The Most Common Story Structure Mistakes (and how to fix them!)
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- Story structure can be intimidating. Many writers find it one of the most--if not the most--intimidating aspect of writing a novel. However, structure doesn't have to be as tricky as it seems, it's just about building a framework to organize your story on the page. Luckily, there are some common mistakes you can easily avoid if you know to look for them!
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1:25 - Starting at the wrong place
3:37 - No inciting incident
4:36 - Extraneous scenes
5:56 - Unconnected subplots
6:51 - The baggy middle
7:51 - Overuse of backstory
8:52 - Lack of conflict & goals
10:15 - Lack of causality
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You mention a couple of things about backstory I agree with: 1) don't use too much, 2) make it relevant to the main story. There are also good suggestions for how to get in and out of flashbacks.
I'm not saying you imply that it does, but a well-done backstory does not impede the forward motion of a story. That would be underthinking it. It is forward motion itself, directly in the story. Well done, it's just an earlier part of the story that appears later in the story, for strategic purposes. It's still part of the main story and it's still moving forward. If done properly, the forward motion of the reader getting the story is not impeded at all. Piecing together bits of knowledge nonlinearly is what all of us do all of the time in real life. We're good at that. Maybe not in 1823, but certainly in 2023.
So the suggestion should not be 'don't use a lot of backstory', it should be 'use whatever is needed but do it well'. And place it well. Well-placed and well-done elements of story will transcend all suggestions against them, and all imaginary rules.
What is frustrating is when a 'teaching guru' says 'backstory is bad' and out of the other side of their mouth they say 'in medias res is good'. I'd love to see them write a story starting 'in medias res' and not include backstory. Fundamentally, technically impossible, which makes it obvious they are full of what the little birds once ate.
It also depends on the genre. James Scott Bell says 'little or no backstory, especially at the beginning' (yet he does it himself), and while he is a brilliant writer and teacher, my best guess why he says this is bc he writes thrillers. In a thriller, it's best if everything moves directly toward and points directly to the final climactic moments of the story. Readers of thrillers are not fond of backstory and want you to get the heck on with it. The destination is much more important than the journey.
In a courtship love story, the journey is much more important than the destination. We know what the destination is 95% of the time, the second we see the 'lovers meet' scene. The route can be a bit more circuitous, including backstory if well done. 'Will they-won't they' is not really the goal. Seeing how they get there, is.
I do vigorously disagree with 'no backstory early'. I believe that minimal exposition and an inciting incident and getting the reader to bond with the character followed by a glimpse over the threshold into the extraordinary world should typically go first, but at that point you are still on the access road about to turn into the onramp, going only about 45. The story is idling up and not going 80 just yet. That turns out to be a perfect place for certain kinds of backstory. You basically schmooze the reader into wanting to know more, and then you give them what they want.
Another way to avoid the “baggy middle” is to make this the point where the protoganist and antagonist are engaged in a series of attacks and counterattacks. And these attacks by the antagonist increase in intensity therefore constantly raising the stakes. In a romantic comedy the “baggy middle” can be resolved by making this the point the hero has to contend with the suitors vying for the lover. And there is an increase in fights and misunderstanding between the hero and lover.
seat of the pants writers have a lot more trouble when they don't understand how structures work. Plotters design it in advance which doesn't mean there isn't room for creativity and invention while writing. Its not an either or thing. No matter how you write it ain't a story without structure. My advice to discovery writers is to load the principles of structure into your gray matter. Steep your brain in the concepts before you turn your pantsing loose. If you won't plot, fine, but if you understand how it works editing for structure will save the book. The more you understand structure deep down, like Steven King (who doesn't plot), the easier it is to make the story work as you write and edit it.
There's a solution: Discovery write like your hair is on fire. Then go back, survey the damage, and fix what doesn't work. Plotting has drawbacks, pantsing has drawbacks. Pantsing followed by reverse plotting doesn't. That incorporates all of the good advice you mention.
Does it take longer than just plotting or just pantsing? Not really. But plotting or pantsing should not be looked at as shortcuts, anyway. There are no shortcuts, and most writers would become better writers if they stopped looking for them.
Pantsed my first ever attempt at a novel and it's getting published next year :) but I'm for sure plotting the next one LMFAO
@@hardnewstakenharder I just published my 8th novel. Some were carefully planned others were done by back of napkin outlines. One was a pantser but by that time I had structure ingrained in my head to the point where a working plot came "naturally".
This was so immensely helpful. I’m really going to take this all to heart and use it to fix the issues I’ve been having in my novel with flow, causality and structure. Thanks so much for making these videos! ❤
Loved the video I learned alot I didn't know I will come back to this restaurant The meals are delicious Thank you very much
Another great video! Thanks for sharing.
Very helpful! Thanks so much!😊
I dislike the most common story structures bc they are too predictable for me and focus more on plot then characters, so for me (my stories are fully character centric) they don't work. I used to use The Hero's Journey but now I write in format of episodes that each have their story but all the events link to each other. That way I never have the full closure ending bc I hate the idea of sth ending fully so I found my way around it lol
I'm pretty aware this won't do well for publishing, but I'm a hobby writer anyway and I do it for the passion of it and maybe to one day make an episode for an animated series based on one of my books. Great video as always! :D
Character arcs are structures. The plot structure gives cause and reason to the character arc. Without a plot driving character, the story, if there is one, is made weaker. Character and plot are two sides of the story coin. One sided coins don't spend well.
@@rachelthompson9324 I partially agree
I actually think it's the opposite way around if you write a character centric story - the characters cause plot. Also, just my opinion, but some stories that follow these predetermined structures are so bland and predictable. I want the structure to be unique and fitting for the book. I learned structure, as I said, i used to follow them, but at some point, I noticed how bland it made my stories. This format allows me to make character arcs that never really end (kinda like in real life)
Ofc most stories will have a beginning, middle and end so that's at least what we could keep in mind, but these have nuances too (example there is full closure emding and a more open-ish ending)
1000% agree with this. Thank you so much for sharing. None of my books have identifiable inciting incidents or midpoints. They are character-based, or more accurately, theme-based. They follow emotional beats, not plot beats. Plot just doesn't excite me, and the idea of adhering to a plot structure like save the cat, three act, seven point or ninety-five point or whatever, would bore me to tears and make for an awful writing experience. I know my books won't appeal to some readers for this reason, but 🤷♀. I write from my heart. I don't know any other way.
This is a great video though (as always from Shaelin)! The concepts are important, and writers need to have as many tools in their toolbox as they can.
@@pjalexander_author I'm glad I can find someone who agrees :)
For me, each chapter has it's own inciting incident (although not as extreme as the one in the 1st chapter ofc), middle and resolution, and each chapter connects through character arcs which there are multiple of. I found it has a name, they call it episodic structure, which explains it since my books feel like animated tv shows. I think not having identifiable inciting incidents is just fine, especially if it's theme based. One of my fav books is from my online friend and that book had no identifiable structure but it was the best thing I read. So like, it won't appeal to everyone, but to those that it will, it will be their fav book and that's what's so cool about it.
I think each book should implement it's own structure for the logic it will work. Save the cat, 3-act and all these (which also often bring me to tears LMAO) are too movie-like for me, and I'm not the hugest fan of movies since I like to spend more time with characters, hence why I love tv series (but not the bingeable ones, those drive me nuts). And yess, let's just write form the heart. Many readers are bored of stale stuff too, so we gotta shake it up a bit :D
@@kathym4142 Yes! I was going to mention episodic style, since that's what I use as well. Probably because that's how stories come to me - I get ideas for scenes over the months I spend brainstorming, then when it comes to time to actually write, I arrange those scenes (adding structure haha) so that they're causal (point #8 😉) and so there's escalation, etc. There's a term for that kind of writing, blurb bursts or something like that 😅. I also like in media res openings, which is another thing that often conflicts with common story structures and invites the "your story starts in the wrong place" critiques. Those critiques have usually been valid in my case, because my in media res openings have sometimes come at the cost of connecting with the characters. Which is not good. Writing is hard 😖Ultimately, most of what we do involves trade-offs.
But yeah, for sure, I think there's room for every kind of book. Your books sound interesting.
In the book I'm writing, there is a major character that exists. He's already established in this world with power and whatnot. Then something (call it "Trigger A") he observed happened, which opens the door to his backstory of how he came to be. At the end of the backstory, the origin of Trigger A is revealed. Back to present time (this point on), Trigger A is a more significant subplot intertwined with the main plot, enhancing its purpose with the ability to branch into something bigger later.
Ty love ur vids
Dealing with a lot of backstory in one now. Because the incite event happens later, but people wanted to know more about how the group met, why they were who they were etc. Will probably edit out 1/3 of the story as is when I finish.
Software programs do exist to help novelists with structure, they should consult some of the prominent ones...
I start too late- it's usually at the inciting :p hurts the word count and tricky to raise stakes from an active state- also the tone is set at a high point, so everything after will feel like a lull.
Do you read other people’s work because I really need someone to read mine do you do it?
I could be like a book write whatever you want to in me let me be your diary
Shaelin I love your helpful videos but you talk SO fast that I struggle to sort out what you're saying. Could you slow down a bit for us non Americans who aren't necessarily used to the accent?
Being a US citizen, I see nothing out of the normal beyond a slight Canadian accent (it's kind of adorable when I hear 'aboot' for what would typically sound like 'about', down here in the high desert). She is not actually speaking fast. What is missing is natural breath pauses. That's why it feels fast. That's why it's hard to follow.
Of course the breath pauses are missing bc they've been edited out (!).
Information delivery requires processing, and that takes a moment. That is Video Editing 101, which is based on clarity and rhythm. Removing the breath pauses robs the listener of that ability to fully process. It lowers comprehension when the statements made are all crammed together. It would be out of place in a feature film, and it may be just as out of place on YT. It upsets the power of rhythm, something that ironically, writers dote on, and it constantly reminds us we are watching something from the past that is edited, rather than helping us suspend disbelief that we are hearing someone speak to us in real time.
Timing in chemical changes, and in the speed of electricity, is immutable. Thought is based in electro-chemical processes, meaning no one person can think any faster or slower than any other, regardless of IQ or supposed talent. Not even a little bit. As far as processing what we observe or hear, we are all just the same.
Of course, the speaker (or writer) has the subjective knowledge of what they are saying, already. The listener, or reader, is limited to their objective knowledge, which is zero until they read the sentence or hear the sentence. This is why it's so important for the writer to inhabit the experience of the reader, to understand what they comprehend and what they might miss if things come at them too quickly.
Would a writer write a 10-minute dialogue scene in one paragraph? Or one run-on sentence? Nope. Those periods and paragraph divisions typically represent: guess what-the breath pauses. The moment the spoken to person needs to take to formulate a response before they respond. And the moment the reader needs to comprehend what they just read. So yeah, a writer editing out all the breath pauses in their video does seem incredibly ironic.
Were I in that position, I would take a chance and try to re-edit a video of mine and leave the natural breath pauses in, just to see whether that works better or not (as someone once paid to shoot and edit video, for years, I can predict that outcome pretty clearly). That it would be 12:39 rather than 12:27 is not a disadvantage. It would be the opposite of that.
But I get your point. I have this system where I can watch the news at times 1.5 or times 2. That works beautifully until someone with a British accent speaks, and then I have to dial it back down to times 1.
I believe one reason God created creatures who need to breathe is bc he (or she) wanted to force that necessary processing delay into human intercommunication. Those pauses are just as important as the words themselves.
What a difficult accent you have !