Every time I teach “Structuring a Novel With Good Bones” I learn again how difficult it is to condense the process into six hours . . . and how exhilarating it is to step back and look at the entire process.
At day’s end, it seemed as though I’d climbed a mountain where (for a day) I could look down at the forest and also take note of the trees. For those who appreciate concise road maps, my aerial view of writing a novel is below. Note the word ‘my.’ There are as many methods and belief systems are there are writers: this one’s mine.
Overarching Hints of Huge Importance (to me)
- Slay the reader over your shoulder. (Everyone thinks it’s you anyway: give it up.)
- Let it rip without reservation during your first draft.
- Be as hard on yourself as possible when revising
- Read, read, and read some more, and with a critical eye
- Built a great research library (and I advise print books.)
Timeline to get from first page to last
- Find your story. Find your pivotal character/s.
- Write an overview of your story (only a page or two) Find the ‘what if’ that you’re exploring
- Start a character list; using as much or as little information as you feel is important at this stage. (Name your characters with care. (Don’t repeat first letters, change rhythms. )
- Chart your character’ connections to each other.
- Capture scenes you will/can/might include: one scene per index card and then put them in chronological order.
- Outline the spine of the story, going as far into the cascading events as you can imagine. (Some see to the end right from the start, others do not.)
- Write your first draft. Try to work from beginning to end without stopping, but it’s not always possible.
(Repeat numbers 8 through 16 below, until satisfied with the novel) - When finished with your first draft, let the manuscript cool down for at least three weeks, preferably 6 weeks.
- Read the entire book (on paper!) from page 1 to the end.
- Construct a ‘what is actually on the pages’ of the 1st draft (a backward outline.)
- Outline again, using what’s there that will be kept and what you plan for revisions
- Revise for the large picture (Does the story work?)
- Read aloud (text to voice software is useful.)
- Revise to improve writing.
- Revise for every possible detail. . . . and read aloud again.
 Layers of Good Writing
1. Identify your genre (writing in one you respect) but don’t be a slave to a box.
2. Research (getting 90% more into your brain than you’ll use in the book.)
3. Character Description: Avoid thumbnails sketches; let characters unfold before the reader. Deepen descriptions.
‘Maria’s wardrobe was ninety percent denim and ten percent flannel ‘tells the reader more than ‘Maria had black hair and blue eyes.’
4. Character Motivation & Crucible
Crucible:
* Vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcinating a substance that requires a high degree of heat
* Severe test
* Place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development
Are you clear about the motivation(s) and crucibles of your character(s)? Why do your characters do what they do?
In Breaking Bad, one of Walter White’s crucibles is cancer. Another is losing his stake in a huge company. His motivation is building a lifetime of money for his family. Another is proving himself despite having left the company. He wants to leave a legacy. Motivation and crucibles build sympathy for complicated characters.
5. Setting: The right setting enhances and deepens a story, thus choose the one you can write with authority, whether from familiarity, invention, or research.
6. Story, Plot & Structure:
What happens: that’s your story.
How it happens: that’s your plot.
The structure is the shape of that plot.
Do you know your story? Does your plot move that story along? Plots trace characters’ changes during conflicts that are eventually resolved. (Changing plot structure so it reveals the story in as gripping a manner as possible is often your first step in revision.)
In Breaking Bad, the story is:
Walter gets cancer
Walter needs money for his family to have after he dies.
Walter becomes a meth maker-dealer.
How far will Walt go to get the money and how much at risk will he put his family?
The Breaking Bad story is fairly simple. The plot (how the story is told) is crazy-complicated. The structure is linear with an occasional (very occasional) back flash.
Examples of structural decisions are:
How and where you begin, length of chapters, point of view, the direction of the story, the purpose of structure (the list goes on, such as using a linear vs. striated structure.)
Many novels use the three-act structure:
Act 1: Reveal the character’s problems and carry them forward to breaking points.
Act 2. Complicate the story, adding tension. Characters become deeper; readers know more. Things become more difficult and then worse until a turning point is reached.
Act 3. Trials surge and the story comes to a climax, followed by a resolution.
7. Outline (the map of your story & plot)
Controversy regarding plotters vs. pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants) is common, but having, at the very least, an overview of your novel provides grounding.
8. Point of View
First-person past: I married him.
Third-person past: She married him.
Omniscient. Maria and Harried married. She’s beautiful, Harry thought. He’s rich, Maria realized
Second person past: You married him and found contentment.
First-person present: I marry him.
Third-person present: She marries him.
Second person present: You marry him.
9. Voice: Voice is the singular personality of your writing. Let it unfold. You find your voice; you don’t force it.
10. Tension: Want + Obstacle = Conflict
One needs tension for the reader to continue reading, a reason to go past the first pages. There must be sufficient questions they want answered. Why will they care about this character(s)? (Stephen King calls it the ‘gotta know.’) Characters must want something and they must have difficulty in attaining their goals, meeting their missions, and getting attaining their desires to build tension and the ‘gotta know.’
In Breaking Bad, Walter, Jesse, and all the family members face crisis after crisis. It is interesting how the least gripping characters are those with the least (and the most boring) problems.
11. Â Scene vs. Summary vs. Sequel
A scene is an active unfolding of action. For increased drama, don’t have scenes ending with things better, but worse. For real tension, scenes end in disasters, which require sequels.
Sequels are quiet times in the story, time for the characters to think and process, and react to disasters. Characters can make new goals to carry into the next scene.
A summary is a condensation of information needed by the reader, not requiring (nor interesting enough for) a scene.
12. Subplots are secondary to the main plot, but they serve the story. They deepen and widen the story; they should connect and relate to the main plot.
13. Exposition provides information that will inform the story. For example, your war novel will need some history of the conflict, but not all of it requires a scene.
14. Backstory:Â Backstory is what happened before the point where your story begins. Many believe that less is more. The backstory should be sprinkled, not wedged. Question to ask yourself: is this interesting just to me, or will it is of interest to the reader? Is it needed for the story?
15. Dialogue
See how it sounds
Read it out loud
Tempted to change wording when reading? Give in!
How smooth and polished is your dialogue?
Could you use more contractions, more sentence fragments, more run-on sentences?
Does the dialogue seem stiff?
Great dialogue is an art. A few hints (though you should read, read, and then read some more): Avoid adverbs and dialog tags other than ‘said’. The dialogue, not the tag, should convey the emotion.
Don’t: “You are an awful man and nobody likes you,” Maria declared loudly.
Do: “Not a soul cares about you. Not even your mother,: Maria said.
16. Interior dialogue: When is enough, enough? When are you missing it? There is a fine line between a character allowing readers access into his inner self and a character sharing every thought they have on everything they encounter every minute.
One deepens your story; the other makes it tedious.
17. The telling detail:Â Surround characters with the telling details of life: Are his dishes in the sink? Is her cut bandaged or has she left the scab showing? Does she wear a negligee or tee shirt in bed? Manicure? Pressed shirt? Dirty jeans? (This is different from throwing brand names down as a shortcut.) Neatly lined pens or a heap in the drawer will tell the reader more than writing he was orderly.
18. Grammar & Active Writing
John Gardner says in addition to the fault of insufficient details and excessive use of abstraction there is a third failure: The needless filtering of the image through some observing consciousness. The amateur writes: Turning she noticed two snakes fighting in among the rocks. Compare: She turned. In among the rocks, two snakes were fighting.
Generally speaking–though no laws are absolute in fiction. Vividness urges that almost every occurrence of such phrases as he noticed and she saw be suppressed in favor of direct presentation of the thing seen.
There is a world of great information available on this topic. (See a list of books at the end)
Don’t have Mary nod her head, have Mary nod.
Don’t have John sit down, have John sit.
Don’t write: Maria was so pretty when she was walking along the sideway.
Do write: Heads turned when Maria passed the old men playing chess in the park.
19. Dramatic Question
In To Kill a Mockingbird one dramatic question was: Will Atticus Finch save his client, protect his children, and face down a racist community?
Know the question/s your book asks. And don’t write *THE END*until they’re answered.
20. Themes & Premises
You want a sense of your themes, but, as said by John Gardner: Theme is not imposed on the story but evoked from within it, initially an intuitive, but finally an intellectual act on the part of the writer.
Theme is your central idea, your connecting thread. (For instance, in Mystic River, a theme is loyalty.) Don’t overthink. Theme is easier to discern when you are done.
Think of the premise upon which your book will rest.
Upon what central belief does your story rest?
A premise is the truth the story proves and helps readers extrapolate meaning from events—Jessica Morell.
A premise of the television show Breaking Bad is that we convince ourselves to do evil in the name of good. A premise of Cinderella is that goodness will shine through in the end.
The above is an outline, a mere checklist of the myriad topics you should study to go from ideas sparking to writing a terrific book. Below are just a few of the incredible books I used when I first began my writing journey.
Books on Writing: A Starter List
THE MODERN LIBRARY WRITER’S WORKSHOP: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Stephen Koch. Reading this book is like having the best kind of writing teacher, kind, smart, and clear, talking you through the rough spots and teaching you why you need motivation, action, clarity in your writing and how to go about getting it. Plus, Koch includes advice from writers ranging from Ray Bradbury to Samuel Johnson.
BETWEEN THE LINES: master the subtle elements of fiction writing by Jessica Morrell. A gifted and experienced teacher, Morrell offers a full tour through writing a novel, starting with Chapter 1: Art & Artifice: Keeping Readers Spellbound, through Chapter 18: Transition. She had me at her chapter headings.
WRITING FICTION: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway. Burroway attempts to guide the student writer from the first impulse to final revisions, employing concepts of fiction elements familiar from literature’s study, but shifting the perspective towards that of the practicing writer. A thorough book.
ON WRITING by Stephen King. King weaves the story of his journey to becoming a writer, his life-changing near-death experience, and his struggle to overcome addiction with top-notch writing advice. Write much? Read. This. Book.
The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig. Bite-sized chunks of wisdom that wedge into your mind. So helpful to have by the bedside or wherever else you need instant inspiration.
SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS: How to edit yourself into print by Renni Browne and Dave King. What? You don’t already own this???
THE ARTFUL EDIT: On The Practice of Editing Yourself by Susan Bell. Bell uses Max Perkins’s editorial collaboration with F. Scott Fitzgerald as a teaching tool about the fundamentals of editing, including interviews with writers such as Ann Patchett and Tracy Kidder.
Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon. Lyon’s book bridges the before and after of writing your book, first outlining tools for a smart revision and rewrite and then providing the how-to of preparing your manuscript (including suggestions for font and point!) and queries.
THE JOY OF WRITING SEX by Elizabeth Benedict. Don’t attempt sex scenes without reading this first. Just don’t. Practice safe writing and read this on first. You’ll never be tempted to use words like glisten again.