Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 6: Dramatic Breaks
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Jul 7, 2009
In this podcast, they discuss dramatic breaks in storytelling, exploring the importance of crafting satisfying chapter endings, compressing time effectively, and timing breaks for maximum impact. They also talk about delivering satisfying installments in storytelling, emphasizing the need for engaging techniques to keep readers hooked.
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How to End Scenes Effectively
Break your story into scenes that end when the moment stops being interesting or is seamless to the next scene.
Aim for a punch line or satisfying stopping point to motivate a scene change.
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Vary Emotions for Cliffhangers
Use varied emotions like anxiety, sadness, and fear to keep cliffhangers fresh and engaging.
Avoid always ending with the same emotional tension or it becomes desensitizing.
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Avoid Weak Cliffhanger Endings
Avoid ending chapters with "and then something happened" that just adds another scene's start.
Reserve that technique for late act two or early act three for better dramatic arcs.
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What are dramatic breaks? We open this episode with Howard very genuinely playing Doctor Watson to Brandon's Holmes, which is amusing because as it turns out, Howard uses dramatic breaks every day. Simply put they are the points in the narrative, typically at the end of a chapter, where we cut to another scene. Sometimes we are shifting perspective, sometimes we are advancing the clock, and sometimes we're merely pausing to take a breath. What are we looking for in a dramatic break? How do we identify the right place to cut away from one group of characters and focus on others? How do we avoid doing it the same way every time? And so we discuss those stopping points and the starting points that follow them. We cover the flow of time and the flow of story. We talk about delivering satisfying installments. We even hang from a cliff or two. Meanwhile... This episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery by Tracy & Curtis Hickman, illustrated by Howard Tayler. Autograph editions are now on pre-order! Writing Prompt: Write a story in which Howard hates elephants and dramatically breaks one.
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