Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys For Writing An Outstanding Story is a really useful tool for writers who haven’t been formally educated in the craft of writing and language structure (like myself). K.M. Weiland carefully breaks down, using references with which most people will be familiar, just what goes into making up a successful story and how to replicate that successful structure when planning and writing your own.
While the examples given are in some cases films, they are all based on successful books, illustrating the fact that story structure is pretty universal across both screenplays and novels.
Weiland breaks down the structure of story into first the three acts with which many may already be familiar, and then further into the specific turning points and events and where they should occur within the story. Finally, she breaks down how to write a scene, with action, sequel and setup for the next scene.
I’ve read a number of books on the structure of story before and found some of them really heavy going, but this one is easy to understand, with examples I was familiar with. I got a lot out of it, useful techniques I hope to apply going forward.
If you are a writer, or have ambitions to be one, and you haven’t formally studied creative writing or story structure, I highly recommend this book. It’s definitely made me look at my own scenes with a more critical eye and helped me understand why some of them are falling flat. Five stars.
