4 Ways to Structure a Novel

[Music] hi everyone I'm shaylen here with Reed Z today let's talk about four different ways that you can structure your novel so all of these structures are relatively easy to understand and to implement but they also have quite a lot of steps so I'm gonna go over them somewhat quickly we have a more in-depth video on the hero's journey which is the first one that I'm going to be talking about and we're also going to very soon have a video more in depth on the save the cat or the 15 beat structure so first of all what is the benefit of using a plot structure plus structures are basically just ways that you can help structure your novel based on a pre-existing template now one big concern is that they make writing formulaic and I don't think that it's necessarily true those stories books or movies kind of end up falling into this same arc even if they're quite unconventional the thing about these structures is that they're vague enough that they give you a lot of room to kind of do what you want but specific enough to basically just help you with your pacing if you don't like using them that's totally fine if you do like using them they won't necessarily make your work formulaic but I think studying structures and knowing the beats can be really useful it kind of strengthens your intuition for what story structure is so the first one is the hero's journey let's look at this pretty quickly I'm not gonna break down the individual steps of the hero's journey because we have an entire video on that but basically the hero's journey also known as a Joseph Campbell's monomyth story you see this structure a lot in very large-scale plots oftentimes speculative fiction fantasy novels sci-fi novels Star Wars is kind of the perfect example of a hero's journey follows it very closely and basically what the hero's journey chronicles it's an ordinary person's journey to becoming a hero so they leave their ordinary world they're often a little confused at the start about what's going on they will meet a mentor along the way they will face a lot of trials along the way then they will have kind of a moment of resurrection this is often where they kind of ascend to a higher power or something along those lines and then they will come back with basically the key to solving everything and be able to return to their ordinary world if you think you were writing kind of a classic hero narrative where you have a character who starts as kind of you know a boy or something similar like that and ends up drawn into a quest it can be a really good one to consider it's a very tried and true story structure that works especially well for that type of narrative number two is the save the cat or 15 beat structure so 15 beat is one that we're going to be breaking down further in a future video it is a film structure so it was designed for film by blake snyder but it applies very well to novel personally it's my favorite one to use probably just because it's what I was taught in school so it's the one I became very familiar with but I think it's very useful so what 15 beat is is basically just an expansion of regular three-act structure so ax 1 is made up of five beats the opening image which is just our first glimpse into the story the setup which probably elapses over a few scenes which is basically just introducing us to the character's world and showing us kind of the status quo somewhere within that beat there's a shorter beat known as the theme stated beats so kind of if this is your set up beat somewhere in there there's like one point that's the theme stated this is just a very subtle statement of the theme and usually it comes in the form of a character scene to the main character exactly what that character needs but the main character doesn't know that's what they need yet and then there's the catalyst beat which is the inciting incident and then there's the debate which is the point where the main character is going to decide whether they're going to embark on this journey or not the second act has seven beats so the first one is break into two which is where the main character after the debate decides that they are going to embark on this journey then we have the B story which basically in comes from film term where you would have the a story the B story the C story etc this is often how TV shows are broken down B story is basically a subplot at the beginning of act 2 were usually introduced to another character who is going to function as a subplot oftentimes this is a love interest or the introduction of just another character who's going to have an important relationship with the main character after that is the longest beat in the story and that's the promise of the premise it's also sometimes known as fun and game fun and games is where we see the premise play out basically it's when you read the back jacket what you kind of think the main conflict of the story is gonna be that plays out in the promise of the premise after that is the midpoint so the midpoint is something you see in a lot of story structures it's basically a turning point so the midpoint often is either a moment of false hope or false defeat so if it's a false hope the character will think they've achieved their goal but then realize they haven't actually achieved their goal at all and the story will continue or they will think they failed completely and there's no more hope and then they'll find new hope and realize there's still a chance and the story will keep going after the midpoint is a beat called bad guys close in basically this just means that the forces of antagonism are growing stronger this is where you want to raise the stakes with the forces of antagonism growing stronger that leads us to our next beat which is called all is lost similarly to the midpoint which can be a moment of false defeat always lost is that but more this is where the character loses hope it's sometimes known in fiction as the breaking point basically your character thinks there's no point going on after this we end up with a beat called dark night of the soul dark night of the soul follows all is lost and is basically the characters recovery from that so they think everything is lost but then they have to regroup find themselves and maybe connect with the people that are helping them make a new plan to figure out what they're gonna do find some inner strength that leads us to break into three similarly to break into two it happens with the main character making a decisive action so when you're thinking of this be really think what choice is my character making here then after that we have the climax of the book which here is known as the finale this is basically just the ultimate showdown and it's basically where your character is II they're going to achieve or fail out achieving their goal and then finally there's final image so this is designed for film where there's a literal final image but in fiction it's kind of the same you kind of just think about your last scene and final paragraph and even final sentence and the last kind of note of the story you want to leave the reader with so the next way of plotting your book is through something known as the plot embryo so this was created by Dan Harmon and it's kind of a different way of looking at the hero's journey and for a lot of people it she's a similar result as the hero's journey but just makes more sense plot embryo is basically a circle the character starts at the top and they're in their familiar world then they move into the unfamiliar world but they still haven't been transformed then at kind of the 180 degree point they're transformed and then they continue moving through the unfamiliar world and then eventually back into the familiar world now having been transformed so it's kind of like a wheel like your character is moving around a clock and there are eight different stages so the first one is comfort zone this is what we've seen in other structures is kind of like this setup we see the character in their regular world and understand what's comfortable and familiar to them then we move into the second stage which is still in the familiar world and this is once something we start to understand that there's something that the character wants or needs and that a character needs to change so once something is basically where a need is established for the character so something happens in their world that requires fixing say your main character is kind of the standard character we would see in a hero's journey a boy on a farm and a lot of the time the need that's established is something like the crops are all dying or one of his family members is sick and that's the need that's established in the next we love the plot embryo we move into the unfamiliar world so the character then kind of crosses a threshold and moves into an unfamiliar situation number four is adaptation so the character is in this unfamiliar world and they have to adapt as they face more and more trials so again we can see some years to the hero's journey wherein the hero's journey as the character crosses the threshold they start to face trials and gain new skills as they're faced with these obstacles at the end of adaptation the character is going to have their revelation so basically they move from being in the unfamiliar before their transformation to being in the unfamiliar but now transform and because of that it leads to next point which is get what they want so after they get what they want that leads into the next beat which is pay a heavy price because the story isn't quite over yet we still need a lot of conflict and obstacle so the character has gone what they want but it's going to come with some unforeseen consequences that's the last stage that takes place in the unfamiliar world after this we move back into the familiar world there are two more stages here so the first one is return to the familiar this is kind of the act portion of them coming back to their known world and then finally we have the last stage which is having changed this is kind of the de new ma where the character is now back in their familiar worlds but they've been changed and they have the means to solve the problem that they initially set out to solve so now we're going to move into our last structure and this one is the longest and it's 27 chapters so 27 chapter is also a way of breaking down three act structure and it's kind of created for novels the nice thing about this structure is that instead of having to think about beats and try to figure out where they're placed in your story this paces it out for you very easily it's one beat for one chapter now there are 27 meets so I'm not going to go through all of them super in-depth but a lot of them are relatively self-explanatory so with 27 chapters you have three acts and each act is divided into three blocks each of the blocks contains a three chapter arc so the first one will be set up then conflict then resolution we're gonna do that over and over again so the first block has intro inciting incident and then immediate action the first block is focused on introducing the character in their ordinary world the second block is where we see the main character's life disrupted so here we're gonna see three chapters that are reaction action and consequence so these are all happening in reaction to the inciting incident that we had in the first block the third block which is the last block in act 1 is where we see the protagonist life change course chapter 7 we see is pressure which is where the character is basically in a situation with they're under pressure and then chapter 8 is called pinch now pinch in the 27 traveler outline means a plot twist so this is where we see our first turning point which leads into the next chapter which is called push which is basically the main character being pushed into a new world on account of that turning point now we're into act 2 which is focused around conflict in our first block the main character is going to explore their new world so chapter 10 is going to be new world followed by chapter 11 fun and games which is basically the same as we saw in save the cat followed by chapter 12 which is going to be contrast to old world basically this is just a moment for the character to compare their new circumstances to their prior circumstances block 5 introduces a crisis in the new world chapter 13 is build up to the midpoint and then chapter 14 mid-point itself like we talked about before midpoint is often a turning point leading into the next chapter reversal which is going to be reaction to that turning point now we're into the last block of the second act where the main character is going to start finding a solution the first chapter here is called reaction where the main character is still reflecting from the turning point of the midpoint and they're probably going to have a realization about what they need to do in Chapter 7 they act upon that plan and then a chapter 18 which is known as dedication the main character decides to move forward even despite setbacks this leads into act 3 which is going to lead us towards resolution so in the first block of this act victory is going to seem impossible for the main character chapter 19 is known as trials where the main character is going to be faced with an obstacle more intense or difficult than any they faced before this then leads into pinch which is going to be another plot twist or turning point and then darkest moment we've seen darkest moment in a lot of the structures so far we saw it in the hero's journey and also in the save the cat structure where it was known as all is lost this is going to be where the main character basically loses all hope and they're at their lowest point as a character block eight focuses on recovery from that so in chapter 22 which is known as power both in the main character is going to find a new will within them despite whatever is going on around them so the main character is going to find power to continue despite their circumstances this is often a callback to chapter 18 and they remember their desire to succeed chapter 23 is known as action where your main character makes another decisive action leading into the next chapter which is known as converge where plot lines will start to come together as a result of that character's action now we're into the last block which is basically the finale chapter 25 is the battle it's going to be kind of the final confrontation or final really important trial that the main character is going to face sometimes it's a literal battle sometimes that's used more figuratively then after that is going to be the climax of the book this is going to be the main characters last chance to make a decisive action in order to resolve the conflict and then finally there's chapter 27 resolution the final reaction to what has just happened so that is 27 chapter as well as three other structures that we looked at stick around for a more detailed breakdown of the 15 beat structure and remember to subscribe for new writing editing and publishing videos every two and Friday until next time bye [Music]

Channel: Reedsy

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Keywords: how to structure a novel, how to structure a book, how to write a book, structure, novel structure, writing, save the cat, the hero's journey, harmon's plot embryo, plot embryo, 27 chapter, plot, how to plot a book, writing tips, writing advice, authortube

Id: 3pvoLmSdOw0

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019