The Boords Blog

Pre-production includes the creative and logistical work needed before shooting a film, TV show or video. Explore each step in the pre-production process.

Good dialogue is the thing that makes your story ring true for your audience. If it's believable, they'll be on your side. If it doesn't sound like real life, you'll probably lose them.

Lots of people know what irony is but find it hard to explain. So here's an irony definition. It's a literary device that highlights the incongruity (a fancy word for 'difference') between one's expectation for a situation, and the reality.

You’ve invested weeks (months! years!) of hard work writing your story, and it all comes down to this... The end. The last line. No pressure.

In blockbuster films and best-selling books, there are certain types of characters that appear repeatedly. They're known as character archetypes.

An epilogue is a nifty device that acts as an additional – but separate – part of your story

It takes a lot of work to tell a great story. Just ask all the struggling filmmakers and authors, hustling away at their craft in an attempt to get a break.

If you’ve ever tried to write a story, you know it’s pretty hard. Nailing that plot structure. Crafting believable characters. But, if you’re clued up on the rudiments of classic story structure, it can be easy. Or, at least, a little easier.

A lot goes into writing a banger of a story. That’s why the writing process takes so long. But when you boil it down, each story is actually made up of five basic story elements.

Learn the definition of ethos, one of Aristotle's three 'Modes of Persuasion'

Learn the definition of logos, one of Aristotle's three 'Modes of Persuasion'

Learn the definition of pathos (a.k.a. 'feeling all the feels'), one of Aristotle's three 'Modes of Persuasion'