Perpetual Story Strategies™

The posts below are tips and strategies you can use to create stories that write themselves, are coherent and full of characters people care about. In short, the posts below help you create Stories with Soul.

  • Why your characters won’t behave themselves

    One of the biggest aspirations of writers is to create believable characters, whether they realize this or not. We’ve all seen the situation where characters onscreen or in print are just “too perfect” or where you’re absorbed in the story and then suddenly, something happens, and you involuntarily go:

    “What the hell?”

    That’s when stories die—regardless of where it goes after that.

    It’s not suspension of disbelief anymore. It’s outright disregard for plausibility, because plausibility is always bounded by the world you create for the audience, no matter when or where your story takes place.

    As an author, you can feel it before it gets that far. You know when the dialog feels forced, the action seems contrived.

    Where you reach for the plot armor or the “magic pixie dust” to get a character either into or out of a situation that’s critical to the story you want to tell.

    And that’s when you’re asking yourself:

    Why in the hell won’t this character behave?

    The answer is unfortunately that you’ve probably done everything you’ve read or been told was correct.

    You’ve created your character profile. You know everything about them from their favorite color to their childhood best friends and their nervous habits that give them away no matter what situation they’re in.

    You know their goals. You know their flaws, their scars and quirks.

    And you might’ve even come up with those lists based on published character development guides or by reverse-engineering some of your own favorite characters.

    But the reason your characters don’t “behave” despite everything you know about them is because we assume that if we have the right pieces and parts…

    …then we understand how something (or someone, in this case) is going to behave.

    But that’s not really how people (or the world) work. People don’t really do things randomly.

    People do things because they seemed like the best option at the time, based on who they are, what they know, what they believe about the situation and what they expect will happen.

    You don’t touch the hot stove if you expect it’s going to burn you.

    And yet a lot of the formulaic advice for creating stories expect you to do just that. Assemble the characters. Pick a plot. Put them in the blender of your brain and presto!

    You have a great story.

    But the part that’s missing in all that is understanding people in a way that “watch people” won’t ever help you achieve.

    You have to know enough about the characters in your story that you can predict how *they* would respond to any situation.

    That means writing isn’t actually about writing or defining characters—or even worldbuilding.

    That means writing is a whole lot more like acting.

    Robert Downey Jr. may have played both Tony Stark and Lewis Strauss, but they weren’t anything alike. They had the same basic physical features. You could tell it was Downey Jr.

    But that recognition only lasted from the first moment you saw him. After that, you weren’t watching Downey Jr. anymore.

    You were trying to save the world of the MCU…or you were trying to take your revenge against the leader of the Manhattan Project.

    So, when you’re stuck with characters that won’t behave, don’t pull out your character sheets and look at what they are.

    Look at what they’ve done, what’s happened to them, and try to “get inside their head” so you can figure out how they think, what they believe and what they’re going to expect.

    This is what the structure of the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ helps you figure out—how to understand what drives your character’s decisions.

    Because it’s not what they look like, their preferences or their favorite color who make them who they are.

    It’s how all those things you know about them work together to drive your character’s decisions.

    Because, in fact, your character is the sum of their decisions, not a function of the plot. And if those two things aren’t aligned…

    …then that’s why you’re stuck with characters who won’t “behave” the way you expect.

    Because you’re inside *your* head, not theirs.

    Once you understand what really drives decisions – for your characters or for anyone – then your job as a writer is to step inside your characters and let them tell you what they would do.

    Because, if you do it right, even when you don’t know what happens next.

    They will.

    So, if you’re stuck with your own story, go ahead and check out the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™and see which parts you might be missing. If you don’t already have it, you can get your copy right here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    The information you’ll find inside the Blueprint just might be the thing that makes it all click…

    …and your characters finally “behave” the way they’re supposed to behave.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • How did we get here?

    One of the most important questions you must answer in your story is one many people never ask:

    How did we get here?

    And it’s as valid to ask when you’re starting your story so you know exactly the story you need to write to have the ending you want…

    …as it is when you’re just starting your entire story itself.

    Everyone starts from somewhere, and that somewhere is what defines who they are, what they think and how they see the world.

    So if you don’t know that…

    …you’re really going to be leaving your story to chance…

    …and making the entire process a lot harder for yourself than it could be.

    I won’t lie. Some people enjoy that part. Some people “just write” whatever they have in their head, and they leave it to the editing phase to figure out what it really means and to stitch it into something coherent and worth experiencing.

    But, in fairness…

    …that’s a bit like setting up the film crew in random locations around the city…

    …shooting for a month…

    …and trying to stitch together a story out of whatever they captured.

    That’s not how movies or shows are made—for good reason.

    And it’s not the most effective way to write a great story either.

    A great story starts at the end—at least generally speaking. That doesn’t mean you have to be exact and can’t tweak or change things.

    But it does mean you need to make some decisions.

    What will your world look like at the end?

    Why was your journey important?

    Who are the characters now?

    All these are pretty fundamental to helping you craft a great story, because each one of those questions sets up a sequence of dozens – maybe hundreds – of questions that must be answered if you’re going to write a story that makes the ending both inevitable and earned.

    Even if you’re starting at the beginning, the same questions apply. In fact, those same questions can help you determine exactly where the beginning of your story is supposed to be.

    And the less clarity you have on the answer…

    …and the less consistently you can answer it…

    …the more likely you will be to write yourself into a corner—hours, days, weeks or even months from now.

    One of the biggest problems I see in the stories I experience is the writers failing to answer those questions in sufficient detail.

    Because at some point…normally when you least expect it…

    …their story suddenly breaks.

    They reach for the plot armor.

    There’s a mysterious savior from out of the blue.

    And you’re expected to just swallow it and move on.

    But, as an audience, you don’t. And you can’t—unless the story is pretty crap to begin with and you’ve already gotten to the point where you’re picking apart the plot…the characters…and the inconsistencies in their world.

    You’ve done this.

    I’ve done this.

    But do you want *your* audience to do this?

    I don’t think so—and neither do I.

    That’s why I gave you the simple rules of the Breakthrough Scene in the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ instantly available to you right here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    Because 9 times outta 10…

    …I bet it’s going to come down to that one simple question.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Moving beyond “making stuff up”

    If you have an idea for a great story, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement. You want to just sit down and “get it out,” because you’re just sure it’s great.

    But there’s a problem.

    Because there’s more to writing a great story than having an idea, or just sitting down and “making stuff up.”

    And I’m not just talking about character sketches and plots—or even beat sequences.

    I’m talking about creating a consistent reality for the world in which your story takes place.

    One of the biggest traps I see people fall into when trying to write their story is that they don’t really understand the way the world works.

    And if you don’t understand the way the world works…

    …you can’t anticipate how the people, places and things in your world are going to behave and evolve as your characters experience them.

    Behavior and the evolution of people, places and things isn’t random.

    It’s not subject to your imagination, although there’s certainly room for that too.

    I’m not suggesting you can’t “make stuff up.”

    However, what I’m saying is that regardless of the magic, future technology or mythical beasts you include in your world…

    …there are some fundamental rules they follow.

    Rules you have to define if you want your world to be consistent.

    Rules you have to follow if you want to keep your audience enthralled in your story.

    The reason people say “write what you know” is because you implicitly pick up and understand these rules by experience.

    The more you’ve interacted with someone or something…

    …the better you are at being able to predict what it might do…

    …and the better chance you’ll have of ensuring your story sets up the factors that believably influences the way it behaves.

    But this doesn’t mean you’re lost if you’re writing about people, places or professions you’ve never experienced—or are working in worlds that are entirely imagined.

    It just means you have to be more conscious of the rules and where they come from.

    And while they aren’t that hard, you can get a sense of these rules in the structure of the templates in the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ itself.

    Establishing and surfacing those rules are why there are specific questions for each of the characters, the problem and the environment.

    They aren’t random.

    They’re what you need to know to discover or enforce those rules—even for new and novel situations or environments.

    But if you’re still struggling to figure out how to “write the rules” of your story’s reality…

    …then maybe the Blueprint can help.

    Get your copy of the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint right here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    Because once you’ve decided the way the world you’ve built works…

    …that’s when the stories truly start to write themselves.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Plot vs. Characters: which one really drives the story?

    There’s a lot of advice out there today that says the plot drives a story, and while this can be true to some degree, there’s far more to a great story than just picking the plot.

    In fact, without not just the right characters but also having a deep understanding of why they do what they do…

    …there’s no convincing way for the plot to come alive.

    And if the plot doesn’t live and breathe with your audience in a way that sucks them in and won’t let them go even after the story’s over…

    …then you need to ask yourself why you’re even writing the story at all.

    But there’s also more to it than just developing your character in terms of their background, their experience and their motives.

    You have to also understand something about why people do what they do, and the main reason people do what they do…

    …is because of what they believe.

    This realization has come from my own personal deep dive into psychology and human behavior for over 20 years and applying it directly in my business, professional and personal life.

    Because it turns out that beliefs drive everything—even things that are often seen as “evil” in both the world and the story.

    Sure, some people can’t help but operate this way, but if that’s all they have, then they’re as much of a stock character as the Fairy Godmother.

    Maybe characters like that are part of your world just like they are in ours.

    But those aren’t the characters that captivate your audience.

    The characters that captivate your audience do so not just because they’re relatable. The do so because they seem…real.

    Most of us aren’t really taught much directly about people and why we do what we do, and I think that’s one of the reason there’s so many stories with potential that end up never really going anywhere.

    It’s not because the idea wasn’t good…or the plot was bad.

    It’s because the characters didn’t behave like real people.

    And one of the truths about people is that every interaction we have with the world is driven by what we believe is true and right.

    It’s really that simple.

    So if your story’s stuck right now, then maybe it isn’t about your characters or your plot in the traditional sense.

    Maybe it’s that you don’t really know what your characters believe – what their worldview really is – and as a result?

    It’s obvious why you might be stuck with a particular scene or a story.

    You know it seems forced. You know it needs to happen.

    But you don’t understand the underlying beliefs, rationale and motivation that ultimately make it inevitable.

    So, if that’s the case, then I’d suggest you read the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™, starting with The What on Page 9.

    And if you don’t already have the Blueprint, you can grab it here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    Because your characters will tell you everything you need to know about how your story can unfold.

    All you need to do is learn to listen.

    To unlocking your story’s soul,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Untangling fear and writer’s block

    Do any kind of investigation on writer’s block, and you’re going to find a lot of advice and potential solutions for the problem. You’re also going to find a lot of people talking about why it happens, and one of the most interesting reasons I’ve seen is fear.

    That’s right. Now, there’s some psychological basis to this, because most of our other reasons for not doing something are in some way built on a foundation of fear of some kind. However, while you might be…

    …afraid what you write won’t be as good as what’s in your head…

    …afraid that it’s not as good as someone else’s work…

    …afraid that you might actually be successful…

    …afraid you’ll have to share things with the world it may not like…

    …or even afraid that you’ll have to change yourself and the way you see the world…

    …most of the time, this isn’t what I see stopping people.

    Most of the time, it’s their relationship with their story. And specifically, because they’ve lost their connection to their story, it’s pretty obvious why they’re stuck.

    There’s nothing to write about.

    It’s not that you’re afraid—of any of those things above.

    You literally are in a separate “room” in your head from the story you’re trying to write.

    And until you reconnect with it properly, you’re going to end up staring down the blinking cursor that’s taunting you at the top of an empty page.

    So…how?

    Well, one of the first things you need to understand is how your characters behave as people. Sure, there’s some specifics, but there are some critical things that guide people’s behavior.

    Based on the deep study I’ve done in psychology and human behavior over the last 20 years, it’s easy to assume that people are hard to predict.

    This is true to a point.

    But there’s still only a small set of reactions you can expect in any situation. In fact it’s smaller than you might think.

    And these reactions are driven by the way your characters see themselves, the world they’re in and the people and the events in it.

    The best part is that this can change—either temporarily or permanently.

    Everyone has a bad day where everyone is a threat and everything is a problem. That’s not random.

    That’s a function of the environment you’re in and how easy it is for you to get what you want.

    And if you don’t know what your characters want and what they believe is necessary to get it?

    It’s not fear that will stop the words from coming. It’s just missing connections.

    Because as soon as you connect those dots, understanding not just your character’s background, but what drives their thinking…

    …then my experience is that you can’t write fast enough.

    And stopping before 6am becomes a much bigger problem than staring at a blank page.

    The good news is that it’s easier to fill in these blanks than you might think, and helping you do that is one of the main reasons I created the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ in the first place.

    It gives you some prompt questions to help you create your story’s breakthrough scene (or scenes), and it just so happens…

    …that these prompt questions are a pretty good cure for writer’s block as well.

    To get your copy of the Blueprint, just go here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    I don’t want you afraid to write your story, and I don’t want you stuck staring at a blank page. You might be afraid of a lot of things, but I don’t believe that’s what’s holding you back.

    I believe you can beat your blank page by rediscovering your connection to your story, because once you do…

    …you’ll be back in the groove, and your story will be desperate to get onto the page.

    All you have to do is let it happen.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Stuck with a scene? Hit the pub with your characters!

    One of the things I see as a recurring theme when people are stuck with a particular scene is that they think their “writer’s block” is caused by things external to the story. I hear people say:

    • they don’t know what happens next,
    • they think they aren’t on the right schedule, or
    • they think they’ve “run out of ideas.”

    That’s where all the typical advice like “walk away,” “write something else” or “read something” typically comes from. Or, of course, to set up a “writing place” and make sure you write on a set schedule, because…“it’s a job too.”

    I’m not saying that these aren’t symptoms of other things, but every time I hear it, I think about the claims of how Jane Austin would write as and when she could.

    My own experience is that things like routine help, but I’ve also been stuck when I wasn’t quite sure was next…and I’d plow through all the advice of starting with anything and trying to make progress.

    But later, once I started to actually understand more about how the world worked from my studies of psychology, human behavior, and in particular, systems thinking, I realized that the problem wasn’t the schedule.

    The problem was that I didn’t know my characters—or their environment.

    Specifically, I didn’t really know much about what made them unique, interesting and different. Sure, I followed the advice.

    I gave them a backstory.

    I gave them motivations.

    I had strengths, flaws and quirks.

    They had their arcs. And I thought I “knew them inside out” like you were supposed to.

    But the thing I didn’t quite realize was I didn’t understand people. I didn’t understand *why* that backstory happened vs. other things.

    I didn’t understand why they were motivated to do something…

    …or when they’d do something that went *against* what they said they wanted.

    And most of the strengths, flaws and quirks were isolated and superficial.

    Because it’s true that you can’t predict what your characters will do in your story if you don’t understand both your characters and the environment they’re in.

    But you can’t really understand how those characters will *react* until you understand who they truly are—not just as a collection of characteristics and events…

    …but what that makes them think, believe and value.

    This is generally the stuff you’d find if you were talking to some friends at the pub after work—after a few drinks and a few sessions for sure.

    But only if you were paying attention to the “in between” bits that connected everything you knew about the character into a coherent whole of a real person.

    Because when it comes to writing scenes with your characters, most people don’t directly connect what they know about the characters to the actions they take.

    They assume they know…they do it by feel.

    And that’s exactly how characters sound flat…scenes feel hollow…and continuity drifts.

    That’s where the information in the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint becomes so valuable, because it helps keep you focused on how your characters as people respond in the situation.

    Not just in broad strokes—but in detail.

    And when you can do that? You’re not guessing anymore.

    You’re not “out of ideas.”

    And you’re no longer staring at a blinking cursor taunting you from the top left of an empty page.

    You just write the story your characters show you…

    …because you literally know your characters better than themselves…

    …and because you understand how what you know about them drives their decisions.

    That’s exactly what the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ going to help you discover. Grab your copy of the Blueprint here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    And before you try to take another crack at that breakthrough scene…

    …make sure you make your characters at least buy the first round.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Cooking up a great story

    Most people who cook use a recipe at least part of the time, and the most valuable use of a recipe isn’t to “try something new.” It’s when you’re doing something you don’t do that often and you don’t want to forget anything.

    And that’s really how I believe the “recipes” of plot structures, beat sheets and stock characters should be used.

    But even following a recipe requires “knowing the basics” about how to perform each step, and a lot of the time when it comes to stories…

    …those “basics” aren’t as basic as they initially appear.

    The theory is that great stories all have certain structures, characters and arcs based on the type of story you want to tell.

    This is true, but the question you need to ask is simple:

    Do you want your story driven by the structure…

    …or do you want the structure to be a function of your story?

    Of course, it’s not really one or the other completely—just like following a recipe.

    But if the only thing you do is start with the recipe and then go to the store to buy the ingredients…

    …the thing is that by the time you realize you need a particular pan by Chapter 3 you didn’t know you needed because you didn’t really fully understand what following the recipe meant…

    …your progress will grind to a halt…

    …and so will your story.

    I don’t want that to happen to you, because I want you to understand what drives all great stories from the inside out vs. the inside in:

    The choices the characters make in a given situation based on what they know, the skills they have and the resources available to them.

    Because if you focus on making sure all *those* ingredients are in place…

    …then any scene in your story…

    …is going to basically write itself.

    Because the outcome of that scene are going to be coherent, credible and inevitable.

    That’s why I wrote the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint for you, so if you’re still struggling to break free of structure-based storytelling…

    …or you’re still stuck on your Breakthrough Scene…

    …then just grab your copy of the Blueprint using this link:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    Because your story needs to be in the world, not stuck because you don’t know what happens next.

    And the best way to get it unstuck…

    …is to set things in motion…

    …so the story tells itself.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • When the going gets tough in your story, reach for this

    If you’ve been writing a while, you’ll have experienced that moment where you’re suddenly standing on the edge of a cliff, and you aren’t sure where you should be going next with your story.

    Most people break out the craft books at this point, because they think there’s a problem with the plot, their character or the sequence of their story.

    While any one of those things might be true and be part of the problem, there’s a good chance that when you’re struggling with your story – or that particular scene that seems impossible to write – the problem isn’t the structure or the mechanics of writing.

    The problem is your relationship with them.

    Because when we get stuck, we’re told to go back to “the basics,” because that’s where the solutions lie.

    And this is good advice.

    But “the basics” you really need to go back to aren’t about the craft of writing.

    They’re about the way people behave as humans.

    In particular, it’s about how we make decisions.

    After all, what is a story, anyway?

    It’s a series of decisions that move our character from the beginning to the end of our story.

    And the impacts or the consequences of those decisions is what determines if the story truly comes alive…

    …or it simply falls flat.

    I mean, for example:

    “British guy saves the American space program from some guy on an island with metal hands.”

    It’s not exactly riveting when stated that way. It’s pretty basic, it’s full of facts, and it says nothing about the decision anyone involved made.

    There’s clearly a story there, but we have to guess a lot of what might make it interesting. As it stands, it sounds like it might not have been that big of a deal.

    Let’s try a slightly different version:

    “Power hungry lunatic out for revenge takes over an island and tries to cripple the launch of America’s next mission for space supremacy defeated for King and country by a charming and charismatic British secret agent, saving the daughter of a prominent scientist in the process.”

    Given the limitations of a single sentence, this one at least hints at the most important thing missing from the last version of the story—and yes, even a sentence is a story.

    Because the last version gives a glimpse of the motivations of each party involved, and it gives us a hit as to why the story might matter.

    For the Americans: winning the race to control outer space.

    For the “power hungry lunatic:” retaliation for some past wrong and increase his personal power.

    For the British: fight for King and country to help the allies and have a bit of fun while doing it.

    If you’re a James Bond fan, you’ll probably recognize this as the plot of Dr. No. But the reason the second one works isn’t because it has more words or used more “compelling” language or vivid description.

    The reason the second one tells a story that lives is because it tells you why the characters were part of the story.

    It tells you the stakes.

    It sets up the conflicts.

    It implies the romance.

    And whether you’re figuring out the arc of an entire story or unlocking your breakthrough scene, surfacing these critical elements is what really makes the difference.

    So, if you’re having trouble figuring out why a scene is stuck, and you can’t unlock it on your own, then that’s when you reach for the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ and let your story show you what’s missing.

    Because when that happens…

    …even that scene…

    …will write itself.

    Get it here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Cause and effect won’t get you there

    Most people have a pretty simple view of the world—even people who are otherwise trained to know better. And that view of the world is based on cause and effect.

    Cause and effect says that if you want to know why anything happens, you just need to look for a “root cause.”

    Several techniques have been developed over the years to do this, including one of the most popular called “The 5 Whys.”

    Applying it is easy: for anything you want to understand, you keep asking “Why did this happen?” until you either get to an “obvious” cause or you start going in circles.

    But there’s a problem.

    Because most things that happen in the world aren’t that straightforward.

    Science knows this and it tries to cheat.

    We get “probable cause” which is really trying to assign some implicit or explicit probability with an event occurring…

    …or we get “systemic causation” which is a way to say that there’s more than one cause.

    But either way, we’re faced with the reality that simple cause and effect isn’t good enough to describe why things happen in the real world.

    So why would it be good enough to explain things in your story?

    Formally speaking, cause and effect says that the cause is both necessary and sufficient for the effect to occur.

    That means there’s no other thing required other than the single cause…

    …and if that cause is present…

    …then you get the effect.

    It’s guaranteed.

    And if it isn’t?

    Then we can’t be dealing with cause and effect. It must be something else.

    And it turns out…

    …that “something else” is one of the most important levers of control you can wield in your story.

    Once you understand it, you unlock the key to making entirely believable stories, no matter if there’s aliens, dragons or superpowers.

    There is a relationship we can lean on from science to talk about this, and it’s called “producer-product.”

    It’s similar to cause and effect with one key difference.

    Each producer is necessary…

    …but none alone are sufficient to actually produce the effect.

    Change any one of them – even slightly – and you can get an entirely different outcome.

    Now do you see the power you can have?

    Don’t like where things are going, you now have a way to find the easiest, most logical thing to change that will get you there.

    And it turns out that this leads you to the question on Page 7 of the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint:

    What would have to be true for the outcome I want to be inevitable?

    Answer that, and you unpack the true levers of your story.

    But don’t just take my word for it, go back, grab your copy of the Blueprint, and look at your breakthrough scene again.

    What would happen if you changed just one thing?

    Will it help or hurt your story?

    Does it get you where you want to go faster?

    Does it legitimately “raise the stakes” of the story?

    Is it more aligned with the reality you’ve created so far?

    All these questions and more are obvious once you realize there’s more to the world than simple cause and effect…

    …and it’s one of the biggest “secrets” inside the Perpetual Story System™ and it’s approach to creating stories with a soul.

    So, if you’d like to see the implications of going beyond cause and effect for your story…

    …then just make sure you grab your copy of the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint right here:

    https://storysys.me/blueprint

    To unlocking your story’s soul,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™

  • Lack of accountability isn’t what’s holding you back

    One of the most common pieces of advice you’ll hear if you’re stuck on your story is that you need to get an accountability partner. In fact, there’s actually even a whole accountability group on Clubhouse that meets for an hour to write in silence!

    But here’s the thing they don’t tell you about being stuck with your story:

    Being stuck isn’t about not having someone to make sure you check in every day and prove you’re writing.

    Being stuck is about not having clarity about where your story is supposed to go.

    That’s it.

    Because without clarity, you’re trying to force things.

    You’re trying to follow a pre-set plot, and the action or the dialog feels flat.

    You’re trying to force a particular beat because that’s the next one the beat sheet says should happen.

    And you’re trying to think of something “interesting” that should happen…

    …while staring at the evil, blinking cursor at the top left of a blank page.

    We’ve all been there.

    But the difference between being stuck because you don’t know what to write and hours literally disappearing without you noticing because you’re so deep in flow that the words just won’t stop coming isn’t about accountability.

    It’s about clarity.

    You MUST have clarity about your story and where it’s supposed to go.

    But one of the most interesting things about writing is that getting clarity is often one of the hardest things to do.

    Why?

    Because we don’t really understand the easiest path to creating a great story.

    We think that we can start from the beginning, pick a plot, populate it with characters and sequence it to the right beats and everything will work out.

    But it doesn’t.

    Because following the plots and patterns doesn’t give us clarity.

    Understanding our story, our characters and the problems they must face to make the story come alive is what gives us the clarity we need.

    And when you have it?

    It unlocks everything.

    Unfortunately, getting that clarity often relies on luck or inspiration.

    Until now.

    Because now, with the Perpetual Story System™, you can get that clarity by default—as soon as you have an idea for either a character or an interesting situation that inspires you to tell a story.

    And the fastest way to do that is using the information in the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™, because it shows you what’s required for each breakthrough scene you’ll ever need to write.

    Get it here: https://storysys.me/blueprint

    Because your story deserves to be in the world.

    And I want to help you any way I can to make that happen.

    To unlocking the soul of your story,

    ast
    —
    Andrew S. Townley
    Creator of the Perpetual Story System™