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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
Doesn't matter how long I write, I try to read a book on writing at least once a year. This book was tremendous. No frills just plain facts that will do wonders for helping you structure your novel. Very well done, highly recommend for the beginner and veteran writer.
I'm not going to rag on a plot structure book for being too prescriptive, because that's what you go to a plot structure book for, right? You go in with your grain of salt for some help and inspiration on the connective tissue of your storytelling, presumably because you've already got plenty of things to inspire you for the meat. If there's one thing I don't really need help with, it's encouragement to break the rules and follow my heart--I'm already following my heart, it's how I got into this damned hobby. So yeah, I appreciate when books of advice provide advice.
My favorite part was probably the first, because it had some interesting things to say about beginnings that hold true for more things than I'd thought about. Then I also liked the stuff about scene structure in part 2; you can find a lot of advice on really broad, three-act Save-the-Cat-y structure, and I can tell in a lot of failed books that they really did think they were developing a three-act structure, but they had no idea why it was puttering and falling over constantly. The scene structure part of this book is good for that. It gave me some terms and standards to keep in mind.
But I've read a lot of books that talk about three-act structure, and I don't think it's something that warrants this many pages. The weakest aspect of this book was all the overexplanation of concepts that explain themselves in their names--oh, also I think it failed to sell most readers on the concept of conflict? Like, I actually do agree that, regardless of audience and ambition, almost all stories do need constant conflict: but the reason that sounds so corny and hammy is because the word 'conflict' is so ill-defined and people just imagine constant shouting matches and unlikely disasters and traffic jams and are like 'well, I'm not writing an action movie that takes place over 2 hours realtime!' Sure, but that's not what that means. However, I dunno if this book really explained that very well. So I suspect some people are going to walk away going "well, I'm not writing some lame Hollywood stuff, I have bigger dreams..." and toss that advice in the bin and end up writing sludge. So yeah.
The funniest thing about it was there's a chapter-beginning quote by William Shatner at one point and it has a [sic] in it for an odd turn of phrase he uses. I've never seen someone include a [sic] in an inspirational quote before.
My favorite part was probably the first, because it had some interesting things to say about beginnings that hold true for more things than I'd thought about. Then I also liked the stuff about scene structure in part 2; you can find a lot of advice on really broad, three-act Save-the-Cat-y structure, and I can tell in a lot of failed books that they really did think they were developing a three-act structure, but they had no idea why it was puttering and falling over constantly. The scene structure part of this book is good for that. It gave me some terms and standards to keep in mind.
But I've read a lot of books that talk about three-act structure, and I don't think it's something that warrants this many pages. The weakest aspect of this book was all the overexplanation of concepts that explain themselves in their names--oh, also I think it failed to sell most readers on the concept of conflict? Like, I actually do agree that, regardless of audience and ambition, almost all stories do need constant conflict: but the reason that sounds so corny and hammy is because the word 'conflict' is so ill-defined and people just imagine constant shouting matches and unlikely disasters and traffic jams and are like 'well, I'm not writing an action movie that takes place over 2 hours realtime!' Sure, but that's not what that means. However, I dunno if this book really explained that very well. So I suspect some people are going to walk away going "well, I'm not writing some lame Hollywood stuff, I have bigger dreams..." and toss that advice in the bin and end up writing sludge. So yeah.
The funniest thing about it was there's a chapter-beginning quote by William Shatner at one point and it has a [sic] in it for an odd turn of phrase he uses. I've never seen someone include a [sic] in an inspirational quote before.
I spent my time reading this book with half of my brain throwing things and shouting "No! That's boring and it sucks! Don't try to dictate my creativity to me! You're not my *real* Mom!"
I managed to console it slightly by telling it over and over again that until you know what the rules are you can't break them properly. That seemed to help.
The material is presented here in clear fashion, from different angles to make certain the message gets through, and with a lot of useful examples from well known works. (Where there were examples, there were plenty, but I wouldn't have minded a few more on some concepts that didn't get as much attention.) I don't expect I'll know for a while if I find this useful, but I know it made me want to write again. If only it came with some ideas about what to write.
I managed to console it slightly by telling it over and over again that until you know what the rules are you can't break them properly. That seemed to help.
The material is presented here in clear fashion, from different angles to make certain the message gets through, and with a lot of useful examples from well known works. (Where there were examples, there were plenty, but I wouldn't have minded a few more on some concepts that didn't get as much attention.) I don't expect I'll know for a while if I find this useful, but I know it made me want to write again. If only it came with some ideas about what to write.
I own a lot of writing advice books. Many of them have been sitting on my shelf unread because I thought they were going to be the equivalent of a dry, boring textbook. Most of them have been both educational and entertaining, inspiring me to keep reading more of them.
I just didn't love this book as much as most people. I'd put this in the "dry, boring textbook" category. Two-thirds of the content I've read in other advice books, so there really wasn't much new for me to learn, especially the section on story structure. Although I was already familiar with scene structure, I did get some useful information and it was a nice refresher. The geeky side of me liked the section on sentence structure.
I enjoyed some of her references, both fiction and nonfiction. Her fiction references include Pride & Prejudice and Ender's Game, among others. Her nonfiction references are some of my favorite books, Reading Like a Writer and The Anatomy of Story.
I don't think I was the right audience for this book because it seems to be more suitable for people who have never read a writing advice book before. If you're one of those types of readers, then this is the book that you'd want to read.
I just didn't love this book as much as most people. I'd put this in the "dry, boring textbook" category. Two-thirds of the content I've read in other advice books, so there really wasn't much new for me to learn, especially the section on story structure. Although I was already familiar with scene structure, I did get some useful information and it was a nice refresher. The geeky side of me liked the section on sentence structure.
I enjoyed some of her references, both fiction and nonfiction. Her fiction references include Pride & Prejudice and Ender's Game, among others. Her nonfiction references are some of my favorite books, Reading Like a Writer and The Anatomy of Story.
I don't think I was the right audience for this book because it seems to be more suitable for people who have never read a writing advice book before. If you're one of those types of readers, then this is the book that you'd want to read.
super helpful! loved all the examples especially from popular movies/ books - helped to show it in practice.
informative
slow-paced
Do yourself a favor
Get this book. It is entertaining, witty, and filled with important tools and and guidelines to help you make the best of your writing project. A must have.
Get this book. It is entertaining, witty, and filled with important tools and and guidelines to help you make the best of your writing project. A must have.
Might I just say, I dind't know how to properly write until I finished reading this book. :0
There are a lot writing guides published on how to write a novel. I'm sure each reader of those guides has their favorites. Well, I will add that Weiland's Structuring Your Novel has become my favorite. She breaks down the essentials of story, scene, and sentence structure quite easily and uses examples from popular books and movies to back up her instruction. If you are looking to write your novel or already have written a draft of your novel, I believe that this book will help you tremendously. Highly recommended.