Story Structure

Every story begins with an idea and lots of creativity! Today, we will teach you how to make those ideas more concise and feel free to take notes on your fancy typewriter or in a digital document as you read.

The Three Act story structure created by the one and only Aristotle is the foundation to almost every novel. In fact, every fantastic literature has a beginning + a rising action, a midpoint + a surprising twist, and a climax which leads all the way into the falling action. After you grasp this concept, congratulations your novel is complete!

We are just teasing!

However, if you have the structure figured out, you are already 10% there. So take a sip of your Latte, wake up and pay attention to the contents below to earn your next 10%.

We will break your plot down to the most basic elements in three simple categories. We will start with genres/audiences for our first post! In the coming weeks we will go into characters and then into how to create the perfect setting/aesthetics for your book (yes, we will be talking about the god of inspiration Pinterest).

Determining your genre and audiences is the key to unlocking the publishing industry. For instance, if a book with adult themes is marketed as young adult, it can cause massive confusion for the readers and give you an overall bad reputation. And when we say ‘reputation’, it is not in a Taylor Swift’s Album type of way. It is more like receiving bad press and reviews that will haunt you for the rest of your career.

Thus, in order to not fall down this rabbit hole, you will need to determine your readers.

#whowillbereadingyourbook

Ask yourself:

Is this appropriate for a younger audience (make sure you won’t end up on an angry parent’s Reddit post in the future)?

If not, is this appropriate for young adults 14+?

Or

If it is too mature, then you are in the adult zone (ex. explicit sexual content, addictions, mental health… will make you rethink your audience).

Keep in mind, these categories are not here to stop the readers from reading your work. It is a nice gesture to let them know what to expect.

Vice versa, you will need to apply the same concepts when mapping out your genres.

So how to determine your genres?

There are many genres out there, meaning your book can cross paths with many of them. However, there should be a few main ones.

Here are some popular examples (feel free to debate us):

Fantasy

Romance

Contemporary

Historical Fiction

Realism

You as an author are 100% not limited to these. Do a quick Google search and you will find more examples. But we are sure you already have some in mind!

And with that we will part for now! Thanks for tuning in for our first blog post! We hope you have finished that Latte and is now fully energized to start plotting!

Have a bookish evening!