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the yeah write 2012 summer writer’s series, part 6

Week Six: organizing a compelling post structure

Please welcome back guest editor Saalon Muyo who tweets as @saalon and blogs at Saalon Muyo. If you have any questions or need any clarification on today’s topic or prompts, please feel free to begin a discussion in comments.

Voting on the yeah write #69 summer challenge grid continues until 9 pm US eastern. Vote for your three favorites at the end of this post or click here for a detailed explanation of the yeah write voting process.

When I plan a story, I start at the end.

I’m not talking about writing. I write straight ahead, from front to back, with few exceptions. I don’t mean the inspiration part, either. That’s its own process; I take whatever seed of an idea I’ve got and journal meanderingly, spiraling around the idea until it turns into something that sounds like a story I want to tell. Or it sucks and I shelve it. Between the inspiration and the writing lies the planning. That’s when I start at the end.

Confused? Don’t be. Think about it like this: It’s impossible, as a reader, to really get the structure of a story until you’ve finished. Story structure reveals itself backward, from the finale back to the opening, as we retrace the steps that led us to the conclusion. Most readers don’t do this consciously, but subconsciously, instinctively. If an ending was happy, readers will relive why it was and how it got there. If it’s sad, they’ll trace that tragedy’s echos back, looking for how it could have been prevented or avoided.

I know I’m finished with the meandering inspirational journaling when I find the end of the tale. I don’t always have a crystal clear image of that ending, but I grab onto the feeling of that ending, the basic shape of where the characters will end and how things will resolve. That’s when I start the real planning.

The ending is my North Star. It’s how I navigate. When I decide what things need to be in the story, or what order they need to occur in, I have that ending as a guide. Does this scene get me closer to that end? Does it help explain or illuminate things that will make that conclusion feel earned or natural? While I don’t explicitly work backwards, the build of plot is most easily traced backward from the conclusion. The motivation for a scene or a plot development should be found in the scenes prior; back and back, to the start.

The more inevitable those steps feel, the tighter the structure of your story will be. Is there merit to a looser structure? Sure, absolutely, but the better you are at fitting those pieces together, the better you’ll be when you want to relax and let a story breathe and flow. The clearer your destination is, the easier time you’ll have knowing if a brief detour is just what’s needed, or if it’s time to keep your foot on the gas pedal.

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Yeah write #69 summer challenge grid is open for voting.

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