Comments on: It’s the Structure, Stupid

By: Daisy Whitney

Daisy Whitney — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:57:01 +0000

Always a good reminder that tension needs to grow and grow and grow!

By: Bonnie C

Bonnie C — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:09:55 +0000

It is definitely not for everyone. But I’m one of those people who’s life would cease to exist if bullet point lists went away, so I love it. Also I had the opportunity to take Blake’s class a few months before he died and the sheer force of his personality and enthusiasm was rare and wonderful to behold.

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:37:57 +0000

“You’ve Got Mail where the guy destroys the book store owner’s business and in no way improves her life.”
Wait a minute…. it was very subtle, but didn’t losing her business free her to become the children’s writer she’d always wanted to be? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so I might be remembering wrong, but I don’t think so. I know that’s how a lot of us get the courage to start writing, by having the snot kicked out of our business lives. (yep, me! lolol)

By: inkgrrl

inkgrrl — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:19:34 +0000

Thank you! Reading this just made little light bulbs go off in my head – figured out how to strew (rather than shove) my NaNo draft across/into Scrivener. Strew is more graceful than shove, isn’t it?

By: Katy Cooper

Katy Cooper — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:47:34 +0000

I call those moments when I finally get something my “Duh!” moments. I’ll figure something out and I’ll be really excited, and I’ll start to put this new insight into words…and the words are words I’ve heard a bazillion times before. Like, “Every scene needs conflict.”

::Sigh::

One of the things I love about writing is that it continually raises the bar on me…but that’s also one of things I find most maddening…

By: Joan Stradling

Joan Stradling — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:53:55 +0000

This is soooo helpful! Thank you for this. I bow to your awesomeness. =)

By: BCB

BCB — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:33:20 +0000

Thanks for the words of support, Katy. You’re one of the smartest writers I know, it makes me feel better to know you’ve struggled with certain concepts too.

By: m xavier

m xavier — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:28:00 +0000

If you really want a good example of “many roads to Oz” , check out ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z Danielewski. It would take longer than I have right now to explain, but there is a Wikipedia page about the book. It is truly remarkable what the man did not only with story structure, but with the text itself.

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:26:50 +0000

Marly ~ I took an intensive, emerse yourself in writing a short story/novel this summer. After all the previous courses and writing, things finally, finally, clicked. Nancy, one of the best instructors, demonstrated plot/structure with The Three Little Pigs. One does not see the inciting incident (Mama tells the three little pigs they have to move out), then she drew the tent pegs, etc. I finally got it, saw it, and use it. Amazing, how a simple fairy tale or a nursery rhyme makes it click. Oh, I like the stick figures with swords, scenes within the acts. Mind mapping. I like that. There is a name for the stuff that goes on inside my head.

By: Reb

Reb — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:22:59 +0000

I’m not that visual – my stick figures make me laugh – but I love that idea. The thought of being able to *see* where you need escalation is a lightbulb moment.

Anyone who insults someone else’s effective process sounds like someone to run from. God knows what else he’d have said if you’d stayed.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:43:13 +0000

You know, everybody recommends that book and I could not get through it. I think it was just too proscriptive for me. But lots and lots of people have loved it.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:42:15 +0000

People think in different ways. I diagram things out on a huge white board with colored markers, or on the computer I do the same thing with Curio. I need that and the collages to see the entire book. There’s nothing third grade about mapping ideas, in fact, mind-mapping is very new. The guy who said, “Third grade” is way behind the times.

By: Katy Cooper

Katy Cooper — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:31:24 +0000

You know, BCB, you’re not stupid because you took a while to figure some tough stuff out. It took me 10 years — and I’m not exaggerating — to finally understand conflict, and even now, I don’t get all the nuances. And it was the same thing: stuff I’d heard all along that I didn’t understand was suddenly so absurdly clear, it amazed me I hadn’t understood it before. But I think some knowledge has to be built up in layers, a lot of it below the surface and the moment we “get it” is when those layers are finally high enough to break the surface. Kind of like a little island in the middle of nowhere built of layers of coral, or something. You look at the water, and for ages, nothing’s happening, there’s just the waves and the surface of the water, and then one day, hey presto! an island.

By: Bonnie C

Bonnie C — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:48:50 +0000

Also, once the Beat Sheet is complete (and matches the end result) it makes an excellent blue print for the dreaded outline….

By: Bonnie C

Bonnie C — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:45:19 +0000

I cannot recommend Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat!” enough. It’s a blue print for screenwriting – specifically a 110 page screenplay – and his conceit is that there are 15 “beats” that must happen in a screenplay and they must happen not only in a specific order but on specific pages. Yes, it’s VERY constricting, but I’ve found it ultimately freeing. I can plug what I do know into the right spots and see the big gaping plot holes – usually in the “Fun & Games”(Act 2 pre-midpoint) or “Bad Guys Close In”(Act 2 post-midpoint) sections. Then I dump it on my CP and beg her to save me. Again.

By: Bonnie C

Bonnie C — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:27:04 +0000

Brust is genius.

By: marly

marly — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:50:16 +0000

Me, too. Thank you a million times. I usually don’t learn well without a visual. So I try to create my own. This may sound odd, but, at some point, I have to draw it, literally, on a very large sheet of paper. There is a sort of architectural framework with a roof-line that has more or less evenly spaced peaks (acts) and a taller spire near the end. Inside the framework are stick figures with swords that either lurk or engage one another or turn their backs on each other, etc., at different points. I told you it sounded odd. Yesterday I applied your (and Lani’s) advice to the framework in a more detailed way than I normally do, and it took on a new life. I can communicate theme within the visual. Events are now little fireworks – some with exclamation points. I can see -actually see- where I need escalation, and even realized my central conflict wasn’t quite what I thought it was. In an earlier class, I was asked if I didn’t think this method was a little third-grade, but when I’m stumbling around, it grounds the writing and keeps me from running off on tangents that amuse no one but me. So, armed with a bette framework and my cherished copy of ‘ “SHUT UP!” He Explained ‘ by William Noble, I think I might be ready for some more actual classes. After the “third-grade” comment, I tucked my proverbial tail between my legs and ran. Now I wonder what I was thinking to believe that man. AARGH!!!!!!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:45:49 +0000

The comments are always the best part. You all find the places I’m not clear and you disagree so beautifully (g) that I have to think harder. It’s the Argh People who make this blog what it is and I am very, very grateful.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:36:30 +0000

Act Two is the longest act in screenplay structure, but not in all structures. My usual structure has four acts that grow increasingly smaller so that my longest act is Act One, usually 30 to 35K in a 100K book. It just depends on the structure you choose.

By: Eve

Eve — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:31:51 +0000

Really, thanks a lot This was like an early holiday present having this wonderful conversation and making notes on what people commented.

Muchas gracias!!