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120 reviews for:
Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story
K.M. Weiland
4.22 AVERAGE
120 reviews for:
Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story
K.M. Weiland
4.22 AVERAGE
I don't always have the greatest attention span for non-fiction books, even when I'm interested in the subject -- like with writing books. But I've been glomming all the writing craft and writing business books I can lately, and I'm glad I finished Structuring Your Novel.
Because I had a few light bulb moments. Structuring Your Novel covers three different aspects of your novel: three act structure, scene structure, and sentence structure.
The three act structure wasn't new material, exactly, because you can find countless blog posts around the Internet that cover it. That said, with a book, K.M. Weiland goes into far more depth and provides examples for the overall structure of a book, and it went a long way toward cementing the idea.
Scene structure and sentence structure were by far the most useful. Scenes aren't easy to define. But the sure make a lot more sense now. And the part on sequels providing the reaction to scenes has already made my writing better.
As a grammar nerd, I didn't think I'd find the section on sentence structure very useful, but I like to be proven wrong, and I was. It's not just grammar being covered... it's how you use your sentences to tell a story. So useful!
After I finished, I ordered K.M. Weiland's other book, Outlining Your Novel, and can't wait to dig in!
Because I had a few light bulb moments. Structuring Your Novel covers three different aspects of your novel: three act structure, scene structure, and sentence structure.
The three act structure wasn't new material, exactly, because you can find countless blog posts around the Internet that cover it. That said, with a book, K.M. Weiland goes into far more depth and provides examples for the overall structure of a book, and it went a long way toward cementing the idea.
Scene structure and sentence structure were by far the most useful. Scenes aren't easy to define. But the sure make a lot more sense now. And the part on sequels providing the reaction to scenes has already made my writing better.
As a grammar nerd, I didn't think I'd find the section on sentence structure very useful, but I like to be proven wrong, and I was. It's not just grammar being covered... it's how you use your sentences to tell a story. So useful!
After I finished, I ordered K.M. Weiland's other book, Outlining Your Novel, and can't wait to dig in!
This book was a helpful tool in structuring my novel. It made me think about all the different parts in more depth, and even helped me figure out parts that I've been stuck on.
I actually gave it 4.5/5 because it is an amazing book for writers who are looking to understand how to get better at their craft. Came highly recommended and did not disappoint.
Plenty of good advice here. Worth a read if you are interested in structure.
A generally helpful overview of the elements of the three-act story structure, with lots of examples, but it's overly prescriptive for my taste. Weiland lost me in the FAQ section where she answered "Will my story be a failure if I don't follow a three-act structure?" with "Short answer, yes... Longer answer, most likely." She claims all successful books follow this structure more or less to the percentage point, which just isn't true. I'm not even sure it's true for all the examples she referenced. Still, it breaks down the structure nicely if you want to use it and explains the key elements such that you could deviate from it if you want to, deciding what to take and leave.
Just reading through this book in a casual way compelled me to work on the outline to my poor neglected solo novel. I'm going to return to it again and again.
This book absolutely changed the way I write stories. Or rather, it made it possible for to finish the first draft of my novel.
I always had this problem where I couldn't finish anything, no matter how hard I tried. I spent years trying to finish one of my projects, but I couldn't go past the first chapters (or, in some drafts, the first half). With Weiland's Structuring Your Novel, though, I learned how to plan my novels in a more efficient manner and, what is probably more important, to understand how a story works.
Structuring Your Novel is even more useful if you have the Workbook (which I do), but it alone is already a great read. It's really well written, that is, it's easy to understand what the author is saying and everything is explained well. Also, it offers advice on how to structure scenes and how to handle subplots, which I wasn't expecting it to do.
Highly recommended.
I always had this problem where I couldn't finish anything, no matter how hard I tried. I spent years trying to finish one of my projects, but I couldn't go past the first chapters (or, in some drafts, the first half). With Weiland's Structuring Your Novel, though, I learned how to plan my novels in a more efficient manner and, what is probably more important, to understand how a story works.
Structuring Your Novel is even more useful if you have the Workbook (which I do), but it alone is already a great read. It's really well written, that is, it's easy to understand what the author is saying and everything is explained well. Also, it offers advice on how to structure scenes and how to handle subplots, which I wasn't expecting it to do.
Highly recommended.
For a novice it really helped me understand the structure of a novel. I hope it will help me with my line of work. One thing is for sure there is a plethora of literary examples that really helped comprehend what the author was saying!
Well-written and organized. Helpful. Framed in a way that makes reading it feel less like being lectured and more like talking with a friend who's excited about the topic they know. I'll be reading the others in the series.
