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Friday, May 20, 2011

The Six Core Competencies (6 cc's): a mind map

In a previous post, I showed my mind map of one of the 6 cc's--story structure. I've decided to show my mind map of all six. The order of the 6 cc's is not important, only that you have them working for you (according to Larry Brooks, author of Story Engineering). I think of them as a living being of sorts: story structure is the skeleton, character is the muscle and skin, scene execution as the organs working together, concept is the heart and soul of the story, and theme and voice are both embedded in and permeate the entire story like blood and oxygen. You can look at them separately if you wish, but they work together as a whole.

As in the previous posts, I'll show the entire map and various sections. Some of this is difficult to read, but I hope you get the idea. One of the benefits of this mind map is seeing the thing as a whole, which, when I did, gave me the idea of the 6 cc's being like a living being. I could see that these things overlapped and worked together. You can almost overlay scene execution onto story structure. Concept feeds the veins. I hope this analogy works for you. If you see it differently or something better, let me know.

Entire Mind Map of the 6 cc's


Story Structure



Concept, Scene Execution, & Character



Voice & Theme

3 comments:

Tanya Reimer said...

What a fun way to look at the story concept! I've heard a lot of analogies, but this one is unique.

You're so right, everything is related, and that's what makes it a kinda magic. Really it does.

Anonymous said...

You have certainly demonstrated in a unique way how everything in a story is related!

Thanks for stopping by MY blog this evening. Hope it's a good one for you.
Ann Best, Memoir Author

PK HREZO said...

Hi Richard! I've seen this type of mapping before and I really like how it lets your mind flow and gives you freedom to branch out with ideas. I haven't used one yet, preferring a more linear way of thinking, but can totally see how it works for writers.

Nice to meet you! Found you from Tanya's blog. :)