planting and payoff is a writing technique that involves "planting" story elements in the minds of your audience that eventually go on to have a "payoff." In the example with Gary, the saxophone story element was planted in the minds of readers. The payoff from this element comes when he hits the criminal during a dramatic break-in scene. As a general rule, if a major plot event features a certain story element, you should show that story element to the audience considerably earlier, even if briefly. These story elements may be physical objects, like a saxophone, however, can be any variety of things (ex, maybe a song or a dream). Showing the audience the element establishes it as part of the story's world. When the element is later used in a dramatic plot event, that scene would feel more authentic than it would if the element first popped up during the dramatic moment. For instance, if Gary was being attacked by the villain, and grabbed a big metal instrument the audience never saw before, the scene would feel inauthentic. The saxophone would seem like a too convenient, unrealistic fix to Gary's problem, versus an organic extension of his world. Create Awesome Twists Audiences love twists. However, if you don't follow certain steps, your twists may be guessable or non-believable. An effective twist needs to strike a fine balance. For believability, you need to give the audience clues about the information eventually revealed in the twist. However, if these clues are too obvious, your audience will be able to guess the twist before it happens, wiping out the crucial shock factor. In the example with Sally, the twist in her story is that she is a murderer. To make that twist shocking, Sally should not come off like a murderer beforehand. For instance, maybe she's a friendly mother of three who volunteers at a hospital. Sally arriving home with dirty shoes is a clue that she was burying a body in the woods. However, it's not an obvious clue, whereas her showing up with blood on her shoes would be. Sally is able to dismiss any suspicion by saying she stepped in a puddle. However, before she gives the answer, she should hesitate. Only for a second, but long enough to hint at a potential lie. After the audience finds out she is the murderer, the conversation about the shoes will add credence to the revelation. On the other hand, if Sally is shown to be a pleasant woman through the story, then is revealed as a killer without any clues the audience can reference, the twist will feel inorganic. The audience may be surprised, yet not satisfied. Readers prefer when evidence of a twist is shown to them, yet in subtle ways they can't understand until after the reveal. What genres use foreshadowing?The foreshadowing storytelling technique - both the direct and indirect varieties - can be used in any genre of fiction or narrative non-fiction, such as:
Want more writing tips?How to Write Great Dialogue in Your Story – 5 Tips With ExamplesWriting a book or screenplay? Bad dialogue can cause readers to abandon your story after just a few pages, while great dialogue can keep them hooked till the end. Check out these 5 tips to make sure your dialogue is the better kind. Want to write an awesome story? Download my FREE outlining guide. What is dialogue in a story?Dialogue is what the characters in a story say. It’s one of the four major types of content that appear on pages, along with description, internal monologue, and narration. Dialogue, which receives its own formatting, can be expressed in any sequence among any of the other page elements. Why is good dialogue important?Are you an author looking for a publishing deal? Employees at publishing companies are busy. They lack the time to fully read every submitted manuscript. They may just read the first five pages, then decide to continue or not. If you haven’t impressed them with those first five pages, your project is done (despite how great your ending is and all the other scenes they haven’t gotten to). Are you a screenwriter? Film producers are known to follow a similar process while going through script submissions. Do you plan to bypass a writing deal and self-publish? Consumers can read the opening pages of your book on Amazon before buying. If they’re not hooked, your sale is gone. Since dialogue often takes up the bulk of a page’s space, it is bound to play a significant factor in the perceived quality of your writing, even in just five pages. Quality dialogue is critical for getting your story “through the door.” Even if you can capture a reader’s attention in the opening pages, you still need to make sure you sustain their interest with quality dialogue through the rest of your story. Below are 5 tips to help you nail this crucial component of your story. If you want even more advice on dialogue, check out my online dialogue course. 5 tips for great dialogue#1 – Infuse your dialogue with conflict“Hi,” Nick says. “Hello,” Grace replies. “You look nice today.” “Thank you. You look nice too. Where do you want to eat lunch?” “I want to try that sushi place on Adams.” “I really want to try it too. Let’s go. I can drive.” “Sounds good.” Are you bored yet? This is an example of bad dialogue. It has no conflict. The two characters are having a pleasant conversation with no tension. Though people tend to enjoy conversations like that in real life, they disdain them in stories. People buy books and movies for drama. Your characters shouldn’t ask simple questions and get back simple answers. They should be at odds with each other. Even in a scene where two characters are friends, they shouldn’t be in full agreement on a topic. Give them different perspectives, even slightly, then show those perspectives clashing. #2 – Give characters unique voicesAs a reader gets deeper into your story, whenever a major character is speaking, the reader should theoretically be able to identify the character based on the content of their words. This becomes possible if you give your characters unique voices. Characters should be individualized via characterization traits. Those traits should be reflected in the things they choose to say. Does a nasty organized-crime enforcer speak the same way as a friendly guidance counselor? Make the distinction clear. Even characters who have many demographic traits in common shouldn’t sound exactly alike. Think about people in your own life whom you consider a similar demographic as you. You may not talk drastically different from each other, but some variety must exist. Maybe you say the word “Yes” often, while your best friend prefers “Yep.” Not a major difference, but it can add to characterization. #3 – Use slang and jargon effectivelyLike we just discussed, characters should have authentic, distinct voices. In real life, people often speak with characteristic slang and jargon. People in your story should too. These terms can help capture a character’s geographic roots, career, demeanor, and much more. However, your audience may not have previous knowledge of these specialized terms. And you don’t want to slow down your story by explaining what every instance means. Work in some of these terms, but in a way that doesn’t prohibit your audience from following your plot. Your reader should be able to understand the gist of a conversation even if they don’t know every word. Have you ever watched or read a police-procedural movie or book? What about a story that features scientists working in a lab? Did you hear various terms you didn’t quite understand? Maybe codes cops use over their radios? Or chemical compounds the scientists discuss? Were you still able to follow the plot? If so, the gist of the conversations were intact. Based on the reactions of other characters, who do understand the terms, you were able to tell if something bad was happening in the scene or something good, and you could tell whom was affected. That's what matters. Yet, in certain cases, knowing a bit about an obscure or technical topic is critical to understanding a story. If you're writing one like this, you need to get the information across to your audience. For example, if you’re telling a military story, and a certain cutting-edge weapon plays a major role in your ending, you should sufficiently explain how the technology works well before the ending. But be careful. If your story features too many topics that require explanation, your pacing can suffer. Keep these to a handful at most. #4 – Don’t force information into your dialogue“Hey Amanda,” Steve says. “Guess what? Yesterday I ran into our former classmate, Nathan, who you started dating in high school, then dated through college, then broke up with last year.” Feels off, right? Steve and Amanda both know she dated Nathan. Steve would have no need to tell her information he is aware she already knows. Instead, this would feel more natural: “Hey Amanda,” Steve says. “Guess what? Yesterday I ran into Nathan.” Why do writers often force unnatural information into dialogue? Though characters may be aware of a certain piece of information, sometimes the audience has yet to hear it. Contextual details the audience needs to fully understand a scene is known as exposition. You should only include it in dialogue if the words feel natural. FYI, avenues besides dialogue exist for conveying exposition, which I also cover in my Powerful Pages writing course. #5 – Leverage silenceYes, dialogue is about talking. However, don’t hesitate to use silence alongside it. People often go quiet when they are upset or have something to hide. These emotionally elevated states can make for great drama in a story. Use them. Which example is more interesting to you? Example A “I looked everywhere,” Leah says. “The nightstand. The glovebox of the car. Every drawer in my desk. I couldn’t find it.” “This can turn into a problem,” Jim says. Example B “I looked everywhere,” Leah says. “The nightstand. The glovebox of the car. Every drawer in my desk. I couldn’t find it.” Jim glances at her and steps to the window. He gazes at the falling snow. She puts her hand on his shoulder. “Honey, it’s going to be okay,” she says. He takes a deep breath and storms out of the den. I don’t know about you, but I think B is better, even though Jim doesn’t say a thing. His silence creates tension. Him leaving the room without talking is a stronger expression of “This can turn into a problem” than him actually saying “This can turn into a problem.” Want more writing tips?You might also like my posts on descriptive writing and writing POV.
10 Can't-Miss Tips for Writing a Suspenseful Book or ScriptWant to create a page-turning story? Check out these 10 tips for writing a suspenseful book, or script, that will keep readers excitedly flipping your pages. Want to write an awesome story? Download my FREE outlining guide. Suspense Tip 1 - Make your reader care about the characterSuspense is heightened the more the reader wants to know a piece of information. A reader's desire for a certain piece of information increases the more the reader cares about the character involved. For example, if a reader feels a deep connection to your protagonist, and that character is on trial for a murder he didn't commit, the reader will feel a lot of suspense awaiting the verdict. On the other hand, if a minor character that the reader never got a chance to know was on trial for murder, the reader wouldn't care much about the verdict, ie not much suspense. Since your protagonist drives the plot of your story, and most suspense will be around that character's outcomes, I suggest you learn how to create a protagonist the reader cares about. That being said, supporting characters can absolutely be the subjects of suspense scenes too. Make sure you've at least developed some empathy between the reader and character if you want these scenes to work well. Suspense Tip 2 - Put a lot at stakeLet's stay your reader cares a lot about a character and you decide to create a suspense scene around that character. You're off to a good start. You raise a question the reader wants the answer to. However, for some reason, when you read the chapter's draft, you're not on the edge of your seat. What happened? Likely, not much is at stake. For instance, if your reader cares a lot about a character named Michelle, who's stuck in traffic on the way to work, the audience may wonder, Will she make it to the office on time? However, this question isn't that suspenseful without something major at stake. If Michelle happens to show up 15 minutes late, nothing terrible will happen to her. She doesn't have much to lose. Instead, if Michelle has a potentially career-changing presentation with her company's biggest client, now something is at stake. The busy client only has 30 minutes at the office before having to leave for another appointment. If Michelle is late, she won't have enough time for her presentation. And if the presentation doesn't go well, she'll lose out on the promotion to her dream job. Suspense Tip 3 - Use story questionsA story question is a certain type of question the reader wants the answer to. However, unlike other suspense questions, it's rarely answered in the chapter where it was raised, but much later in the story. As mentioned, suspense is elevated the longer the reader must wait for a question's answer. Thus, story questions, with their long time horizons, lend themselves to effective suspense. Here's an example of how story questions can play out...
The reader will have to keep turning the pages for the answers to those four story questions. Suspense Tip 4 - Create a compelling protagonist "want"Your protagonist's "want" is the main goal they're after through the story. For instance, in a detective novel, the want may be catching a serial killer. Whether or not your protagonist attains the want shouldn't be revealed until the climax of the story, just before the end. This time delay makes for good suspense. However, you also need to make sure a lot is at stake for your protagonist. As mentioned, when characters have a lot to lose if a story outcome turns out negative, readers become more emotionally invested in the result. In the detective example, if the killer isn't caught, he's almost definitely going to carry out five more murders he's planned. Innocent people will die and the detective will be forced to shoulder the guilt, ie a lot to lose. To learn more about creating a great protagonist want, check out my post on story plot tips. Suspense Tip 5 - Structure your story into actsAs discussed, your protagonist should have an overarching want that propels the events of the story until the end. To turn up the suspense along the way, you should structure your story into acts. The beginning and middle acts would build to answer their own questions, which would serve as sub-questions to whether or not the main character achieves the main goal. For example, if a detective's main goal is catching a serial killer, the reader would receive a definitive answer in the final act. However, in the two previous acts, the events in the story would build to answer two important related questions:
Since these questions are related to the story's main one, if you did a good job crafting the main one, the earlier act questions will immediately become important to the reader. To learn more about acts, check out my post on structuring your story into acts. Suspense Tip 6 - Shift reader expectations during a sceneThe last few tips involved building suspense across many chapters. However, you should also aim to create suspense within chapters. The same rules apply: the reader needs to care about an outcome and you should delay the answer. However, within a single chapter, you don't have much time. You might only have five, maybe 10 pages. A tactic you can use to compensate for the compressed timeline is to rapidly shift reader expectations during it. For instance, let's say you're writing a scene where a woman is running through the woods, away from a man who wants to hurt her. If you simply describe her running for three pages, yes, your reader will likely feel suspense. However, that suspense would be stronger if you fed in a stream of events that shifted reader expectations as to whether or not the woman gets away. Here's how you could do that:
Suspense Tip 7 - Use a ticking clockAs you now know, with good suspense, you want to make your audience wait for answers. However, you'd benefit by doing the opposite for your characters - you want to give them tight timeframes. In writing, a ticking clock is a deadline a character has to accomplish an important task. These clocks are sometimes literal - in an action story, the hero may have just three hours to find and diffuse a bomb with an actual ticking clock on it. A physical clock doesn't need to be involved, though - you just need a time crunch, regardless of the source. For example, in a romance story, the lead character has been offered a job in a new city. She has until June 1 to accept the offer. From now until then, she needs to decide if she wants to take the job or stay in town and pursue a relationship with a man she's falling for. A ticking clock builds suspense because it makes a promise to the reader: by a certain point in time, either something good or bad will definitely happen for a character. The definitiveness of the outcome makes the reader care more about it. As the clock ticks down, the feeling of suspense grows. To elevate the suspense of a ticking clock, you can use dramatic irony to put a character in a dangerous situation he isn't even aware of. For instance, the audience knows a bomb, set to go off in 30 minutes, is inside a building. Unaware, the main character walks inside. Suspense Tip 8 - Leverage cliffhangersWith a cliffhanger, you raise a question the audience cares about in a chapter and then end the chapter before giving the reader the answer. Though closing on any type of unanswered question technically constitutes a cliffhanger, the more dramatic kinds involve leaving a character in a pressing predicament. The obvious example is someone literally hanging off a cliff. If the reader cares about a character, and that character somehow has found his way onto the edge of a cliff, and falling means serious injury or death, end the chapter there and the reader should be very eager to turn the page to see what happens. Don't be afraid to close a lot of your chapters with a cliffhanger. That being said, if you end many chapters in a life-or-death predicament, your story may feel a bit forced. Vary the stakes and the immediacy of the chapter-ending questions. Suspense Tip 9 - Leverage crosscuttingWith crosscutting, you'd write a chapter from the POV of character A, then write the next chapter from the POV of character B, who is currently not with character A. You're essentially jumping in space. At the end of a chapter, if the audience is left wondering how certain events will play out for character A, cutting to character B delays the reveal of information about character A, infusing suspense. After character B's chapter, if you again cut to character A (or even to C), the audience is left wondering about character B, ie even more suspense. The crosscutting technique works best in combination with pressing-predicament cliffhangers. The suspense around character A will be elevated when you cut to character B, if character A is left in physical danger or some other state of impending jeopardy. Suspense Tip 10 - Equip your antagonist for surpriseAs your protagonist pursues the want, the story's main villain should throw obstacles at the hero to prevent success. Make your villain a worthy opponent of your hero. Even better, make your villain more imposing than your hero, at least at the beginning of the book. A skilled, dynamic antagonist is capable of surprise. Thus, even when things seem to be going well for your protagonist, your audience will still feel suspense. If the reader knows a resilient villain, capable of crafty attacks, is lurking somewhere out there, the protagonist is never quite safe. A devastating surprise can come at any time. To learn more about antagonists, check out my post on writing great villains. What is suspense in storytelling?Suspense in storytelling is delaying the reveal of information the reader wants to know. The more the audience wants to know something, and the longer it waits, the greater the suspense. What types of stories need suspense?Though suspense is often associated with the action and thriller genres, it can be woven into stories of any genre. Yes, suspense is part of any quality gunfight or car-chase scene, but it's also what makes many subtler scenes work well. For example, in a domestic story, let's say a husband and wife are simply sitting at a table eating dinner. The reader knows the husband just told his wife a lie about where he was last night. When she asks him questions about the night, suspense is created. Will he will be exposed as a liar? Whatever type of story you're writing, it can benefit from an infusion of suspense. How to Take Your Writing Skills to the Next LevelLearn expert writing techniques with my Hit Writer Course. The video lessons apply to authors and screenwriters in any genre across fiction and narrative non-fiction. If you join, you'll also gain access to me to personally help you as you write your next story. Expanding on your Intro Course skillsIn my writing Intro Course, I teach important writing skills for characters, plot, theme, and emotional impact. These skills will form a solid foundation for you. They can help you write a great story. However, you can improve a lot more from there. Tap into thousands of years of writing wisdomStorytelling has been around for thousands of years - since early humans told tales around campfires. And some of the smartest people of all time - such as Aristotle - have dedicated themselves to storytelling. Because of all those years and all those sharp minds, significant insights about storytelling have been discovered. Regardless of format or genre, many of the best stories of all time have traits in common. If you know where to look, you can see these commonalities. And if you know how to apply them to your own stories, you can deliver thousands of years of force from your pages. What are the traits the best stories have in common?These stories tend to be well structured. What does that mean? Their beginnings, middles, and ends aren't just collections of interesting events. The events are sequenced together in a purposeful way to hook, captivate, and wow the audience. An act is a tool writers use to structure their stories. Though the term "act" is mentioned a lot, most people can't accurately define it. To properly harness the power of acts, you need to understand what one is in detail. Acts are a great way to structure your scenes in a sequence. However, the best stories don't just unfold their scenes in a dramatic order - the scenes themselves are dramatic. All of them. Mastering the dynamics of a scene is essential if you want to take your writing to the next level. Which characters should go in which scenes? What should those character be doing? How should those scenes start? How should they end? What should you leave out of a scene? You need to have answers to every one of these questions. Finally, the events in all your scenes need to be connected in an effective web. You need to apply techniques for drama building to assure that you supply anticipation between scenes and generate strong emotional payoffs when you want them. For instance, have you ever been blown away by a certain event in a certain scene? Like a character dying? Or a character saving another? Or a character proposing to another? Well, your emotional reaction likely wasn't tied to just that one scene. A highly skilled writer likely built it up over multiple scenes by effectively tying story events together. Do you want to write like this?Luckily for you, I offer a sequel to my Intro class...my Hit Writer Course. There, I go into depth on these potent writing techniques. In full disclosure, the Premium course isn't free. But it's well worth the fair price. You can get through all the material in just two days. By the end, you'll definitely be a much better writer. And you'll definitely feel more enthusiastic about your writing career than ever... More writing course topicsSome more writing topics the Hit Writer Course covers...
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Is the class worth the price?With the new, expert skills you'll gain, your next story should have a lot of audience appeal. If you're an author, this can lead to the sale of many more book copies and if you're a screenwriter, your chances of selling your script can go up. If your story is even somewhat successful financially, you should make back the course's cost fairly quickly, plus earn even more. Not to mention, the course comes with a full-refund guarantee. If you register, watch all the lessons, and don't feel you learned new, high-quality writing skills, just contact me within two weeks and I'll give you a 100% refund. No questions asked. Ready to become an expert writer?I'll see you in the Hit Writer Course. |