Coeur

Writing Article - Plot Twists

Plot twists are defining features of some of the most famous literary works in the world - they quite literally change everything about a story. But they are hard to work with, punishingly so in fa...

Writing Article - Writing a Thriller

Thrillers are some of the most commercially viable stories that exist today and are often the subject of movie adaptations. We're not looking to write a movie here, but with "Null" set to come out ...

Writing Article - The Perfectionist

It's been a while and I need to catch up on articles missed, but this month I wanted to share an important lesson I had to learn early, and which I think many people don't bother to learn at all. T...

Writing Article - Worldbuilding

World building is a core element of fiction, whether you're writing something set in a fantasy land, in space or even in Manhattan. In this article, we talk about some key world building elements a...

Patreon Article - Hard vs Soft Story Systems

Hard vs Soft - the ever-present argument.

Sorry, I wasn't talking about relationships, Brexit or anything else. I mean hard and soft systems in story telling. Hard magic systems, soft technol...

Writing Article - Five Tips to Help you Improve as an Author

It's the end of 2018 and I wanted to do something a little different. This is a tips subject, but not tips that we've covered before in any way. Rather, there were a number of smaller topics I want...

Writing Article - MRU's

Motivation Reaction Units. I've mentioned them before, but a new and updated article here will look at how to use them in general prose, as well as WHY you should want to use them.

For beginners and...

Writing Article - Crossovers

A little bit of a different topic to what I thought I'd talk about this month, but an interesting one nonetheless. Crossovers. Something more common to fanfiction, yet not entirely absent from books, ...

Patreon Article - Endings

The ending of a story is the most important part, and while it's impossible to give specific details on how to handle an ending without knowing the full content and context of the story, there are som...

Back from Show

 So, I'm back from my expo late last night and fairly exhausted. All went well, including my speech, and I was able to write all my fics a week in advance to cater for the fact I basically had no...

Writing Article - Chekhov's Gun

Chekhov's Gun. Something that is often talked about and just as often misunderstood. Ask any two authors and they'll have different definitions - but in this article we don't over-focus on that.
<...

Writing Article - Redeeming Villains

Apologies for this being late - health concerns.

So, here we have our next article exploring the theme of redemption. Not redemption in terms of the protagonist, but rather how to redeem your story'...

Small delay on article and one-shot

Hey all,

Just to let you know that due to workload and some real-life stuff, there will be a small delay on both the article and the Patreon reward one-shot. They should be done by the en...

Writing Article - Planning (Forged Destiny Example)

I've had so many people struggle with planning that I wanted to go into a little more detail, despite having covered it before. Here is something special; a sneak preview of what my beta, College Fool...

Writing Article - Plot VS Character Driven Stories

Is your story character-driven or plot-driven? Which is better? Should I write one over the other, and how do I identify the differences? I'll be exploring that and more in this month's article, which...

Writing Article - Misleading the Audience

You should never outright lie to your readers, but there are times when you need a secret to remain hidden, or for them to believe a certain something for a better payoff later. This can be hard to co...

Small delay on Patreon rewards

Hello all,

I just wanted to let you all know that there will be a small day on the writing article and the one-shot this month for Patreon's respective support levels.

This is due to wor...

Fanfiction Website Servers Down

By this point I'm sure some of you have noticed that the fanfiction.net servers are acting up - as they often do. This means I can't post today's story due to the site's nonsense.

I would post it he...

Patreon Article - Writing a Summary

You can have the best book, story, or fanfiction in the world but no one will read it if your summary is lacking. In this article I look at the ways to draw someone into your story before they've read...

Writing Article - Intention and Obstacle

Intention and Obstacle are the two most important factors of a story, beyond even the characters or plot involved. Here, I delve into what makes a good intention and obstacle, how to implement them, a...

Writing Article - Rebirth and Redemption

Christopher Booker describes Rebirth as its own story type in the "7 basic story types". It is a difficult one to write, and an even more difficult topic to broach in fanfiction, but done well can lea...

Writing Article: Villains and Antagonists

They're important to the flow of the story, but many antagonists are treat as nothing more than "evil for the sake of evil" cardboard cut-outs, and that's a mistake.

In this article, we look at what...

Quick Notice - Minor Delay to Article

Hey everyone, just a quick note here to tell a few short things. I'll keep it short, since I have to rush off to handle one of them.

1) Firstly, following my mini-poll around W...

Vote Time - White Sheep

So guys, I have an issue I'd appreciate your input on. As people know, the current reward tier we are on is that I upload 5 chapters a week, and that means each story is updated every week. I've been ...

Writing Article - Voyage and Return

The Voyage and return story type is one as old as time itself, and remains strong to this day. In this article, I'll delve into what it is, what makes it popular, and how to structure one for yourself...

Writing Article: Rags to Riches

This month, we start to look at story types, why they work, and how to write them. Meanwhile, Coeur grapples with a new keyboard that is a different size from the last, leading to constant errors.

I...

Writing Article Delay

Hey there, patrons. Due to something going on at my end, the writing article for July is going to be delayed - but only until Tuesday 1st August. Nothing else will be affected, but I just can't get th...

Writing Article (June) - Starting with a Situation

Every story starts with a situation, but what is the situation from a creative writing point of view, and how can one ensure they get the most out of it?

This article aims to answer that question, l...

Writing Article - Structure 2 - The Hero's Journey

This article is a continuation of the structure one I wrote a long time ago. It explores what is possibly the oldest and most successful story template ever used. One with history going back to Greek ...

A Week without Coeur

Hello Patrons, Coeur here.

I wanted to make you all aware of something before I do most of my readers. I've recently come down with some stress-related illness and the doctor has prescribed a full w...