Unstuck

BASICS 101: The Nutshell Technique

Hello Authors,
Unlike many books of this kind, I won't be starting from the basics of titles and concepts. I think those have been covered in many other books and personally, I find them hard to tackle. The perfect title for a book sometimes doesn't come to you until very late in the outlining process and concepts are just hard to wrap your mind around. Don't get me wrong they are vital to stories and what separates good stories from bad but they're hard to explain and also not the first thing people have on their mind when they want to write.
So I'll do something different and introduce you to a wonderful technique that I read about and has guided all of my planning. When I have a new idea, this is usually the first stop in deciding if I should pursue it. It is an extremely powerful tool for seeing if your story has a back bone the thing that will keep it all together and make it make sense.
The Nutshell Technique was created by Jill Chamberlain and it is originally a strategy for writing movies. She uses it to test if a movie is going to work or if it needs restructuring. Movies are traditionally very formulaic and concise so I actually find it quite helpful to use the same techniques screenwriters use to structure my novels even though it might not be a page by page formula like it is with scripts.
I will describe the process as simply as possible but if you want the long version with plenty of examples and proof that it works for all kinds of movies and genres, read her book, "The Nutshell Technique" available on Amazon.
For this particular outline, I'll be using my book, "Reigning Prince" as an example. You don't need to have read it to understand and it won't spoil anything if you are currently reading it. I just find it easier when there's an example and I recently used the technique for this book so...let's begin.
First, for those unaware, "Reigning Prince" is a One Direction fan-fiction told in the perspective of Louis Tomlinson's son, Freddie, who has been kept ignorant his entire life and seeks to find the truth about his past through starting a fragile ...
First, for those unaware, "Reigning Prince" is a One Direction fan-fiction told in the perspective of Louis Tomlinson's son, Freddie, who has been kept ignorant his entire life and seeks to find the truth about his past through starting a fragile and forbidden relationship with Louis' rumored ex, Harry Styes of the Larry Stylinson phenomenon.

THE NUTSHELL TECHNIQUE:
There are eight steps to the Nutshell Technique and you need to fill out all of them before starting to write. The answers should be short and telling, a sentence is enough. Reading through the answers will provide you with a general arc for your story and tell you that it can in fact work. You'll notice all the steps are tied together and affect each other.

STEP 1 - THE SET-UP WANT:
The story starts with a protagonist wanting something, anything. This doesn't have to be a big want and it doesn't have to be THE want that will determine the entire story. It can be anything from a bath to a job to a better relationship with their mother. The only rule is that it has to be in the first few scenes of the protagonist appearing and has to relate to the following few steps as we will see.

In "Reigning Prince" (RP for short) the story starts with Freddie wanting to know more about Harry Styles and more concretely, wanting to see Harry's house. Notice that I tried to describe this in as few words as possible. It shouldn't be something like freedom unless it can be easily understood like freedom from current job or abusive girlfriend. Try and be concrete.

STEP 2 - POINT OF NO RETURN:
This often comes at the end of Act 1 so at the 25% or 1/4 part of your story. The real story will begin after this point, which is why it is called the point of no return. What should happen is that your protagonist will now get his or her SET-UP WANT, just like that. They wanted something and they are getting it.

In RP, at the 25% mark, Freddie explores Harry's house and finds out more about Harry Styles by discovering that Harry's relationship with his dad was in fact real. Notice, this result matches the one in step 1 almost word for word.