Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Basic Building Blocks of Good Story Structure

Hey there! This is Camy Tang, and Cheryl is letting me guest blog today!

She wanted me to talk about the basic building blocks of good story structure because I tend to naturally look at stories on a structural level. When I do telephone consultations for my Story Sensei critique service, most of my clients are looking for help to fix their novels’ story structures.

Lots of times, I’ll like a book because of two things: 1) good pacing and 2) likable characters.

For likable characters, I use a book that has solved all my problems: Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias. He has an entire chapter on little tips and tricks to make a character likable and why that works for a reader.

Pacing is something that writers don’t necessarily think about, because the truth of the matter is that each book has its own unique pacing that’s right for that particular story. One book’s fast pace isn’t appropriate for another book’s slower pace, and vice versa.

But it is possible to tweak a book’s pacing to be the best possible for that story. And that’s where story structure comes in.

Story structure is like the framework of a house. You can hang the walls and the roof, apply drywall and paint it all pretty, but if the underlying framework isn’t strong, the house isn’t well built.

Therefore, a book’s story structure has to be well built, just like a house, for the story to be the best it can be.

If a book has solid story structure, the pacing of the scenes and the purpose of the characters will fall in place naturally, on their own. And if any of you know me, I’m all for less work for the author! LOL

How to get good story structure? Here’s my quick and dirty list:

Inciting Incident: This starts the story. This is the incident that thrusts the characters on their goal for the entire book.

Character External Goal and Motivation: Psychologically, readers tend to be more engaged in a story with a character who is proactive about achieving her goal than a character who is reactive to the things around her.

Being “proactive” could be actively (or tenaciously) pursuing a goal or endpoint, but it could also be passive, like withstanding an enemy force (like in Tolkien’s The Two Towers where the Men are trying to hold Helm’s Deep against the Orcs) or escaping someone trying to kill her (like in any horror slasher movie). A “passive” goal is NOT less filled with conflict, however, and the character is still stalwart in achieving the goal.

Two to four Major Disasters: Most books and movies break down into 2-4 “major” events of conflict that happen. I don’t know why the number hovers around three—I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a psychological reason for it.

The key of good structure is that these Major Disasters directly work against the character’s external goal (above). They can’t be just “bad things that happen” to the character—they have to have some purpose against the character’s goal.

The reason is that when this is true, the Disasters have more emotional impact on the character, since they’re thwarting the character’s goal. More emotional impact usually means more reader engagement in the story.

Box the Character in Toward the Climax: Dwight Swain puts it very well in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer: Essentially, that you slowly box the hero in, little by little, and then in the climax, you give the hero a choice between either two very bad choices or two very good choices (not both at once).

Forcing the hero to this type of choice heightens the emotional impact again (which means more reader engagement in the story) and makes for a more exciting climax. It also brings into play the hero’s morality, forcing him to make a moral choice. More emotion! More reader engagement!

Realistic Resolution: Be wary of a nice ending that ties everything up in five pages. Your reader has invested time in reading the book—therefore, she wants you to take the time to tie things up satisfactorily.

In my opinion, the above five things are what form the “framework” of a good story. If you have these, your pacing will usually naturally fall into place without problems (and without added stress on the writer!).

I hope that helps any of you writers out there. Thanks for having me here, Cheryl!
Camy

Camy’s new book is out now!

DEADLY INTENT
by
Camy Tang

SCENE OF THE CRIME

The Grant family’s exclusive Sonoma spa is a place for rest and relaxation—not murder! Then Naomi Grant finds her client Jessica Ortiz bleeding to death in her massage room, and everything falls apart. The salon’s reputation is at stake...and so is Naomi’s freedom when she discovers that she is one of the main suspects! Her only solace is found with the other suspect—Dr. Devon Knightley, the victim’s ex-husband. But Devon is hiding secrets of his own. When they come to light, where can Naomi turn...and whom can she trust?

About Camy:

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every week, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now, giving away fourteen boxes of books and 24 copies of her latest release, DEADLY INTENT.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Saturday Book Stroll! Deadly Intent by Camy Tang


Welcome to Saturday Book Stroll! I'm very excited to feature my friend Camy's first release from Steeple Hill, Love Inspired Suspense. You may be familiar with Camy's Sushi series from Zondervan. Camy's also writing for Love Inspired Suspense.

I hope you will jog to the store and pick up your copy sometime in the next couple of weeks. Deadly Intent is IN STORES NOW.

Blurb:
The Grant family's exclusive Sonoma spa is a place for rest and
relaxation—not murder! When Naomi Grant finds her client Jessica Ortiz
bleeding to death in her massage room, everything falls apart. The
salon's reputation is at stake…and so is Naomi's freedom when she
discovers that she is one of the main suspects! Her only solace is
found with the other suspect—Dr. Devon Knightley, the victim's
ex-husband. But Devon is hiding secrets of his own. When they come to
light, where can Naomi turn…and whom can she trust?

Bio:
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a
biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group
and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story
Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian
novels every week, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs
(namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...),
the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind.
Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website
contest going on right now, giving away fourteen boxes of books and 24
copies of her latest release, DEADLY INTENT.

Purchase links:
Buy from Christianbook.com
Buy from Amazon

http://www.camytang.com/
Romance with a kick of wasabi

Monday, July 06, 2009

Monday Book Mania! Montana Rose by Mary Connealy


Welcome to Monday Book Mania!

I am super duper excited to announce that Mary Connealy's Montana Rose is IN STORES NOW!

About the book:

Montana Rose—Left pregnant and widowed in the unforgiving west,
Cassie is forced into an unwanted marriage to rancher Red Dawson.

No decent man could turn away from Cassie and leave her to the rough men
in Divide, Montana. Red Dawson does what he must, joining his life to a
spoiled, snooty woman. Now he's got to keep her from killing herself
with her efforts to be helpful, and prevent her attempts to be a good
wife from leaving his ranch in ruins. And while Red struggles with his
overly obedient but badly incompetent wife, an obsessed man plots to
make Cassie his own, something he can't do as long as Red lives.

Montana Rose was actually inspired by Janette Oke's beautiful
classic novel Love Comes Softly. Of course, me being me, my novel has
taken an alarming turn to romantic comedy, suspense and mayhem.

Mary thinks of it as Love Comes Hardly.

Buy Montana Rose online at places such as Amazon, Christianbooks, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Waldens, etc.

Or find it in a bookstore near you. If it's NOT
there, ask the clerk to order it for you.

Mary has a great newsletter by the way. And she is not only warm and kind, she is THE funniest woman on the face of the earth. Check out her Web site and sign up for her newsletter. www.maryconnealy.com

Hope you will pick up a copy of Montana Rose today! Mary's writing is top notch and her books will remain in your mind like a mental motion picture for months after you read the book.

Have a wonderful week.

Cheryl Wyatt

Saturday, July 04, 2009

CONGRATULATIONS KINDLE 2 WINNER-JEAN KINSEY

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to the winner of the Kindle 2 from my recent newsletter contest. Jean Kinsey's entry was unanimously voted as the most touching.

There were some REALLY great entries as to why folks thought they should win this Kindle 2. I laughed at many and grew tearful at others. Great job, everyone. This was so hard to choose a winner.

If you aren't yet a part of my newsletter and don't want to miss the opportunity for more contests with great prizes, exclusive to newsletter subscribers, visit my Web site at www.cherylwyatt.com (or click the header link above) and sign up in the newsletter space provided.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Cheryl Wyatt

Friday, July 03, 2009

Free Book Fridays

Hey all,

Due to deadlines I've had to put Free Book Fridays and Prompt Tuesdays on hold for a few months.

BUT....once I start that back up this year, I'll make up time by giving away AN ENTIRE BOX OF STEEPLE HILL BOOKS!

So thanks for hanging in there with me during my busy season.

Hugs all!

Cheryl

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Blogging at Craftie Ladies Today

Blogging here today. Hope you will drop by and comment.



Craftie Ladies of Romance

Cheryl Wyatt