Comments on: Selling LOTS of Books and Why Bright Ideas Can Go BADLY

By: This Week's Articles for Writers 6/20/14 | L.A. Writers Group

This Week's Articles for Writers 6/20/14 | L.A. Writers Group — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 22:04:17 +0000

[…] Selling Lots of Books & Why Bright Ideas Can Go Badly (This is really a blog post about structur… […]

By: Gry Ranfelt

Gry Ranfelt — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:34:10 +0000

In reply to Ice Scream Mama. Some books really drag on in the beginning. I've read a few of those that I loved anyway but DAMn the writing, characters and initial story idea has to be AWESOME for that to work. Golem and the Djinni is a good example. Very slow beginning but it's such a good story.

By: Gry Ranfelt

Gry Ranfelt — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:33:10 +0000

In reply to Andrea J. Wenger. Probably, yes, but not necessarily if your goal with the scene is to show a more humane side of your antagonist, meaning how they react when things don't go their way.

By: Gry Ranfelt

Gry Ranfelt — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:32:01 +0000

In reply to Holly.

Also, we need to be brave enough to break structure when a scene calls for it. Y’know, you can get in a situation where the story demands it. I don’t have an example in mind, but hey, it happens 😛
Very interesting how Frozen got so popular despite the fact that it sweeps structure off the table.

By: Gry Ranfelt

Gry Ranfelt — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 05:45:47 +0000

Trey parker suggests making a list of everything that happens and every “and this happens and this happens” should be changed so it says “this happens but then this happens which leads to this but then this happens”. Very simple and helpful little rule :3
The thing is; cause and effect are not just structure. They’re a part of that thing we call, mmmh, LIFE! I do something, there’s a reaction, I react to that and decide what to do next.
Yesterday:
We were four friends playing Game of Thrones the board game when my mother comes in.
“Hey, you didn’t open that wine?”
me: “Eh, nobody felt like it.”
Boy 1 shrugs and shakes his head.
I wink at my girl friend. “Hey, we’ll drink it later.”
She grins. Suddenly the thought grew in both our minds and we could see it in each others’ eyes.
“And we could go dancing. Might as well go use our buzz. Let’s go get cocktails!”
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
Boy 1 looked skeptic. It was obvious he didn’t feel up to this. I assured him we’d finish the game and he could still get home as planned.
Boy 2 left to get ready and would meet us in the city and we girls started looking at clothes. Boy 1 started talking about how we’d never gone drinking together and I knew what I said would have an impact on his decision – he obviously would rather be at home watching soccer. So I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, DECIDED AND ACTED: I told him to do what he felt like and that it wasn’t going to be fun for anyone if he didn’t enjoy it.

A little example of how some small actions and reactions led to leaving a board game to go dancing in a club with one less member in the group and possible awkward tensions for the next time we see each other.

By: sherryhoward

sherryhoward — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 03:31:11 +0000

Great information! I loved your explanations and hope to use what I learned here!

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 10:41:59 +0000

I pantsed the first book of my series, mostly, with really just the last couple of scenes in my head as a target that I was aiming at. Rather like jumping out of a plane and aiming for a specific field. I had a few helpful things, like a premise (parachute) and trigger (pull cord and knowing when to pull it) but from scene to scene it was a freefall. Revisions of that book were brutal! I already had the rest of the series roughly sketched so when it came time to start book two I took the time to plot really carefully. I now have detailed, scene-by-scene plans for the rest of the series (four books total). I’ve looked at overall structure too, three acts for each book AND the overall series, but in all honesty, I only looked carefully at these and wrote them down after plotting out the books and found that I had intuitively plotted them to fit that basic structure anyway! But all this said, the story goes where it needs to go, when it needs to go there. This usually coincides with traditional structure guidelines, because ultimately they make sense, but sometimes there are variations and that’s good, that’s what keeps it fresh and keeps the reader guessing.

The suggestions in this article are really spot on, we want our readers to stay hooked and these things should help to do that. They are simple, obvious guidelines that shouldn’t restrict writing or make it formulaic, just sensible, guiding principles. 🙂

By: saralitchfield

saralitchfield — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 02:50:42 +0000

Aaaah love the car analogy!!

By: naomibellina

naomibellina — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:17:10 +0000

Oh come on, no In-car mini bar? I read a fiction story set in the future where a woman sued a car maker because cars would not start unless you had the seat belt fastened. She ended up getting raped or something horrible. Yeah, not everything needs to be automated. Great post and excellent info, as always!

By: mommalisaof2

mommalisaof2 — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:06:12 +0000

Chemistry is the only class I ever dropped. I almost quit reading when you went “there”. I’m new to writing and need all the help I can get! Thank you so much for your blogs.