Structural integrity
Part 4 of 8 on the revision process
The story’s framework
Analyzing the story’s structure is our next step in the revision process.
If you’ve been working this process, you have a scene-by-scene outline in chronological order, even if your story isn’t necessarily chronological. You may also have that same scene-by-scene outline arranged in the way your first draft is arranged, if the story isn’t being told in a straight linear method.
You also now have your scene-by-scene outline divided into the eight narrative arc sections.
The next step is to review your story’s structure to ensure it holds up. This is also the best time to evaluate your story compared to other structures to see if there’s a different mode that might serve your particular story even better.
If you haven’t been following along, start here to read this process from the beginning.
What is story structure?
Different writers and writerly advice in books, classes, websites, etc., from experts much more experty than me, will use the word ‘structure’ in different ways.
There can be a lot of overlap in definitions between plot structure, story structure, and narrative arc. And that’s fine. They’re all highly related and inextricably braided together.
This article, and my use of the term ‘structure,’ is going to focus more on the way the story is built and how it is revealed to readers. That’s often (but not exclusively) tied to chronology and/or perspective.
I recommend going back to read or reread this article that explains story structure in more depth than we’ll get into today. Today’s article is more about studying your first draft outline to see if there’s a different structure that would work better.
For those who might remember this series from a couple of years ago, we addressed plot first (what happens), structure second (how it happens), and then narrative arc (the shape of the story).
I still think that’s the right order to understand these pieces, and the right order to think about or outline your story in advance or while you’re writing the first draft.
But once a first draft is complete, I find it more helpful to reverse the order by applying the narrative arc to the outline first, then look at other structural storytelling options available to you.
It can be easier to move pieces around in your outline to see how different structures would affect the plot and the narrative arc. Then you can move them back if that doesn’t work.
Remember to make a copy of your outline to play with while you always have the original to go back to.
The order of events
Maybe your story is told in straight linear, chronological order. And that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s pretty much the standard for storytelling. The story starts at Point A and proceeds to the next thing that happens, then the next, and the next, and so on, until it hits the last big thing, and then the story lands with a satisfying resolution.
Wonderful! That’s a great story structure. It works best for many stories. Readers are accustomed to this structure and know what to expect in how the story will unfold, even though they don’t know what will happen.
Sometimes switching things up a bit can make a good story great.
Choosing the wrong structure can become confusing to readers and cause the whole thing to fall apart.
This is where that scene-by-scene outline can prove very helpful.
Flashbacks
You may have some nonlinear elements in a chronological story.
Flashbacks, for instance. I don’t mean a character in the current scene having a brief, in-the-moment thought about something that happened in the past. We’re talking about fully developed scenes that occurred prior to the main story.
Evaluate your flashbacks, and ask yourself these questions:
How many flashbacks are in your story? Is that too many?
Is this flashback needed? Would readers miss it if it was deleted? Is it critical to the story or was it for the writer’s understanding of the story or character? Do you have an emotional attachment to this flashback but it’s an unnecessary detour for readers?
Is it too long of an interruption to the main story? Could it/should it be shorter? Or even reduced down to that ‘in-the-moment thought’ rather than a fully developed scene?
Is this flashback in the right place?
Does it happen before the scene where readers need to know this backstory?
Does it happen after a scene in a way that fills the reader in on why something happened or why a character reacted in a certain way?
Would the flashback work better to move it either before or after the moment readers need the info?
Should it be closer to or farther away from the moment readers need it?
Flashbacks can be a great way to create a rhythm in the story, provide backstory in live scenes, develop characterization, and set up future plot points.
Flashbacks are also an excellent way to dip in and out of the live action storyline to create an interesting and intriguing structure that breaks up the otherwise straight linear approach.
If you haven’t used any flashbacks, you might find your story could benefit from adding a couple of great flashbacks at key moments.
As with so many elements in writing, flashbacks can be overdone and overused.
Ask me how I know, and I’ll tell you how I reduced a 160,000-word first draft to a 93,000-word published book.
Nonlinear structures
Whether your first draft is in chronological order and you want to see if a different structure would work better, or you’ve written it in a nonlinear mode and want to see if it’s working, this is the time to evaluate that, before you dive into making revisions and edits.
How your story is structured will impact what revisions you might or might not need to make.
A good place to start is at the beginning.
Where is the single best point to begin your story. What is the unfolding scene on page one?
Our natural inclination with chronological storytelling is this is where the story begins. But maybe there’s a better spot to start.
Go back to your outline and the narrative arc. Is there too much happening, too many pages, before the trigger, the inciting incident that kicks off the plot? Could you move that trigger up much closer to page one?
If so, that might mean a lot of the story’s stasis needs to be deleted or moved. Maybe it gets filtered in later in flashbacks.
Maybe the trigger actually happens before page one begins, the in medias res story structure. Then the story might need to drop back in time to bring the reader up to speed gradually on how this trigger happened.
This might happen with a flashback. Or perhaps a dual timeline structure would work best, where the story flips back and forth from before the trigger to after the trigger.
Your dual timeline might go from the current time to a past time, back and forth, as the two different storylines impact on each other, and perhaps eventually merge.
Use that scene-by-scene outline to play with the order of these timelines and events.
What specific order would be most engaging to readers, bringing them along for the ride that captivates them from beginning to end?
For more on nonlinear story structure, see this article from a few weeks ago:
Perspectives and storylines
Maybe you’ve got two main or key characters. They might be a husband and wife, or love interests, or protagonist/antagonist, or hero and villain.
Are there structures that would create a better framework for presenting your story to readers?
This might or might not entail nonlinear storytelling. Your story might stay chronological but switch between Character A’s perspective and Character B’s.
There might be some overlap as well, such as presenting Monday’s actions through Protagonist point of view, then showing Monday’s actions through Antagonist point of view. It’s still chronological, not really a flashback, but we hit the rewind button at times. Not every single scene, as that could be a bit much and slow the story’s pace to a crawl.
Split perspective is a blend between different perspectives and dual timelines. It might be a single character, older and wiser, looking back on events earlier in life. The earlier events are the primary storyline, but the story keeps coming back to the present day character/narrator and how the past has impacted him.
Think about The Green Mile by Stephen King or The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, or many other similar books that effectively use this split perspective structure. Or the movie Titanic, where the character Rose is the older woman looking back on her ill-fated luxury cruise and brief romance.
Summary
The task here isn’t necessarily to change your story’s structure, but to evaluate it objectively. Is it the best structure for your story? Do you want to play around with the order of events, the timeline, flashbacks, or different perspectives to see if something jumps out and makes you say, “Yes! This is the structure for my story that will grab readers from beginning to end.”
Use your scene-by-scene outline that’s been overlaid with the narrative arc to analyze your options.
You might decide to leave it as is, or you might decide to change it up.
You need to know that before you dive into revising your first draft into a second draft.
It’s so much easier to move things around in outline form, then move them back, than it is to attempt those restructuring trials on a 400-page manuscript.
Next week
One more arc to evaluate: character development, growth, and change.
Books by Robb Grindstaff
Newest release: St. Izzy of F Street — Now on Substack
"As with so many elements in writing, flashbacks can be overdone and overused."
Flashback, when used sparingly can be effective but often it seems to be just a convenient way for an author to dump-in a bunch of backstory. I like the non-linear approach, although there could be a fine line between that and flashback. Lots to think about. Thanks, Robb.