What is Story Structure Anyway?
Every article, short story, novel or nonfiction book has underlying structure. Your writing is the canvas of a tent and the structure—regardless of your form or genre—are the pegs and stakes that hold it up.
Every article, short story, novel or nonfiction book has underlying structure. Your writing is the canvas of a tent and the structure—regardless of your form or genre—are the pegs and stakes that hold it up.
The keyboard sat quietly waiting for the fingers of its familiar friend. Over the past five years together, they’d sent nearly 1.5 million words from the nebulous universe of a creative soul onto paper. Sure, some of those words never left the computer files. But many of them had soared into the world of publishing …
There are books on the process of writing a novel. Entire websites are dedicated to the subject. And none of them suggest doing it the way I’m about to demonstrate. As I move through the process, the reason for that will become abundantly clear. In fact, multiple reasons for avoiding my novel way of writing …
This spring, I’ve had my second – and third – encounter with a group of beta readers. Even as my stinging ego debates whether they are the bane of my existence or a boon to my career, I can’t deny they are essential. If you’re a writer, you need beta readers. Further, you need beta …
Writer’s need to develop rhino skin, it’s true. If you want to improve your writing, you will need other writers to critique it. Early and often, you should subject yourself to (constructive) criticism from writers you admire. “Be careful what you wish for” Recently, I paid to have a published author of urban fantasy critique …
Don’t ask for a critique unless you want your writing shredded Read More »
No one who has actually ever written a book thinks they want to write a book. They like telling stories. They enjoy playing with words. Creating things using sentences and punctuation as opposed to brushstrokes and paint is very appealing to them. When we sit down to write a book, we don’t think we’re going …
At the behest of my Jedi Master, Kristen Lamb, I’ve begun dog-earring a copy of Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. It’s a masterful guide for creating a strong, complex story. If you’re thinking, “I’ve got story structure down,” I thought similarly after highlighting James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure into rainbow-like proportions. Brooks subtitled his …