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  1. Story_Marc

    How I Learned to Rethink Mystery Writing

    It's Sunday. You know what that means. This has been one of the most helpful realizations as a mystery writer for me. I wish I knew it sooner since... argh, it feels so obvious... Ever since it did click with me, I've been rethinking mysteries and able to construct them with so much more ease...
  2. Story_Marc

    My Approach for Creating Unique Fiction

    This one goes a bit longer than I usually do, but it was what I needed to share what goes on in my head in as concise a way as possible. Besides, eh, I don't really try to optimize for YouTube so much as create the videos I want to make. ...Which, in a way, fits perfectly in with what this...
  3. Story_Marc

    Let's Talk about the Curbstomp Battle Trope

    Since I discussed how gritty, brutal, and quick real fights are last week, I figured this might be a good follow-up for discussing the storytelling potential for more quick, one-sided battles. Hopefully this can get you thinking about more things you can do in your stories. If you want to...
  4. Story_Marc

    Realistic Fight Scenes: An Introduction

    This topic comes up so much all over and I just have so much I can say that I don't see others bringing up. I mean, I've both studied actual martial arts, fight experience, and tons of knowledge about theatrical stuff. So, with this, consider this a foundation for more fighting stuff. I can tell...
  5. Story_Marc

    Techniques for Naming Your Stories or Chapters

    Wanted to do something simple after all that prose stuff. So, want some stuff to get you thinking on ways you can name stuff? Here you go! If you want to vote on what the next video is, pop over to my community tab and give a vote. The choices for this week are... 1) Character analysis...
  6. Story_Marc

    Cadence: Make Your Prose Sing [The 5 Cs for Strong Prose]

    This week completes the 5 part series I made for helping writers who are interested in learning what I know about prose. This is the one I was most looking forward to, cadence. If you're someone who is looking for direction beyond "just write," this (and the entire series) is my way of paying...
  7. Story_Marc

    What Are Topics You'd Like To Know More About With Storytelling?

    At this point, most of you know I run a YouTube channel where I share my expertise to help people better tackle various things. Due to how I am, I have this rich storehouse of information, examples, and so forth. In truth, I own over two thousand books due to how I am. This means I have a lot I...
  8. Story_Marc

    Banish Wordiness (Part 4 in Prose Series)

    In the spirit of the topic, this video is the shortest since it's concise. I'm finally almost done with this series of videos on prose. I'm so tired of this, to be honest. I need to do something different... Something that can maybe drive numbers even, as I feel this will be most useful when...
  9. Story_Marc

    Prose Lessons Part 3: Paragraphs

    Meant to post this earlier, but I've been constructing my new bicycle for the last 2 hours or so. Anyway, I'm continuing my dive into prose, this week going over the third C: Coherence. This translates to paragraph-related stuff, which led me to talk about pacing, how to organize a paragraph...
  10. Story_Marc

    How to Make Your Prose Flow

    I'm back on prose this week. In fact, for those who haven't subscribed to my channel (which I'd appreciate it if you do, it helps me grow, which makes it easier for me to help more people who are interested), I'm going to devote this month to just completing the full series on The 5 Cs for...
  11. Story_Marc

    Tips and Tricks for Juggling Multiple POVs

    I know lots of people like having lots of main characters and POVs. I also know how tricky this can get with ease. So, to help people wade through that sea, I made this. As always, I hope it helps out.
  12. Story_Marc

    Improve Your Writing Part 1: Clarity

    There's something I once heard that eats at me from time to time. It went "as knowledge of grammar increases, creativity goes down" or something like that. I pushed back then and this is an even bigger pushback against that. No. It doesn't. Knowledge of such things INCREASES one's ability to be...
  13. Story_Marc

    Show, Don't Tell is Bad Advice: How to Balance Telling

    Full disclosure: While I dislike citing "show, don't tell" as advice, I also dislike ignoring its wisdom. It's all a balancing act that depends on pacing, among other things. I've often told people this stuff when I work with them more closely, but I haven't had the chance to go in-depth with it...
  14. Story_Marc

    Devil May Cry Character Study

    So, one tool I love using is The Enneagram of Personality when developing characters. It's insanely useful, as it can help make sense of characters and help give direction beyond just the surface details. To show what I mean (and give an example of this in action), I decided to analyze and break...
  15. Story_Marc

    Gaining Direction With Your Writer's Journey

    There's a book I read earlier this year that helped me contextualize the patterns of fiction writers, based on the observations of an experienced and prolific author who has written over 50 novels in all kinds of different genres and for franchises. It's a short one and I really want to pass...
  16. Story_Marc

    Writing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Taught Me the Value of Weak Villains

    So, got a new angle going for things this week! Instead of talking prose, I'm talking VILLAINS! This topic is a little something I started thinking about months ago after reading a bit of Manga in Theory & Practice. Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) shared something in it about how mixing in...
  17. Story_Marc

    Editing How to Actually Apply Show, Don't Tell (and Why It Matters)

    I noticed certain patterns when giving feedback to people (which I'm going to get back to doing.) This video is my attempt to help with quite a few prose-related things in as efficient packaging as I can at present. While I always maintain that anybody can ignore me and do what they ultimately...
  18. Story_Marc

    Writing Strengthen Your Prose with Narrative Distance

    I've noticed a lot of web novelists who could benefit from some lessons on POV and how it impacts prose, particularly with how often they use guide narration for reasons I discuss in this video. For those who are interested in digging more into this type of stuff, I put this together in as...
  19. Story_Marc

    Don't Like The Hero's Journey? Here's Reasons to Avoid It and Another Option

    Figured I'd share a bit more again from some stuff I think can help developing writers. I'm sure we've all encountered The Monomyth aka The Hero's Journey some time or another, so I made one video breaking down some issues with Joseph Campbell's theory and why it shouldn't be treated as the end...
  20. Story_Marc

    3 Questions to Answer When Designing Magic Systems

    I made a thread previous on this first video I made, but I can't find it, so this is quicker. I've completed a series of videos on designing magic systems that can help out anybody at the beginning who is struggling or wants a new perspective on putting them together. I break it down with...
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