Scribblers Retreat

I'm reading a great book on structure called "Plot and Structure" by James Scott Bell. It's part of the Write Great Fiction series from Writer's Digest. I've read a lot of books on structure because it's my downfall in fiction. In fact, it's my main focus in the practice novel I'm writing. When I read the first few chapters of Bell's book, however, something clicked and I got it. I knew exactly what I always do wrong, and therefore why my books disintigrate in the last half. Somehow he managed to get it into terms I understood--a disruption and two doorways. He even explained where they go in the book--I had them, but way too soon. I had my disruption in the first five sentences and sent my heroine charging through the first door instantly, and there wasn't enough story to sustain a novel as a result.

He outlined that, the three act structure and the mythic structure. I set them out in a Word document, inserted the parts of my practice story that I knew about and...they fit. Mythic structure...who'd have guessed?

Suddenly this book doesn't seem nearly as hard as it did a week ago.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish)by James Scott Bell