Characterisation Lessons In The US Office
On The Table Read, “The Best Book Reader Magazine in UK“, JJ Barnes writes about the writing in The US Office and what we can learn about writing our own…
How To Write A Boring Scene In An Interesting Way
Written by JJ Barnes www.jjbarnes.co.uk Naturally you want your story to be interesting. If your story is boring, you’ll lose the attention of your audience, and you won’t be satisfying…
Agatha Harkness And Writing The Perfect Villain Turn
JJ Barnes explores how Agatha Harkness in WandaVision is given the perfect villain turn, and writing techniques to recreate the effect.
How To Write A Human Villain That Is Scarier Than A Monster – Max Cady In Cape Fear
Written by JJ Barnes www.jjbarnes.co.uk Some stories need a scary character. Thrillers, mysteries and horrors all need a bad guy to torment and terrorise the Protagonist. A character who will…
Why Thanos Is The Protagonist Of Avengers: Infinity War
Written by JJ Barnes www.jjbarnes.co.uk If you have seen the Avengers films, then you’ll be familiar with chief Bad-Guy, Thanos. I will be exploring the reasons it is Thanos who…
Examples Of The Inciting Incident In Films And Books
Written by JJ Barnes www.jjbarnes.co.uk The Inciting Incident is the moment that starts your story. Before this moment, your character is just living their life. You join them to witness…
How To Write Perseverance As A Character Trait
Your characters will all have different qualities. You need to give your characters distinct personalities to ensure they are clean and interesting. If all your characters blur into one, they…
How To Write A Successful Protagonist Partnership
On The Table Read, “The Best Book Reader Magazine in the UK“, author JJ Barnes describes what a Protagonist Partnership is, what they do for your story, and how to…
Top Reasons Why Your Audience Will Love A Character Who Will Risk It All
To make sure your audience is fully invested in seeing if your Protagonist gets what they want, you need to show them why it matters. In this piece, I'll explain…
Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Write An Expert Protagonist
Your Protagonist is the main person in your story. You will spend the majority of the time riding on their shoulders and seeing events through their eyes. In this post…
How To Control Your Story Pace
The pace of your story is how quickly it moves from one plot point to another, and is controlled by the details between the plot points. A slower paced story…
How To Write A Dystopian Story
Dystopian fiction deals with a future where the world has been changed, and not for the better. They are entertaining because they're high drama, and they're important because they can…
Why Killing Henchmen Can Make Your Hero Unlikeable
The problem with henchmen is that if you're writing a hero who is intended to be morally pure, you can't have just slaughter the henchmen. I'll be talking about the…
How To Write A Character Arc From Bad To Good
The best stories take characters on a journey. They are changed and shaped by the events in your story and come out the other end as different people. This is…
How To Write Cosmic Narcissism
The belief that in a Universe so huge, so vast and undiscovered, that some huge power would choose to change and shape the world to tell your story is cosmic…