Story Structure

and the

Writing Process

by Mary Furse

As a writer, you may find yourself getting stuck. You may be just starting out, with the spark of an idea, but staring at a blank page, not sure where to begin. You may have been writing for years with plenty of advice filed away in your brain, but nothing to show for it but a pile of unfinished projects and crumbling dreams. Then again, you might have actually finished an entire book, but your excitement fades to disappointment as you realize that heavy revisions are in order. Your friends are getting bored partway through the book or they don’t like your beloved protagonist. You aren’t getting those Amazon sales, but you are getting “thanks, but no thanks” emails from agents and publishers.

Now you’re faced with figuring out what revisions to make, and whether you even WANT to change your perfect child . . . er, book. Once you finally commit to the idea of revising, how do you go about such a mountainous task? Later on, after you’ve been revising for awhile, you realize you have more of a mess on your hands than you started with. You feel like you’ve absolutely ruined your, well, admittedly imperfect book. But at least it was in one piece! This can be a very discouraging place to be. (So let me give you a little encouragement. This is not the end! Your book is still more than salvageable!)

Wherever you find yourself in the process of writing a story, there’s lots of advice out there about how to go about it. Lots of good advice. But after getting all that advice, do find yourself still getting stuck? Do you find yourself less-than-excited about the result? At that point, it’s time to ask: what advice actually helps me get the job done to my satisfaction?

It may also be time to ask: how does my brain work? How does my brain create?

It doesn’t look the same for every writer.

For some writers, structure is the first thing they work on when they create a new story. For others, the structure comes more gradually, or further into the process. However you arrive at it, structure has a lot to do with how your readers will feel about your story. Structure doesn’t have to be a cage for your characters, but a pathway that takes your reader on an immersive journey with them. It can mean the difference between your readers getting bored and getting pulled into the story.

So what is your process? How does your brain like to come up with story structure?

The Planner-Discovery Continuum

A piece of advice you may often hear is that you MUST outline before you begin writing. That works for some writers’ brains. For others, it does not work. For yet others, it works depending on the part of the process, or as a mix with discovering your story as you write.

Writers who work better with pre-planning are called “plotters”, “planners”, “outliners”, or “architects.” Every storyteller needs to know how to incorporate plot at some point in their process, whether that comes intuitively or cognitively. And not all planning looks like an outline. So I’ll go with “planner”.

Those who write better without a plan are seen as “flying by the seat of their pants” or “pantsing” for short. I prefer “discovery writing” or “gardening”. (Why did people decide on calling it “pantsing” when they could’ve called it “flying”?)

Writers who do some of both are often called “plantsers” or . . . What else do they call them? “Garchitects”? Somebody needs to figure that out. (I guess landscaping is a mix of architecture and gardening. Maybe we could call them “landscapers”.) Anyway . . .

Each writer sits (or writes) at some point along the planner-discovery continuum. There is no right time to start applying structure except the time that your brain is ready for it. That might be near the beginning of the process, or you might need more information to work with first.

Planning

Planners (a.k.a. architects) need a plan to start understanding of what their story is. If this is true of you, a preparatory plan is generally your solution to the empty page and helps prevent writer’s block later in the process. A plan can look like a bullet-point outline, a web, a chart of post-it notes, a gathering of ideas, or whatever planning helps you prepare to write. You might even hold your plan in your head. Once you have enough of a plan, it can give you the direction and momentum you need to start writing. The plan can be as detailed or un-detailed as you need it to be. If, partway through the drafting process, a piece of the plan isn’t working, it can be adjusted. The plan is not set in stone, but can serve as a launchpad into writing your story and an adjustable guide along the way.

Planning doesn’t have to be a tool that only serves the plot. You may also find it useful to create written and/or visual character sketches and lay out ideas for the settings in which the story takes place. How do the characters interact with the world? What’s important to them? What influences their beliefs and actions? What happened in the past that influences the characters in the present time of the story? Answers to such questions can lend depth and meaning to the characters’ actions throughout the plot.

Don’t worry if the story doesn’t just flow magically out of you in near-perfect form. It’s very rare that this happens for a writer. Planning isn’t supposed to be a cold, soulless exercise, either. It’s a form of being creative. It’s a form of discovery. It can be primarily intuitive or cognitive, or an even mix. If planning is what gets the creative juices flowing for you and helps keep you motivated, go for it. You can use it to create a powerful journey for your characters and readers.

Discovery Writing

Discovery writers (a.k.a. gardeners) need to start telling the story or live with in it to begin understanding what it is. If you’re this type of writer, the thrill of discovery pulls you in as you tell the story and learn about the characters and their world. You feel something like a reader, wondering what’s around the next corner, excited to find out. So you keep discovering and writing to find out.

Discovery writing often ends up being a longer process than writing with a plan or outline. You may have to go back and readjust and rewrite once the structure starts coming together. But at least you get to spend more time with your characters! If you find that planning drains the creativity out of you, leaving you to stare at that blank page, it may be worth the extra time that discovery writing takes to be able to create something you love.

None of this means that plot and structure aren’t important to your story. You probably just need more details to work with before your brain is ready to consciously apply structure. And maybe your brain doesn’t even need to do structure consciously. Some writers already have a buit-in intuition for it, and need ways to spark that intuition. (More on that later.)

So what is it that you need to discover before you start applying structure? You may need to live in your protagonist’s experience for awhile, finding out how they interact with their world, what’s important to them, what influences their views and actions, what drives them. Discovery writing can also help you start to dig down to the premise and theme of your story, as well as the major internal and external conflicts. Once you have enough of these details, you’ll feel ready to start applying and analyzing structure as needed, which can help you further refine your ideas. This may look like creating an outline based on what you’ve already written. Seeing the structure laid out can show you what’s working and what isn’t. If that isn’t helpful, it might be that you want to feel it out. Either way, you can ask yourself what plot turns and character actions need to be set up more effectively. What expectations did you set up for the reader that weren’t fulfilled (or replaced with something better)? What needs to happen sooner or happen later? Does the direction of the story make sense for the protagonist’s development? What’s missing? What isn’t really relevant that could be cut out? (Note: You can copy-paste the passages you’ll cut into a separate document, if that makes it easier to part with them.)

Plantsing

If you’re a plantser (or . . . landscaper), you combine enough of both planning and discovery writing that you don’t feel you fit neatly into either category. You may need some planning early in your process, but you also rely on discovery writing to spark new ideas and flesh things out. You may begin with setting up guideposts to follow along the way, without a lot of rigid structure so you can still write with a sense of freedom. Then again, you may follow what’s known as the “flashlight” method, where you write from point A to as far ahead as you could see from point A. This gets you to point B, where you shine your mental flashlight ahead to point C. Whatever your strengths with planning and discovery writing, leverage those. Let your brain work the way it was built to work.

A Note on this Continuum

In some ways, it may appear unnecessary or unhelpful to categorize people based on whether they plot in advance or discovery write, since both structuring and creative discovery are essential to coming up with a story. I agree that both are essential. To me, it seems that the difference lies in when and how an individual applies these different skills. The labels aren’t always accurate. Regardless, it is important to acknowledge that different minds work differently, that each writer has their own process of creation, and that no one process is superior to or more mature than others. Rather than creating division, categories and continuums can be useful in finding out how writers with a similar process to yours are able to function and reach their full potential. As you practice and hone your skills, you can develop a clearer understanding of your own individual process and how to use it. You may also find that your process changes over your lifetime.

The Intuitive-Methodological Continuum

As I touched on earlier, an understanding of story structure can come innately or consciously. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a planner, a discovery writer, or a mix of both. You can be anywhere along the planner-discovery continuum and anywhere along the intuitive-methodological continuum. So it’s really more like a graph with two axes dividing it into four sections. You could be anywhere on that graph.

If story structure comes intuitively to you, it’s a gut feeling that guides you as you write or plan. You may find advice on structuring more limiting and frustrating than helpful. Instead, you may need to identify what helps spark the intuition and creativity you need in order to plan, write, or revise. That could be images, music, keywords, questions that lead to ideas and inspiration, brainstorming as you do a physical activity, etc.

If the process of structuring isn’t so intuitive, and your plans or stories end up wandering into a directionless swamp, you may need to take some time to study structure. Once you have a good understanding of it, you can apply it as you plan, discovery write, or as you go back and analyze what you’ve already written. Your study and application of structure may help you start to develop a feel for it. It might not have been innate to you originally, but it may start to become intuitive. This new understanding can end up freeing you, raising your story from the bog of lost direction . . . like Yoda lifting Luke Skywalker’s x-wing out of the swamp with the Force. Then you’re ready to chart or discover a course across the galaxy.

Parting Thoughts

Knowing your writing process can help you navigate challenges and overcome issues with writer’s block. But I have to tell you: there are no quick, easy ways to craft an immersive, memorable story. (Unless it’s, well, so poorly written it scars the reader for life, or at least pulls them in with a morbid curiosity.) There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Behind the bestseller lists and big movie deals are years of practice and failure and development. Writing a well-crafted story takes stretching. It can get very emotional. It can get frustrating. That’s okay. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It just means you’re growing and creating something.

That said, if you can figure out what your creative process is, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the challenges and, ultimately, come up with a result that you’re happy with.

Resource:

“The Four Types of Writers” by Ellen Brock:

https://youtu.be/eryQEZImm6Y?si=lZTlZDGpGaFG0Qim

This video introduced me to the intuitive-methodological continuum. I haven’t heard much else about it in the world of writing advice. Ellen Brock also provides a video of helpful ideas for each of the four writer types. I have found this information empowering and encouraging, as have other writers I’ve shared it with. It’s a relief to know we’re not crazy or defective because of the ways we write and create.

Keep an eye open for more articles about story structure and other aspects of the writing process, such as how to form new ideas and the writing/life balance. If you’re interested in working with me on your book or story, please fill out the form below.

Thank you, and happy writing.