DiscoverMaster Fiction WritingBecause > And Then: Building Stories with Causality (feat. Pride & Prejudice + Knives Out)
Because > And Then: Building Stories with Causality (feat. Pride & Prejudice + Knives Out)

Because > And Then: Building Stories with Causality (feat. Pride & Prejudice + Knives Out)

Update: 2025-11-18
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Description

And then” isn’t a plot, it’s a queue. In this craft-forward episode, we swap “and then” for the more muscular because / but / therefore and show how tight causality turns scenes into story. You’ll get a clear, jargon-free framework for chaining choices to consequences, plus two case studies that prove the point: a mini-autopsy of Pride & Prejudice and a contemporary comparison with Knives Out.

In this episode you’ll learn:

  • Why causality (not act labels) is the real backbone of structure

  • How to convert event beats into decision beats with costs

  • The Because/But/Therefore test to expose sagging “and then” sequences

  • A quick Coincidence Audit (allowed to enter a story, never to exit it)

  • A repeatable Scene Ledger: Goal → Opposition → Outcome → New Problem → Forced Next Action

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Because > And Then: Building Stories with Causality (feat. Pride & Prejudice + Knives Out)

Because > And Then: Building Stories with Causality (feat. Pride & Prejudice + Knives Out)

Stuart Wakefield