I personally feel that my books have a Strong to Ok Start, and a Fairly Interesting Ending. But the middle of my books aren't what I'd like them to be. It's where I struggle. I can see clearly in my mind what happens to set up the story, and I can see the exciting climax where the characters use everything they've learnt to really save the world, or themselves, or whatever the case may be.
The middle, where they learn all the things and make all that character growth is really difficult for me.
However, working with Story Engineering and Larry Brooks's 6 Core Competencies has really helped. He explains it a lot better than I do, with his millions of metaphors, but just to give you an idea of why I like Story Engineering as much as I do, I'll explain.
A Novel in Four Parts
It's such a simple change to the structure of a novel but it makes so much sense. The first part is the set up, where we learn who our hero is in their own world, bumbling around with their flaws. Then Part Two of the Story Engineering plan is where the hero goes into their new world, be it actually or figuratively. Part Two finishes with the midpoint, which changes things so much that Part Three is the fall out to that change. And Part Four is the climax.I really like breaking the novel into four parts like this. Smaller chunks help me to understand better, but also, it means the middle of the book, which is actually 75% of the total novel, isn't just rambling around aimlessly exploring the new world, but it changes and builds and becomes something different as the novel progresses.
That's not something I could understanding in a 3 part novel, but in a 4 part novel, it becomes abundantly clear.
Read Story Engineering
I would absolutely recommend reading Story Engineering but Larry Brooks has brought out some newer versions of his books that I have on my wishlist. Great Stories Don't Write Themselves is on my To Read list. I can't wait!
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