Soak Up Story Structure

An exercise in learning to plot organically

I remember when I was learning to write fiction. I wanted so much for someone to give me a recipe for creating a plot. There were some basic models like the classic model with the elements of exposition, action, conflict, complications, climax, and resolution. Then there are the three-act model, the hero’s journey, and a few others.

However, most of those were vague and when I tried to follow them, I found that they sucked the life out of my writing. I was trying too hard to fit my story into a rigid structure.

The problem is that stories are not built. They are grown. A story can be broken down into parts, but a story is more than the sum of its parts. When I teach my course on story structure, I discuss those parts. But, frankly, those parts matter more when you edit the story than when you write it.

One of the ways we learn much of what we know organically is through observation. We learn to walk in part by seeing people walk. We learn to talk by hearing language. We have this ability to learn through observation. Indeed, programmers build their training models for AI based on how humans learn by observation.

So, here’s an exercise for you that optimizes this ability to learn by observation. Take a book in your genre that you have read before. Read it again. For for each chapter, write down one or two sentences about what happened. Don’t just think it. Write it down. You must do this physically. That creates more than one stream of learning: erading and writing.

Do this for a few books in your genre. The more, the better.

After you have done this, look for patterns. You don’t have to write them down or be specific. You are not looking to create another recipe. Maybe you notice that most murder mysteries have the murder occur within the first 3-5 chapters and that there are usually a few false leads.

Mostly, though, you just want to actively immerse yourself in that genre. You aren’t analyzing it as much as letting the story structures sink into you and become part of your awareness. As you read more books in the genre, you become aware at a basic, even unconscious, level about the deep structures of the plots in those novels.

Try it. I think you will find yourself “just knowing” what needs to come next in your novel.