Structure!

I've now written nine novels, and none have worked very well. I did no study of the craft of writing before I dove into it. Over the last year, I've come to regret that.

One thing that people told me over and over was I needed to structure my novels. Now, I had no idea what they were talking about. The other thing I was told many times was I needed more conflict.

Desperate to make my novels work, I hunted through the library's e-book database for books on writing.

Enter Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody.

The original book, Save the Cat!, was a book dedicated to screenwriting. This edition is the same basic structure but detailed in a way that fits better with novel writing.

This book was my a-ha! moment, one of the biggest breakthroughs I've had in learning my craft. I now understand what structure is and have a much better understanding of the kind of conflict I need to make a novel interesting. Spoiler: it's the internal conflict, the struggles a character has within themselves. That kind of conflict was something I'd never intentionally produced. But I had external conflict in spades.

To test this new set of skills, I plotted a novel I plan to rewrite with internal conflict for both point of view characters. I think it would make for a much more interesting novel with the same basic story.

I then did a brief summary of plotting with a sci-fi/fantasy novel I'd like to focus on for the near future. Again, it should be a much more interesting book. I've consulted with a writer friend on the subject, and he thinks it will be better as well. Time to fill out some character sheets and dive into detailed plotting!

I checked out a book on outlining a novel that I should read before I get started on that outline for detailed plotting. Hopefully it will be half as helpful as Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.

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