Story structure can be magical! Join Daryll Lynne and Molly as they explore the wizardry of formulating your ideas into writing.
In this episode of Sentence to Paragraph, Molly admits to introducing plotting and structure to her writing practice (even though she is a confessed and loyal “pantster” at heart) while Daryll Lynne discusses her success with plotting and how story structure can develop interesting and substantial characters. Listen below, on Podomatic or iTunes.
“The beautiful part of story structure is that it allows you to carefully pace how your character learns and grows.”
-Daryll Lynne on Plotting
Podcast Highlights
- Daryll Lynne shares how she uses Joseph Campbell’s “the hero’s journey” to create a system of using scene-by-scene index cards to trace the plot of your story
- Plotting with the hero’s journey includes asking questions about world building and action in conjunction with the interiority of the character and how the two interact to move the plot forward
- Molly goes into how she uses the carding method to write out the scenes while also tracking the emotional journey of the character
- Story structure and outlining can help to keep track of the destination of the story and mitigate tendencies to meander by providing a clear understanding of the character’s motivations
- Molly’s Editing Tip: Upon completing the first draft of a story, write a synopsis that clarifies the intention of the story–why did you write it?–so that when revising, the goal of the story is placed at the forefront of revision decisions