It’s impossible to explain how you should edit fictional structure without explaining what structure actually is, and certainly for the first-time novelist, that might not always be obvious. If you’ve dived into writing your first book without studying how fiction is traditionally constructed and now you’re looking at the end result wondering if it’s any good and what to do next, this is an absolutely superb guidebook. And if you haven’t actually started writing yet, or you’re struggling to finish off any of a dozen different stories you have on the go because you don’t know where the plot is going, I think this could be exceedingly useful for you too.
Here’s the good news; you don’t have to be a plotter to make use of this. In fact, I think it’s probably more useful if you’re a pantser, if you’ve just written your way through the story letting the plot go wherever it will. This book will explain how to find the ‘deadwood’ in the story and cut it out, sustaining the action and the interest of readers throughout the entire book.
Tucker does a great job of explaining what story structure is in simple, easily identifiable terms, using popular culture references ranging from popular anime to major Disney movies to illustrate what she means. There are comprehensive further reading lists in each section for you to do further research into anything you are curious about, but you can definitely do some massive improvements on your story’s structure, increasing its readability (and saleability) with this book’s guidance alone.
There’s some guidance about looking for alpha and beta readers too (and the difference between them) and what exactly you should be consulting with them about in order to improve your story before you finalize it. Learn how to fix issues with pacing, find out who your protagonist really is and why the story should both begin and end with them. Find out ways to make your villains more than one-dimensional, ensure consistency of your world’s rules (essential in science fiction and fantasy especially) and set your timeline to avoid confusing your readers.
I think this could be an exceptionally useful book, particularly for someone early in their writing career who hasn’t fully set their process in stone yet, or for authors who are struggling to complete stories because their understanding of story structure isn’t helping them get to a logical plot conclusion. It’s certainly made me think - after more than a dozen books completed entirely by the seat of my pants - about why some of them ‘work’ better than others, and about how I can improve the readability of all my work going forward by building in many of the concepts outlined here. Extremely good resource and one I’ll highly recommend. Five stars.
Editing Your Novel's Structure: Tips, Tricks and Checklists to Get You From Start To Finish is available now.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via Rachel’s Random Resources.