STAGE 02

Planning & Structure

Architect your narrative

Whether you’re a plotter, pantser, or plantser, every writer benefits from understanding story structure. Build the skeleton your novel will grow on.

ARTICLES IN THIS STAGE
Outline Your Novel Three Ways: A Hands-On Workshop

Outlining isn't one thing. It's a spectrum from bare-bones compass to scene-by-scene blueprint. In this workshop, you'll outline the same story three different ways and discover how much structure your writing actually needs.

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KEY CONCEPTS

Glossary terms for this stage

Act Break

The structural seam between acts where the story shifts gears, the stakes escalate, and th...

Alchemy in Fiction

A magic system rooted in transformation, where practitioners turn one substance into anoth...

All Is Lost Moment

The story beat where everything goes wrong at once and your protagonist's plan completely ...

Allegory

A story where the characters, events, and setting represent something larger - a political...

Alternate History

Fiction that changes one or more historical events and explores the consequences, asking '...

Alternate History Worldbuilding

The craft of building a world where real history took a different turn, then following the...

Anagnorisis

The moment a character discovers a crucial truth about themselves, another person, or thei...

Antagonist

The character or force that opposes your protagonist - not necessarily evil, but always st...

Antihero

A protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities like nobility, idealism, or moral cou...

Antivillain

A villain whose methods are wrong but whose motivations are understandable, noble, or even...

Archetype

A universal character pattern rooted in human psychology that appears across cultures and ...

B-Story

The main secondary storyline in your narrative, usually carrying the emotional or thematic...

Novelium

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