Unlock the Secrets to Writing an Exceptional Story: A Guide to Structuring Your Novel

Alan Lee: Like many I find this book references excellently well from whole structure to scene level theory and practice. However, as title mentions for some reason there is literally no advice on how to divide your story into appropriate chapters? Hence 4 instead of 5 stars

United Kingdom on Nov 13, 2023

Patty WPatty W: Terrific, understandable explanations of story structure and the sequence of that structure. K.M. Weiland used everyday language and examples to drive home the structure of novels and how to make your better. Very helpful!

United States on Oct 05, 2023

Tanya: Every time I pick up a book I'm looking at its structure now

Australia on Aug 30, 2023

Egor Z.: K.M. Weiland expertly packs in just about everything objective an author needs to know to craft a great story. She presents a theory of story structure that is clear and well-defined, but can still be molded to fit almost every narrative. My favorite parts were the Scene structure chapters - they have provided much more direction for me to write coherent scenes as well as an excellent lens through which to analyze others.

United States on Aug 01, 2023

Karyn: "Structuring Your Novel" est simplement excellent pour parfaire sa compréhension de la structure narrative et pour faire en sorte que les principes enseignés s'appliquent aisément et harmonieusement à ceux de "Creating Character Arcs" (que personnellement je recommande au même titre que "Structuring Your Novel" puisque leurs enseignements vont de pair).

Je recommande vivement!

Canada on Mar 07, 2023

Jennifer Lara: Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story by K.M. Weiland is the third book in the Helping Writers Become Authors series and sets out to demonstrate how the structure of a novel is the foundation to successful stories. Through examples in books and films, the universal aspects that help build a powerful plot and character arcs. Proper story and scene structures are detailed to time a story’s major events with better pacing and progression.
In Structuring Your Novel, inspiring writer will learn:
• How to determine the best methods for unique and personal visions for a story.
• How to identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths.
• How to eliminate saggy middles by discovering the “centerpiece.”
• Why conflict on every page is not necessary
• How to discover the questions writers don’t want readers asking about the plot and writers do want readers to ask
As an inspiring writer with tons of story ideas, I have no idea how to get started. Structuring Your Novel is a wealth of tips and guidelines with real examples to illustrate how and why these tips work. Every book, regardless...

United States on Feb 28, 2022

Nelke: Seit ich sieben Jahre alt bin schreibe ich eigene Geschichten, seit 2006/2008 professionell für Verlage. In den letzten Jahren habe ich in Bezug auf das Handwerk eine Menge durch konstruktive Kritik dazugelernt. Mittlerweile schreibe ich wieder meine ureigenen Geschichten, aber irgendwie komme ich nicht mehr in die Pötte. Ich bin so schrecklich unmotiviert und faul.

Auf der Suche nach einer guten Lektüre bin ich zufällig auf "Structuring Your Novel" gestoßen. Ich habe noch nie ein Buch über das Schreiben gelesen. Da ich ein ziemlicher Strukturmensch bin und ziemlich strukturiert arbeite, hatte ich mal Lust, meine Arbeitsmethode mit der von anderen Autoren zu vergleichen. Tatsächlich konnte ich noch ein bisschen dazulernen. Vieles habe ich über die Jahre einfach intuitiv richtig gemacht, aber dank der Lektüre könnte ich manches bewusster und weniger intuitiv angehen.

Weiland behandelt verschiedene Themen in ihrem Buch:

- die Wichtigkeit der allerersten Szene
- die allgemeine Struktur des Buches mit der Strukturierung von Einleitung, Hauptteil und Schluss
- die Struktur einer Szene
- ein kurzer Abriss über Ausdrucksverbesserung (im Vergleich...

Germany on Mar 28, 2014

AlanaMander: Over the years I have read a pretty large number of books on the craft of writing and found that I already knew all the points K.M. Weiland discusses in this book. The difference is the accessibility of the information being given. Her clear and uncluttered writing style is perfect for not only teaching you about structure, but also helping you understand it in context and use it yourself.

I have been increasingly stuck with my current WIP and I credit K.M. Weiland and this book with giving me a knew vitality for the project. As I read through the text I was having so many ideas that would help unstick my plot that I was furiously taking down notes the whole time.

I highly recommend this book to all writers, at any stage in their career. Just make sure you have a notebook handy!

I give Structuring Your Novel 4 out of 5 stars.

My Rating System:
1 star: I will never post a 1 star review because this means it was so bad I couldn't finish it, and I don't won't publicly rate a book I haven't read all the way through.
2 stars: I may have liked the story but it was badly written or it may have been a boring story well written. Something about it kept me...

United Kingdom on Sep 26, 2013

Robert Scanlon: I'm a consummate highlighter of Kindle books (non-fiction only. I don't highlight any fiction!). I find it a brilliant and convenient way to create my own person "Book summary". Just head to https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights and you can see all your highlights on one page.

Why do I tell you this?

Because "Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story" is easily my most highlighted book!

K.M. Weiland does an excellent job of distilling the huge array of `advice' about structuring a novel into one packed reference.

Not only that, she uses examples from two books and two movies to "show, not tell" how a perfect novel structure plays out in practice.

I already own a number of the classics: "Techniques of the Selling Writer" - Dwight V. Swain, "Stein On Writing" - Sol Stein, "Story Physics" - Larry Brooks, "Writing the Breakout Novel" - Donald Maas, "On Writing" - Stephen King, "Blueprint Your Bestseller" - Stuart Horwitz, but with the exception of the latter, you could do away with ALL of those and still have more than enough to plan a cracking novel.

What's that? You "don't plan"?

Well you ought to. If...

United States on Aug 27, 2013