Satisfying endings

Endings are hard. It's hard for a story to live up to the promises it's made and the themes it's built up. But some stories manage it. An example using a scene from Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man (spoilers, obviously): Death sat on

Scenes that have no causal consequences

An interesting thing about fiction/story structure is that it sometimes makes good sense to write scenes that have no causal consequences. There's a bit from The Lifecycle of Software Objects that I often think of when I think about structure or what belongs in a story. The

Failure to surprise

I sometimes write fiction, and that fiction has problems. One problem is that I find my protagonists boring. Why? What could I do to make them more interesting? I think one reason I find them boring is that in the way that I write them, they never (get a chance

Unhelpful ways to think about try/fail cycles and stakes

You might have heard of the idea of obstacles in fiction. If not the general idea is to write something into your story that prevents your character from getting what they want. The thing that prevents them from getting what they want is called an obstacle. If you have ever

Repetition

It's tricky to repeat yourself effectively in writing (fiction). You don't want to do it unintentionally, too frequently or for unimportant things. But you can use it to good effect. An excerpt from Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett: There was another thing. Hardly anyone used tinder