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K. M. Weiland
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Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story (Helping Writers Become Authors) Paperback – August 17, 2013

by K. M. Weiland (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,973 ratings
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Is Structure the Hidden Foundation of All Successful Stories?

Why do some stories work and others don’t? The answer is structure. In this award-winning guide from the author of the acclaimed Outlining Your Novel, you will learn the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will show you how to perfectly time your story’s major events and will provide you with an unerring standard against which to evaluate your novel’s pacing and progression.

Structuring Your Novel will show you:

  • How to determine the best techniques for empowering your unique and personal vision for your story.
  • How to identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths.
  • How to eliminate saggy middles by discovering your “centerpiece.”
  • Why you should NEVER include conflict in every scene.
  • How to discover the questions you don’t want readers asking about your plot—and then how to get them to ask the right questions.

Story structure has enabled countless bestselling and classic authors. Now it’s your turn!

Previous page
  1. Book 3 of 10
    Helping Writers Become Authors
  2. Print length
    295 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    August 17, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.73 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0985780401
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0985780401
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PenForASword; 7/18/13 edition (August 17, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 295 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0985780401
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0985780401
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.73 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,973 ratings

About the author

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K. M. Weiland

K. M. Weiland

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K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the award-winning and internationally published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel, Structuring Your Novel, and Creating Character Arcs. Her fiction includes the gaslamp fantasy Wayfarer, the historical/dieselpunk adventure Storming, the portal fantasy Dreamlander, and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. When she’s not making things up, she’s busy mentoring other authors on her award-winning blog Helping Writers Become Authors.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
1,973 global ratings
Great Help!
5 Stars
Great Help!
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!
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Top reviews from the United States

Joe 1
5.0 out of 5 stars The easiest and simplest book in scene structure!
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
Verified Purchase
The 1st half of the book is about the story structure, and it is perfect, and it deserves 4 stars!

But the 2nd half of the book is about the scene structure and its parts, and it is outstanding, and deserves 6 stars!

Why?

Even though K. M took the info from Doweiggt Swane, still her explanation and summarizations of Dowigt Swane's scene structure are unforgettable.
She is one of the story’s greatest teachers.
4 people found this helpful
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Robert Scanlon
5.0 out of 5 stars No need to buy anything else!
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2013
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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 only to avoid the pain of full rewrite after full rewrite. (For an excellent treatise on `outlining', you need look no further than Ms Weiland's own book. "Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way To Success").

There is absolute gold in this book - and I am grateful that the author has a real talent for distilling some of the somewhat clunky information found elsewhere, into really simple-to-understand and easy-to-follow techniques.

But don't be fooled by the simplicity.

There is no `dumbing-down' in this book. Just fully-developed methods for honing your fiction.

But wait, there's more.

Weiland also gets down to the nitty-gritty of MICRO-structure. So you'll not only be able to structure your heart away, starting from your main story arc, including the EXACT points where plot-points must fall; the places in your novel where your characters must face challenges; then where they rise above them, but the author will then take you by the hand and deconstruct the "how-to" of every Scene.

It's a sensational read, the prose is delightful, and the examples well-chosen. Weiland's choice of "Pride & Prejudice", "It's A Wonderful Life", "Ender's Game" and "Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World" will allow just about anyone to understand HOW good structure underpins excellence in story-telling across genres and medium.

To the reviewer who suggested the use of "Hunger Games" would have been icing on the cake, but perhaps the threat of the spoiler kept it out, I think it's entirely possible that K. M. Weiland didn't choose this example because Larry Brooks has just done exactly that with the Hunger Games in his recent release "Story Physics" (It's a great deconstruction too, from major plot-points down to each scene. Worth a read and fully complementary to K.M. Weiland's book. Much harder to read though!)
18 people found this helpful
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Jennifer Lara
4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for inspiring writers and readers who want to know more about story structure
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2022
Verified Purchase
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 of genre, has the same base, the same skeleton which appeals to readers. All stories are about characters, a setting, and a conflict or conflicts. Once those are in place, the meat of a specific story can be added. While reading this book, I took tons of notes to look back on as I outline and plan my stories. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the Helping Writers Become Authors series. Even if you aren’t an inspiring author, this book will help everyone recognize story elements that are present in successful stories in movies and books and when they are not present is when the story fails. I recommend Structuring Your Novel.

Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story
is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Karyn
5.0 out of 5 stars Génial!
Reviewed in Canada on March 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
"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!
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Carlos B
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely enlightening
Reviewed in Mexico on April 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
I had a blast with this book and I hope I can put all of its teachings to good use soon
One person found this helpful
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Rafael Lois
5.0 out of 5 stars Great tool
Reviewed in Brazil on April 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
This entire collection is a great tool for anyone aspiring to become an author. I highly recommend this and all the others
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Berta-Isabel Cuadrado Alvarez
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful
Reviewed in Spain on May 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
I am reading this book for the second time. I found it very useful because it not only explains the structure of a novel, step by step but also gives four or five examples of each point. Am going to start practicing with its Workbook, too.
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Tanya
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it
Reviewed in Australia on August 30, 2023
Verified Purchase
Every time I pick up a book I'm looking at its structure now
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