Freytag’s Pyramid is one of those ideas most writers vaguely remember from school and then quietly file away. It usually shows up as a triangle on a whiteboard. Rising action. Climax. Falling action. Resolution. Simple [...]

Beat sheets didn’t come from theory. They came from nerves. The kind of nerves you get when a story starts to drift. When the middle goes soft. When you can feel the audience leaning back [...]

Most writers already know this one. Beginning, middle, end. Set up, conflict, resolution. It sounds almost too simple to be useful. And yet it keeps holding. Take Jaws. Act one is the promise. The shark [...]

The Hero’s Journey has a weird reputation. Some people treat it like scripture. Others blame it for every hollow blockbuster they’ve sat through since the 1990s. Most writers meet it early, usually in a simplified [...]