Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys to Writing an Outstanding Story by K.M. Weiland
Introduction
K. M. Weiland believes that structure is the most important component of storytelling. Structure is required in all of art, does not limit creativity, is not formulaic, offers a checklist of the must-have elements of a story, and solidifies the mastery of the craft. She details how story structure, scene structure, and sentence structure defines the writer’s work.
Summary
There are two camps in the theory of writing. One is called the plotters, who create outlines and view storytelling as a construction. The other group is the pantsers, who write from the seat of their pants and see where the story leads them. Perhaps the best description of this theory is by George R. R. Martin who says, “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up.
The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.”
K. M. Weiland shows in this book how to become a plotter/architect. Her thought is that if the writer has a solid structure built before writing then the writing will go smoother and there will be less false starts and extensive rewriting in the second draft.
Recommendation
I believe in much of the advice in Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland and have used it in the novel that I am writing. What was most helpful was examining the complete outline transcript from her novel Storming which is available on her website.
The transcript uses the ideas from this book and from her other books on writing. Another resource that is available on her website is a template for the writing program Scrivener. The program is available for 30 days free on their website.
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, Book #3 of the Stormlight Archive
Introduction
The former city of the Knights Radiant, Urithiru, has been discovered and the order of the Knights Radiant has been revived. The Everstorm has returned along with the Voidbringers, called the Fused. Dalinar Kholin, the Uncle of the Alethi King Elhokar must try to unite all humans to fight the Voidbringers. His memories are coming back which complicates his problems. War has come to the world of Roshar and Dalinar is the only one who can win the war for the humans.
Summary – Three Viewpoints
There are three main viewpoint characters in this long novel. Dalinar is the novel’s main character. He has the flashback chapters which detail why he does not remember his wife and what happened up to the time that he lost his memories. Kaladin is the leader of his bodyguard and is the first member of the Knights Radiant order of windrunners. Kaladin’s flashbacks were in Book 1. His focus in this novel is to discover what the Voidbringers are planning.
Shallan’s flashbacks were in Book 2. Her struggle is with dealing with her other personalities which are taking over more and more of her life. She created these personalities to cope with the terrible things that have happened to her in her life. The personality Radiant trains with the Shardblade and is the ideal Knight Radiant. The personality Veil pretends to be worldlier than Shallan and associates with the underground gang called the Ghostbloods. Shallan also has trouble figuring out her relationship with her fiancé Adolin, who is Dalinar’s elder son. Shallan’s talents are creating illusions and creating items by surgebinding of stormlight. She is a member of the Knights Radiant Order of Lightweavers.
Summary – Voidbringers and Parshmen
The Voidbringers attack Kholinar, the Alethi capital, and the people gathered at Urithiru lose contact with them. Dalinar sends Kaladin to find out what is going on there. Kaladin first stops by at his hometown to make sure that his parents are well. He discovers that the Parshmen have been awakened.
The Parshmen are a non-human race that have been the slaves of the humans and have been in a state that is called dull form which decreases their intelligence. The Alethi have been fighting the Parshendi on the Shattered Plain since the Parshendi had Dalinar’s brother, Alethi King Gavilar, assassinated by the assassin in white. The secret they discover is that the Parshmen are actually Parshendi in the dull form. Some Parshendi, called the singers, have brought the Everstorm back and have awaked the Parshmen out of dull form. The Everstorm brings the Voidbringers who are called the Fused. The Fused are singers melded with ancient powerful spirits of Parshendi trapped by the Heralds in another plane. The Fused seek to overthrow the humans and retake Roshar as their own. The original Knights Radiant had discovered a secret about the Parshendi and had forsaken their vows.
Summary – Dalinar’s Visions
Dalinar has visions of the past which are brought to him by the Storm Father. The Storm Father is a Spren. Spren are creatures that are bonded to Knights Radiant and serve to focus their use of Stormlight. Kaladin’s spren is Sly, Shallan’s is Pattern, and Dalinar’s is the Storm Father. Dalinar is a Bondsmith and discovering the nature of his powers is important to his struggle. Dalinar hears the words unite them in his visions and he interprets that to mean that he must unite all the countries that have Oathgates.
Oathgates are used by Knights Radiant to teleport people and things from one Oathgate to another. The first two Oathgates that they control are at the Shattered Plains and at Urithiru. There is a total of ten Oathgates that circle the main Oathgate at Urithiru. Dalinar knows of other gates at Kholinar in Alethkar, Azir in Azir, Vedenar in Ja Kaved, and Thaylen City in Thaylenah. He brings the rulers of the countries to Urithiru to convince them to help him defeat the Voidbringers.
Dalinar sends a group to Kholinar to find out what happened there. The group includes Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and Elhokar. They face many trials and discover the secret behind the fate of Kholinar suffering tragedy along the way.
A climatic battle looms at Thaylen city where Dalinar has gathered his allies and awaits the coming of the Voidbringers. Dalinar must face his past and suffer unexpected disappointments in his mission to save the human race on Roshar.
Recommendation
This is a great book. It expands on the first two books and intensifies the conflict. The reader learns more about the lore of the Heralds, the desolations, the Voidbringers, and the Everstorm. Dalinar’s loss of memory is explained in full and Dalinar shines as a conflicted hero. Kaladin is the true hero of this series and learns more about himself and his abilities. Shallan fights her other personalities and finds a way to be happy about herself.
Oathbringer was Dalinar’s shardblade until he gave it up to Sadeas to save Kaladin’s bridge four crew. Sadeas is dead now and Dalinar has the shardblade back. Oathbringer the shardblade played an important part in the flashbacks that occurred before Dalinar’s loss of memory.
Opinion
In my opinion, about the only misstep of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson is the handling of Adolin. He was the fourth main character in the first two books. He doesn’t appear as a viewpoint character until halfway through this book and is reduced to having only commentary about his clothes and looks. I expected a little more than that from Adolin.
A pleasant surprise is the development of Szeth-son-son-Vallano, the assassin in white. I think that he has an important part to play in the next two novels of the series and I am looking forward to understanding his role in this series. I wonder how Shallan will continue to deal with her multiple personalities and her relationship with Adolin. The flashback character for book 4 is Eshonai and book 5 is for Szeth. This series continues to amaze and I look forward to reading the next two volumes and the next group of five volumes in the coming years.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.
Link to my review of Promise of Blood (Book #1 of the Powder Mage Trilogy) by Brian McClellan. The Powder Mage Trilogy has an interesting magic system like The Stormlight Archive series. The system uses gunpowder as the magic element.
Link to my review of Black Prism (Book #1 of the Lightbringer Series) by Brent Weeks. The Lightbringer series has an interesting magic system like The Stormlight Archive series. The system uses turning light into luxin as the magic element.
Nemesis Games by James S.A Corey, Book #5 of the Expanse Series
Introduction
The Rocinante must be refitted at Tycho Station after the crew’s last adventure in Ilus (New Terra) which was detailed in book #4 Cibola Burn. The crew splits up, each going on separate missions located around the solar system. Ships are disappearing mysteriously. Disaster strikes on Earth. The crew must come together to defeat a new menace or the balance of power in the solar system will be irrevocably changed.
Summary
For the first time in the series, all four members of the Rocinante crew are viewpoint characters. We can finally see what is inside the minds of Naomi, Amos, and Alex.
Four Viewpoints
Alex Kamal decides to reconnect with his old life on Mars including meeting with his ex-wife. He encounters Bobbi Draper and they go on a mission involving missing Martian MCRN ships.
Amos Burton goes back to Earth to face his past. There is a huge reveal of his true identity. He faces the disaster occurring on Earth. He visits Clarissa Mao (aka Peaches) in the prison where she is incarcerated. They must find a passage to Luna despite facing hostile enemies.
Naomi Nagata has a secret past that she kept from everyone including James Holden. Her secret is directly related to the reason for the missing ships. She must complete a difficult mission alone to redeem herself from the choices that she made in the past.
James Holden supervises the repairs on the Rocinante at Tycho Station. He works with the leader of the OPA, Fred Johnson, in discovering the whereabouts of missing colony ships.
Convergence
The four characters converge together and work on the same goal of dealing with each of their pasts and finding the shocking truth of the new order of the solar system.
Review
I think Nemesis Games is a great book. It is my second favorite book after the first of the series. Using the three new viewpoints was ingenious. Some viewpoints were more successful than others. Naomi’s was the best. Her secret was well thought out. She faced an extreme dilemma and was conflicted realistically. She attacked her problem with an analytical mind and found a solution which didn’t solve everything. James Holden was his usual action-oriented self. He worked well with Fred and thought things through. Amos had a lot to deal with in his past and faced it well. It seemed that the purpose of his journey was to bring Clarissa into the novel.
The timing of the events seemed too close to be realistic and that was the only weakness of this part. The weakest section was from Alex. It didn’t seem that he had enough of a motivation to return to Mars. His interaction with Bobbi was interesting but was also too much of a coincidence that it occurred.
Recommendation
The biggest problem with the novel Nemesis Games is that while there is some resolution to it, it serves only as a set up to the next novel, Babylon Ashes #6. By contrast, the previous four books all came to a strong conclusion. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait for a year to read it. I won a copy of the e-book in a Goodreads giveaway so I will read it very soon.
Wrote Chapters 12 and 19 of Assassin in New Marl City
The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 15 rejections.
Events from November 2017
None to Report.
Writing Goals for December 2017
Continue to work on Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). Write Chapters 23, 25, 29, and 31 of the novel this month. The First Draft will be completed!!!
Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 of Assassin in New Marl City.
Type Chapters 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 27, and 28.
Polish and submit the stories Hybrid-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Planned Events for December 2017
Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.
Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.
Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.
