Each month I take a moment to pause and share a few things I’ve found to be helpful and fun along the adventure of living and writing well.
I hope you find them to be enlightening and encouraging!
Article Roundup: Story Structure
Story structure is the framework that holds our stories together and helps them resonate with our readers. It can look like pre-planning or outlining with a road map of sorts in mind, though every author’s approach will be different.
Don’t be afraid of story structure! Many of us approach our stories with at least a small instinctive grasp of what makes stories work. And the more we understand what makes them work, the stronger we can make our stories.
Here are some of the articles on structure I fall back on when I need a good reminder of how this all works. Happy reading!
The Secrets of Story Structure, Part 1: Why Should Authors Care? – Helping Writers Become Authors
- This is a great intro to story structure, as well as a fabulous info graph to refer to. Visuals are great!
A Novel Plot Outline For Your Story – CreativINDIE with Derek Murphy
- Here we have a great rundown of key elements of a good story, along with a video to walk us through each step and a one page outline.
Understanding the Three-Act Structure – Go Teen Writers
- The three-act structure is one of the most popular, and for good reason! Here it’s broken down and we again have a great info graph to illustrate what that looks like.
The Plot Clock: The Structure Template that Saved my Career – Fiction University
- Everyone thinks about story structure a bit differently yet there are a number of similarities between different models. Here we have a plot clock, with elements arranged in a circle.
Book Review: Gender: Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture by Lee Airton
Note: Links for this book are affiliate links which means if you purchase something I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Don’t worry, I only recommend things I actually like! For more info see my site policy.
I found Lee Airton’s book Gender: Your Guide to be extremely approachable and informative. All of us should be striving to be aware and kind towards others and ourselves, and this book is an excellent introduction to being gender-friendly and gender-aware.
For writers in particular I think we have a responsibility to be conscientious of how we portray our characters (and their gender) in our stories because what we say (or don’t say) sends a message to our readers.
Conversations and experiences regarding gender are changing rapidly in our culture today and I appreciated having a resource for myself to be better informed. If this is something you’d like to learn about, maybe you’ll find it useful too. 🙂
Recipe of the Month: Homemade Honey Oat Bread – Genius Kitchen
This was one of the first loaves of bread I ever made on my own a few years back and it’s just so delicious I keep coming back for more. It takes a bit of planning ahead to allow time for the bread to rise but it’s worth the wait!
Self-Care Homework: Teatime
Make yourself a nice hot cup of tea today and savor it slowly. It’s the little things that are special sometimes!
Writing Prompt:
Today I want us to freewrite our responses to this question:
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
I found this to be a powerful and revealing exercise, identifying goals I hadn’t expressly stated before because I wasn’t sure they were possible. I hope you feel inspired to dream big today!
Pure Cuteness: Kitten Love <3
Quote:
“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”
Oscar Wilde
Happy writing and joyous living to you all! Feel free to send me a note with any questions or to say hi anytime! 🙂
