Most writers have never heard of sequels—not the publishing kind, but the structural kind that lives between scenes. This essay breaks down the four beats of a properly designed sequel—emotional reaction, review, anticipation, and decision—so you can stop writing stalled interiority and start building character turns that actually move the story.

Most readers admire the ending of A Good Man Is Hard to Find for its shock. They miss its design. This essay breaks down the final scene through craft principles—POV, goal, obstacle, escalation—to show how Flannery O’Connor structures tension, moral exposure, and rupture with absolute precision.

Most scenes fail because they’re not designed—they’re just written. This essay breaks down the four structural elements every scene needs to work: a point-of-view character with something to lose, a clear goal, a meaningful obstacle, and an outcome that escalates tension. Includes scene breakdowns from Breaking Bad, The Godfather, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Symbols aren’t decoration—they’re pathways inward. When skillfully crafted into image systems, symbols transform storytelling from good to unforgettable. Discover how to deepen your narrative’s emotional resonance, guiding readers seamlessly into fiction’s vivid, continuous dream.

The final scene of A Good Man is Hard to Find is a masterclass in scene construction, illustrating how conflict, obstacles, and escalation work together to drive a story toward a powerful, inevitable conclusion. By focusing on the grandmother’s shifting goals, the unstoppable force of the Misfit, and the relentless escalation of the conflict, O’Connor creates a scene that leaves readers questioning the very nature of goodness, morality, and grace.

Jane Austen pioneered Free Indirect Style—blending narration with a character’s inner thoughts for seamless, immersive storytelling. Today, genre fiction has perfected this technique, using it to deepen character psychology, heighten suspense, and enrich worldbuilding. Whether you write fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, or romance, mastering FIS will take your writing to the next level.

The Misfit in A Good Man is Hard to Find isn’t just a villain—he’s a mirror to the grandmother’s flaws. By opposing her superficial morality, he forces her to confront uncomfortable truths about faith and humanity. His philosophical depth adds layers to the story, making him one of literature’s most compelling antagonists.

Before you know it, that novel you've been so excited about has been collecting dust for months. Sound familiar?

Explore how Flannery O’Connor masterfully blends external conflict and emotional depth in A Good Man is Hard to Find, with insights from McKee and Maass on character complexity.

If you're thinking about characters as real people, you're already off track. People are complicated, messy, and—let’s face it—a lot of what we do in real life is boring.

It may feel like a wise strategy to create fictional characters out of what you know about real people, the truth is that while characters are complex, people are just complicated. Additionally, characters’ stories unfold in an engaging sequence of events, while a real person’s life doesn’t. Think about it: we spend most of our lives sleeping. Who would want to write a story about that?

One of the many dirty, cramped, weird, and isolated rooms where I’ve made fiction. Feels like home.

Understanding your character’s basic personality traits is critical to designing their arc. Sound easy until you consider the problem. Which traits should we use? In what combination? And why?

A story that’s well-designed at the scene level nearly always hangs together at the macro-level of plot.

I’ve said this many times, in many fiction workshops, but as writers we should carry notebooks with us everywhere we go.

Consistency, brevity, and unity are essential to create the vivid continuous dream of fiction, as John Gardner explained. But that’s not what a second draft is for. And it’s certainly not the place to iron out typos and clumsy prose.

We should be working on developing complex characters so that the plot—defined as what happens when characters are put under pressure—unfolds on its own.

When it comes to finishing a novel, we need to know exactly what best practices will get us over the finish line. The best way to plan your novel and actually finish is to use Plot Math.

Doing this cycle not only gives me more ideas, loglines, and openers then I could possibly ever write, it also keeps me very sharp in my ability to generate stories. I never feel stuck, crushed, or blocked.

POV problems are the easiest for the unpracticed writer to make and they plague even high-skill writers. They are vital to fix! Sloppy POV erodes a writer’s credibility and a reader’s trust.