Video Game Storytelling

There is Detriment in Holding Back the Impossible

This sounds like a contradiction. While so many past Purposeful Prose posts, so many bloggers, and so many forum posts will, in words set...

The Art of Spellbinding

For the most part, it's expected that readers know that fiction stories are fiction. Readers might take meaning from fiction, and...

An Exposé on Exposition Part 2: Planting the Seeds

Fiction is incredibly difficult to write. While a writer of any text is responsible for their world's creation, the author of fiction...

An Exposé on Exposition

In order to be made accessible, writing needs a clear thread to follow. Ideally, there should be intention behind action and an end goal....

The Writer's Hero

I am at war with self-help. Specifically, I am at war with texts that are unnecessarily prescriptive and only acknowledge "the" solution...

Is the Three-Act Structure Still Alive?

"Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans...

The Stakes of Our Stories

There's a reason why I call my site and blog "Purposeful Prose." Every part of every text I work with carries purpose, and a part of my...

Try a Good Interactive Story

Months ago, I wrote a post for Purposeful Prose that contained an excerpt from the video game, Braid. I made the point that, in reading...