Some helpful storytelling things
Articles
Welcome To The Midpoint Of Your Novel: Now What?! by Chuck Wendig
This is what made me understand midpoints: “The midpoint is a knife stuck suddenly in the center of a dinner table — thwack!” Midpoints are hella important and why I struggle with a lot of novellas (because they don’t have them). It is the moment of dramatic change, a pivot that points us to the end.
The First Law by Brandon Sanderson
A series of three articles (two and three are linked at the bottom of Sanderson’s article) about how to magic. Sanderson covers what magic is, how to give it boundaries, and keep it from deus ex machinaing the hero.
Books
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
I read a lot of books on screenwriting for some reason? It’s fine. McKee focuses on plot, but is otherwise pretty all-encompassing. My biggest takeaway was the idea of turns. A turn is when something unexpected happens, be it large or small. A turn can be, ‘Your ship has a hole in it,’ ‘Your lover hates you,’ ‘The villain has escaped,’ ‘The criminal you caught wasn’t the real criminal,’ etc.
Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke
All you could ever want to know about the five act structure! Yorke argues that most stories are five acts, not three. It’s an interesting and different take on how popular movies are mapped out. Yorke also discusses the midpoint in depth and in more technical detail than Wendig.
Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development by K.M. Weiland
This is not a deep-dive into character arcs, but it provides a very detailed and carefully planned out step-by-step process to arcs. So if knowing the rules so you can break them applies to you, this is a good one.
YouTube
Lindsay Ellis (for film analysis, history, and general intellectualism)
Planting and Payoff – Featuring Mad Max: Fury Road: I don’t know what to tell you. I love planting and payoff.
Every Frame a Painting (on editing and beauty)
Oh, god, it’s all of them. You need to watch all of them. But you can start here: Lynne Ramsay – The Poetry of Details
Nerdwriter1 (um, for all the things? I’ve picked out some of the more story-related ones.)
Harry Potter: What Magic Sounds Like: Sound is less explicitly a part of the written word, but it’s still important and the variety of sounds and what they feel like in these movies is fascinating.
Lord Of The Rings: How Music Elevates Story: Very similar to the above, but it’s a deeper dive into one sound instead of a brief look at many.
Ghost In The Shell: Identity in Space: I love bodies and space and what a body in space looks like, which is what this video is all about.
In The Mood For Love: Frames Within Frames: In this movie, the main characters’ spouses have an affair with each other. I cannot get over the plot point where the main characters act out what they think that seduction looks like. That is not precisely what this video is about, but it’s what catches me every time.
Lessons from the Screenplay (Lovely and simple videos about storytelling)
Logan vs. Children of Men — The End is in the Beginning: On character arcs.
Collateral — The Midpoint Collision: Midpoints! Midpoints for days!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — Breaking Convention: On five-act structures
2016 Brandon Sanderson BYU Lectures Playlist
Watching this whole series is a bit of a commitment, but it’s an amazing, amazing overview and focused specifically on fantasy.