Larry Brooks

The thing is, you can’t write your way out of the pit unless you know your story’s weaknesses and how to strengthen and repair them. Such a statement creates a paradox of sorts, because if you knew what was wrong and how to fix it before you started writing, you wouldn’t have written it with those weaknesses in the first place.
This is why revision is so critical.
For starters, we all do revision work, even before the book goes out to an agent or an editor. Even “polishing” is, in the truest sense, a form of revision, and as such we should subject it to the same rigorous standards that a criticized story must endure.
Revision assumes you now know what you didn’t know before. It assumes you understand whether your rejection was the outcome of unaligned taste or bad market timing (which may not require revision), or due to a story that is broken at its core, or has been poorly executed (which absolutely does require revision). When you don’t know the difference, your stories will continue to fail. And it won’t just be the story’s fault. It will be yours.

2 thoughts on “Larry Brooks

  1. shinichi Post author

    Story Fix: Transform Your Novel from Broken to Brilliant

    by Larry Brooks

    Empower your rewrite, or your first draft, with a refreshingly intense approach to evaluating what you have and making it better.


    Story Fix is the answer to your revision needs. With practical techniques from critically acclaimed author and story coach Larry Brooks, you will learn how to:

    • Develop a story-fixing mind-set
    • Navigate the two essential realms of revision: story and execution
    • Evaluate your novel or screenplay against twelve crucial storytelling elements and essences.
    • Strengthen your concept and premise.
    • Punch up the dramatic tension, pacing, thematic weight, characterization, and more.
    • Align your story with proven structural principles.
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  2. shinichi Post author

    物語を書く人のための推敲入門

    by ラリー・ブルックス

    translated by 大久保ゆう

    誰も教えてくれなかった「推敲ってどうやるの」?という大事な問いに対する答えがここに!

    「推敲」は決しておざなりの作業ではなく、それ自体がひとつの創作法なのだ。


    【チェックすべきストーリーの12の要素】
    1 コンセプト(コンセプトになるものがあるかどうか)
    2 ドラマの前提(プレミス)/起伏(アーク)(主人公の探求と目的)
    3 ドラマの緊張感(テンション)(対立要素による衝突・葛藤)
    4 読者の疑似体験
    5 求引力ある人物像
    6 読者の感情移入(読者が気になるもの)
    7 テーマの重み・妥当性・共鳴
    8 効果的なストーリーの組み立て(構成)
    9 最適なペース配分
    10 シーンの完成度
    11 文体
    12 語りの戦略

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