On Sunday, I posted this carousel on Instagram. It's titled Questions to ask yourself if your plot feels messy.
In it, I go through some very important questions, like getting clear on your protagonist, their goal, central conflict, main beats, and so on.
But the most important question is the last one:
Does it feel alive or formulaic?
I wrote, "The ultimate test for your plot is how excited you are to write it! How do you feel about it? If you feel excited and interested in the story, so will the audience."
As much as I know and love story structure, I stand by my statement that this is the most important question.
Your passion comes through
Whether you cringe at the mention of the word energy or not, you have to admit we can feel when the creators are passionate about their work.
The energy comes through.
Your passion shines through the work.
This is not something that can be measured.
It's not something we can point our finger at.
But we know it when it's there because we feel it.
This is just your friendly reminder that the story structure isn't supposed to be some rigid prison for your ideas, something you need to conform to.
All the principles and guidelines are here to support that excitement and joy you have about your story.
Are you stuck or are you not giving yourself permission to write what you want?
Something I have noticed with my own writing is that often, when I feel stuck, I’m not really stuck.
Meaning, I feel like I don’t know what to do but the thing is, I always do know.
I know what I want to do - I just feel like for some reason I shouldn’t.
Because it’s not smart enough or intelligent enough or pretentious enough or philosophical enough or original enough or popular enough or mainstream enough or radical enough or whatever cuz enough.
Giving myself permission to drop what I think I “should” write often lightens up the whole process and makes it much clearer where I want to take the story.
Stuckness is often just decision paralysis: Do I follow what I want or do I have to keep up some appearance for the sake of how I want people to see me?
So if you ever find yourself in a similar spot, consider this your permission slip (nay, an order!) to do anything you need to do drop the shoulds and create space for your own curiosity and wonder.
Until next time,
Katja
Thank you for being here.
If you're a writer who'd love some personalised support with your project, check out my 1:1 offerings:
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If you want to dive into the craft of compelling plot twists, I invite you to check out the Plot Twist Magic workshop:
And if you'd like to join me in deep dives into various aspects of the writing craft, join me on YouTube:
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See you next week!
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