Episode 215 - The ratchet, a strong plotting tool.

About this episode

The episode discusses the ratchet as a plotting tool and explores techniques for improving scene contributions to the story.

How can we know if our scene pushes the story forward. Does our scene contribute to the story? The ratchet can test our scene. I talk about the ratchet and show how Cormac McCarthy and F. Scott Fitzgerald used it. Plus, a technique for searching for instances of telling in our manuscript so we can change them to showing. And C.S. Lewis's rules of writing. Support the show Buy the master class.

People in this episode

Host: James Thayer

Topics covered

• plotting tools
• scene development
• show vs tell
• fiction writing
• writing techniques

Keywords

• ratchet
• plotting
• Cormac McCarthy
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• C.S. Lewis
• showing vs telling
• fiction writing

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