After attending a discussion about pitching to agents and publishers, I decided it would be useful to create tag lines, log lines, and pitches for all the stories I have planned for my The Dragon Universe collection. Doing so will help me focus on what those stories are and ensure I create a coherent narrative thread throughout.
For each story, I will write a description for the elements in the narrative structure. I will then add details as they occur to me. As I do this, I will create style sheets to define the characters and locations. My current collection of notes with its hundreds of thousands of words already contains much of this information, and more is still in my head. This project will help me document and organize that information.
While I’m doing this, I will also develop ideas for short stories both within the current story universe and outside it. It would do me good to write a few short stories different from the world in which I’m currently so deeply embedded.
Three-Act Narrative Structure
1. Beginning
2. Inciting Incident
3. Plot Point 1
4. Pinch Point 1
5. Mid Point
6. Pinch Point 2
7. Plot Point 2
8. Climax
9. Ending
Short Story Narrative Structure
1. Action
2. Background
3. Develop
4. Climax
5. Ending
The more I think about how much fun writing is the more I forget how hard it is to write.