#more reading

reading lessons with Kelsey and Trudy

I’ve never taken writing classes either, so I don’t know how much help I can offer. Most of what I know about stories comes from analysing good ones in uni - which automatically means that sometimes when I’m reading a book, I’ll notice when things aren’t exactly right. But applying that to your own writing is, of course, a different matter.

The two books about writing I have on my shelf are Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress and a Collins guide on Writing Fiction, but if you’re wondering how to turn interesting characters and half a plot into a novel, there’s plenty of stuff online as well. Most novels, for instance, use what’s called a ‘three-act structure’ - here is a template.

Something like this can work well for any story, because the nodes can be adapted to what you’re writing. In a romance, for instance, the inciting incident can be a gorgeous guy splashing coffee on our protagonist, while in a thriller it will probably be a murder. Obstacles can be something as ‘mundane’ as a mom grounding her daughter all the way to a murderous merman locking up our heroes in a soon-to-be-flooded cave.

While the three-act structure is very common and generally efficient, there is more than one way to structure a story. You could start by going through the writeblr or nanowrimo tags here on tumblr, or watching online videos, but whatever you do and whatever you learn in theory, I think it’s good practice to start recognizing those things in books you read. 

(Plot points, character tropes and story structure are also easy to pick out in movies, especially blockbusters.)

My new book arrived. Have all six now after this one arrived. Do I need more? I have the big green book and waiting for Smaug. I’ll think about it and let you know. I’m about to finish the first chapter of Book I: The Epic of Eryn Galen and Elu Thingol’s about to disappear for awhile before resurfacing with Melian and quite possibly a baby named Lúthien. Good thing I got “Beren and Lúthien”--just think of the possibilities. I don’t know yet. I just go with the flow.