If you are like me, you probably have too many projects going at the same time, and probably need therapy. One of my back-burner writing projects called for attention and wouldn’t let me ignore it. Since it had just a vague outline and some notes, I decided to apply the strategies from the book Mastering Suspense, Structure, & Plot by Jane K. Cleland. This is a different strategy for me.
The book targets stories of suspense, such as crime fiction or horror, but looks applicable to other genres. Like many writing books, it delivers good advice about any writing. The difference is “Jane’s Plotting Road Map” in Chapter 3. This Map attaches important plot points to specific pages/word counts in a typical suspense story.
I wanted to apply this road map. As of today, I’m not a famous novelist; I lack confidence in my novel structure. The stories look good to me, but they aren’t bringing in that retirement money I’ve been wanting. Having something more concrete gives me a reference.
In my day job, our students give presentations. In their final courses, they present software projects to their “clients” like the pros would. The presentations lacked polish and structure. To help, I added curricula focused on presenting in the I. T. industry. With guidelines, the student presentations took off, and the students come across like they are delivering real products to real customers and have been for years.
That’s what books like Cleland’s do; they provide a concrete framework to use as a starting point. My finished story may not follow her Road Map precisely, but it’s good to have that template so I know what to shoot for.
I don’t have all the structure of the story worked out yet. In the first go, I ended up with about three thousand words of new notes and another twenty-five hundred of experimental scenes. It also became clear that I would need to define a lot more of the story world if the plot is to be defined so clearly up front. That’s okay; I tend to do that already.
If you aren’t sure about your current story’s structure, you may want to read this book. If nothing else, the concepts introduced may help fire your neurons with some brilliance. Give it a try. I’ll let you know how my story works out.