Original subtitles

in this lesson I'm going to talk to you

about the importance of following a

certain structure when you write your

novel when I wrote my first book Lucy in

the Sky I didn't know anything about

story structure I hadn't done any

courses on it I hadn't read up about it

but after I had written the book I

realized that it followed a certain

structure that most books tend to follow

in some ways I don't really want to talk

to you about story structure because I

don't want to take away spontaneity cuz

I didn't know about story structure

myself but I do think it's quite

important just to have a rough idea of

the sort of things that will need to

happen in your story to keep it moving

forward I'm going to demonstrate so

usually it starts with your characters

going about their Ordinary Day in the

case of Lucy in the Sky my character has

getting on a plane to Australia and then

something happens that changes

everything she receives a text message

onto her mobile phone from the woman

claiming to be sleeping with her

boyfriend so this is your life changing

moment what follows is what we call

rising action this is kind of like the

character development the story sort of

building characters starting to get to

know each other in the case of Lucy in

the Sky my debut novel my character gets

to know a young hot Surfer called Nathan

um in Australia at the same time

wondering if her boyfriend back home is

cheating on her ultimately there has to

be some sort of

climax this might be the moment that

your character character realizes that

he or she is madly in love with the main

love interest in the case of Lucy in the

Sky without spoiling too much for you I

think it's probably the moment where

Lucy and Nathan kiss for the first time

after that most books tend to have an

All Is Lost moment when you really don't

know if the two main characters are

going to end up together and then

finally we drive towards a

resolution now whether or not you decide

to make you're ending a happy one or a

not so happy one that's up to you but I

will say that if you're writing a

romance book most people will expect a

happy ending I write emotional love

stories and I don't actually call them

romance because my stories are a little

bit more Bittersweet there's not always

a perfectly tied up happy ending I

really like my books to be as realistic

as possible but the sort of book that

you want to write is completely up to

you and if you want to write a happy

uplifting ending then I highly recommend

it because um readers do love

that in terms of timing and how your

story follows the structure that I've

drawn out here and remember this is just

a loose idea I don't want you to be

completely bogged down with this but as

you're thinking of ideas and as you're

starting to plot out your story just

kind of keep in mind these quite

important things that do sort of need to

happen and it might be that you have

several climaxes throughout your book

you know certainly I find that my novels

do have a few different massive sort of

key points or moments a few different

All Is Lost moments even it's just a

general sort of idea just to sort of

keep keep you going and keep you

pressing towards that final

resolution in terms of the life-changing

moment one thing that I'd really like

you to start thinking about is the

beginning of your novel because this is

so so important that there's a whole

lesson dedicated to it later on I would

like you to be able to have that

life-changing moment happen within the

first two pages of your novel it needs

to be something that's going to

immediately hook your readers interest

and in the case of if you're trying to

get a book deal the person whose

interest you immediately have to hook is

a literary agent and then a publisher so

if you can have that life-changing

moment something amazing that happens to

take your character out of their

ordinary day and really shake things up

a bit the sooner you can make that

life-changing moment happen the better

in terms of the rising action that

usually takes up quite a big chunk of

your novel you will find that other

characters are introduced or they

certainly should be if you're not

thinking about that in terms of my debut

novel when I started writing it I hadn't

planned out every single thing that

would happen but I found that the story

just came to life on its own characters

started talking to each other they made

friends you know new characters appeared

in the novel and that's exactly what you

want to happen you kind of want your

story to take on a life of its own and

there should be some characters that

provide some light relief if you're

writing a romantic comedy then you know

it might be your main characters that

are making the reader laugh but if you

write something a little bit more like

my books which are a bit more of an

emotional love story then it might be

the other characters need to be able to

provide some light relief so you might

find that there's a friend who's you

know a bit funny or a family member or

someone who's a bit quirky or has

something interesting about them all of

those characters are usually introduced

within the rising action so rising

action is a lot about character

development as well as heading towards

that big climactic moment that usually

will happen in a love story between your

main love interest and your main

character and I have to say that the

climax for me is the most fun part to

write out of an entire novel really be

daydreaming a lot about that moment that

should be the moment where which is

packed full of chemistry and I want you

to feel it all don't hold back really

really go for it when it comes to

chemistry this should be the moment that

gives your readers Goosebumps or you

know makes them gasp out loud like

whatever it is that takes your fancy

just make that really really exciting

because you want your readers to feel it

all when they think that all is lost

when they think that nothing's going to

work out and you know maybe they're just

going to be thinking right it's

definitely going to work out because

this is a love story I'm reading but you

might surprise them and um and it's good

to keep them guessing it's good to have

a little bit of unpredictability in

there if you can come up with a Twist

something that nobody is expecting than

all the better and ultimately there will

be a resolution when your characters are

heading towards that ending whether it's

happy or sad or just a little bit

Bittersweet when I write my book I tend

to take quite a lot of time writing the

rising action I think that's the bit

that it takes the most story development

and it's probably the hardest part of

your book to write but the great thing

is if you're heading towards that climax

then it will keep you going so

definitely definitely Daydream a lot

about whatever's going to happen in that

moment CU that will keep you driving

forward I find that I write the

beginning of my books really really

quickly because that's something that I

think about a lot and then I will write

the last say 50,000 really really

quickly because from the climax onwards

to the All Is Lost that's when I'm

really excited to sort of write around

the all these emotions that I want to be

brought in and then eventually you know

obviously that ending whether it's happy

or sad to be honest I don't always plan

that sometimes I like to just you know

see what happens as I'm writing and I

love writing so hopefully you will too I

really hope that this has been helpful

in talking to you a little bit about

structure don't let it hold you back but

do definitely think about as you're

coming up with ideas moments that can

fit into these General structures

because so many books follow the same

structure as do movies you can read a

little bit more about this in a really

fantastic book called save the cat

there's one for novel writing there's

also one for screenwriting because books

tend to follow a very similar structure

to movies so if you want to do any more

reading on that then I really recommend

it I'll put a link for that in

additional resources in the next lesson

I'm going to be talking to you about the

final project and we're going to really

start developing your idea