Storytelling
What this chapter will buildSeparate events, their telling and the reader or listener who encounters them.
Suggested preparationStart here — no earlier chapter is needed.
Events and their tellingPlanned
Retell the same events in two orders and distinguish what happened from how it is presented.
Change and causalityPlanned
Identify a change, its causes and consequences instead of listing unrelated happenings.
Audience and purposePlanned
Choose who the story is for and what experience or understanding its telling aims to support.
Fiction, nonfiction and premisePlanned
Distinguish an invented premise from an account making factual claims and state the chosen contract.
Observation and a writer’s notebookPlanned
Gather details, questions and possible situations while recording sources of borrowed material.
What this chapter will buildBuild a simple situation from a character’s goal, choices and consequences.
Suggested preparation
A character’s wantsPlanned
State what a character wants now and show it through a choice rather than a profile alone.
Obstacles and stakesPlanned
Choose an obstacle and explain what changes if the goal succeeds or fails.
Action and consequencePlanned
Connect an attempted action with a believable response from other people or the setting.
Observable character detailPlanned
Use gestures, speech and habits to reveal a character while separating inference from explicit information.
A scene with a small changePlanned
Draft a situation in which one choice changes the character’s immediate circumstances.
What this chapter will buildChoose what the audience can know and whose experience organises the scene.
Suggested preparation
Narrator and authorPlanned
Distinguish the person creating a text from the voice that tells its events.
First and third personPlanned
Rewrite a small moment in first and third person and compare distance and available knowledge.
Whose experience guides the scene?Planned
Limit a scene to one character’s perceptions and check for information they could not access.
Reliability and uncertaintyPlanned
Compare what a narrator asserts with details that support or challenge the account.
Information gapsPlanned
Give reader and character different knowledge and compare resulting curiosity, suspense or irony.
What this chapter will buildControl detail and duration so the reader can follow a scene and its change.
Suggested preparation
Scene time and placePlanned
Orient the reader with relevant setting, action and temporal cues rather than a complete inventory.
Scene and summaryPlanned
Compare enacted dialogue and action with compressed narration of the same period.
Specific details and selectionPlanned
Choose details that establish situation, viewpoint or change and remove unrelated description.
Dialogue and action beatsPlanned
Combine speech with actions so turn-taking, intention and location remain understandable.
Sentence clarity and rhythmPlanned
Revise references, verbs and sentence length while checking what the reader must infer.
What this chapter will buildComplete a short story and use reader evidence to choose a focused revision.
Suggested preparation
A one-scene briefPlanned
Choose a character, immediate goal, obstacle and one intended change for a short draft.
Make the first attemptPlanned
Write a complete small scene before polishing every sentence and record uncertain decisions.
Ask what the reader understoodPlanned
Ask a reader to identify goal, cause and change; compare their account with your intention.
Revise one problem firstPlanned
Choose a specific confusion or missing consequence and compare the original and revised scene.
A later independent scenePlanned
Write a new scene later to check whether the method carries over and plan the next exercise.