STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL by K.M. Weiland
Get the full ‘Anatomy Of A Heist’ Series here: charleskunken.com/season4
My pictograph of ‘Structuring Your Novel’ by K.M. Weiland
Have you heard of ‘The Hero’s Journey’? It’s the idea that all stories gravitate towards a particular structure that resonates with the human mind.
The twists and turns of all the great stories ebb and flow in a way that satisfies our primate brain.
Reading ‘Structuring Your Novel’ by K.M. Weiland, was the first time I realized you could describe this with math.
Some think that the math takes away from the ‘magic’ of stories. It’s more fun to romanticize them as a mouthpiece straight from the gods.
The truth is you can just go with your gut to fashion great stories (many experts do), but by the time you have written a plot that you like you’ll find your story making decisions ended up aligning pretty close with the numbers. As a beginning writer, learning the natural structure that good stories take can make you better faster. At least, that’s how I feel, as a beginner myself.
Problems will arise when you put the math on a pedestal rather than using it as a tool. The math can provide a structure to get you started or unstuck but people will always know when the art is being replaced by a formula. It takes an expert to tell a good story but it doesn’t take an expert to recognize one.
The more you know the rules the better you’ll be at breaking them.
-
Drop me a line: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The Anatomy Of A Heist Series
Storytelling Resources
The LIST
The 41 films conducted during the research project (full explanation here)
The Skytalkers podcast recently aired an episode in which they ran Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) through the heist tracker - the one we made together during paternity leave ;) charleskunken.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-heist-the-16-conventions-part-1-of-3).
Star Wars plus heists? Yea…we just had to take this inspiration from our friends at Skytalkers and contribute our own ‘Milk in The Matrix version of ‘is Solo a heist film?’