How can you keep the stakes as high as possible for your readers? Watch for lags. If you find your character happy or at peace, chances are good he’s not too frustrated. Unless you’re using a temporary lull in the storm to emphasize the disasters to come, avoid these quiet, happy scenes. Not only do they interrupt the dramatic flow, they also tend

My first goal is to hammer all this down into a premise: a single sentence that conveys the plot and the theme.

Creating a solid, memorable character arc requires several important ingredients: Start out with a clear idea of who the character is at the beginning of the story. What does he care about? What does he believe? How does he behave in certain situations? Open with the character beginning from a place of imperfection or incompleteness. Usually (but n

Your goal is to create a sentence that conveys the characters, setting, and central conflict, first generally, as in the example in the paragraph above, and then in the most specific way possible.

One of the easiest ways to raise the stakes is to create a tight timeline for your story.

Giving a character a motive (which inevitably extends to a goal, which hopefully inspires an immediate obstacle, which fortunately creates innate conflict) is vital.

Your character’s motive is what fuels his desire for something, and his desire is what gives him a goal to strive toward.

Conflict fuels fiction, and frustration fuels conflict. Every time the character (and the reader) begins to think victory and happiness are around the bend, the author has to find some way to circumvent them.

Middle Trap the MC in a spiral of events outside of his control. Set the line of dominoes in motion. Force the MC’s original goal out of his reach. He can still see it and certainly still wants it, but he can’t reach it. Give the MC new goals. The MC’s primary goal shifts to the background as he struggles to stay afloat with all the complications c