Story Shots: Hope through Tragedy with Hadestown
Author Abigail Morrison discusses how tragedy can be an opportunity to highlight hope in a story, using the musical Hadestown as an example.
Story Shots: Good guy antagonists with The Fugitive
Author Abigail Morrison explains how morally good antagonists can add depth and complexity to action stories.
Story Shots: Twisting tropes with Die Hard
Author Abigail Morrison shows how Die Hard uses tropes to efficiently develop characters, increase tension, and play off viewer expectations.
Three resolutions for my next book
Author Abigail Morrison lays out three resolutions for her next book.
Story Shots: Monkey D. Luffy, ronin at large
Author Abigail Morrison discusses how Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates fill the ronin story function and how it can be used effectively in other stories.
Story Shots: Setups and payoffs with Bullet Train
Author Abigail Morrison discusses how setups and payoffs are used to create tension, humor, and catharsis in the movie Bullet Train.
Abby Does Things: Lessons from publishing my first book
Author Abigail Morrison shares a few lessons from publishing her first novel.
Story Shots: Solving the Shonen problem with Juzo Inui
Author Abigail Morrison discusses how restraining overpowered characters via relationships, worldbuilding, and plot can lead to more effective stories.
Story Shots: Su-Won as the complex antagonist
Author Abigail Morrison examines the character Su-Won from the popular manga/anime Yona of the Dawn as an example of a complex antagonist and provides examples of how a complex antagonist can add relational, thematic, and plot depth to a story.
Revamping the blog
Hi All, I’m going to be making some changes to the blog, so I wanted to chat a little bit about that here. First, we’ll look at why I decided to change things; second, my parameters for choosing a new format; and last, what things will look like moving forward. The old In considering what …