Trick question for you: What’s one of the most overlooked pieces of the story puzzle? Okay, so it’s not really a trick. It’s a legitimate question with a legitimate, if somewhat surprising, answer. And that answer is: the scene. Yep, you heard right. The scene—that most integral, most obvious, most universal part of any story—is […]
July 22, 2012 by 25 Comments Structuring Your NovelHow to Discover the Purpose of Every Scene in Your Story
In creating meaningful and effective scenes, the most important questions writers should ask are: What is the focus of this scene? What is its purpose? Let’s a take a look at how to find the best answers to these questions. How to Find Your Scene’s Purpose Scenes are created in one of two ways. 1. […]
May 13, 2012 by 75 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 12: Your Questions Answered
Because of its fixed nature, story structure, once learned, is easy to grasp. However, it’s also a subject that inspires endless questions. A few weeks ago, while I was finishing up the last of the posts in this series, I asked those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter for story-structure questions you’d like me to address before […]
May 6, 2012 by 30 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 11: The Resolution
The resolution is always a bittersweet moment. You’ve reached the end of the story. You’ve climbed the mountain, and now you can plant your flag of completion at its peak. But as the finale of all your work, this is also the finale of all the fun you’ve experienced in your wonderful world of made-up people and places. The […]
April 29, 2012 by 31 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 10: The Climax
And, now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The climax is the pièce de résistance of our gourmet meal of a novel. When we wheel out the climax and lift the serving dish’s gleaming silver lid, this is the bit that gets all the “oohs” and “aahs.” The climax of a story should have readers on the edges […]
April 22, 2012 by 43 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 9: The Third Act
The third act is the moment we’ve all been waiting for—readers, writers, and characters alike. This final section of the story is the point. It’s what we’ve been building up to all this time. If the first and second acts were engaging and aesthetic labyrinths, the third act is where X marks the spot. We’ve found the treasure. […]
April 15, 2012 by 12 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 8: The Second Half of the Second Act
Now that we’ve passed the midpoint, things are starting to heat up in our story. The second half of the second act is where your plot really starts popping. Your main character caps the dramatic event at the midpoint with his decision to stop reacting and start acting. Almost always, this is born of a personal revelation, even […]
April 8, 2012 by 44 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 7: The Midpoint
Halfway through our stories, something marvelous happens. There we are, minding our own business, toiling along in the seemingly endless desert of the second act, when—whap! bang! shazam!—everything changes all over again. Legendary director Sam Peckinpah talked about how he always looked for a “centerpiece” on which to “hang” his story. That centerpiece is your second major plot point, the […]
April 1, 2012 by 26 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 6: The First Half of the Second Act
Every segment of a story offers its own challenges, but perhaps none leaves writers more bewildered than the second act. Beginnings and endings are tough to get right, but at least we have a checklist of things to accomplish. The middle of the story, on the other hand, is a yawning blank. We feel like we’re entirely on our […]
March 25, 2012 by 72 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 5: Inciting Event and Key Event
The first quarter of your story hinges upon two important and irreversible moments: the inciting event and the key event. I’ve saved our discussion of inciting and key events until this late into the series because these events can take place at any number of the structure points we’ve already discussed. Now that we’ve got a sense of […]
