How To Write A Good Book - a guide

PLOT

Great page-turning stories live or die by their plots.

To keep me turning the pages of , you need a plot that grabs me by the throat and keeps me with you to the end.

Plot is the sequence of events that make up you story. It's what compels your reader to either keep turning pages or set your book aside.

Think of Plot as the engine of your novel.

A successful story answers two questions:

1. What happens?

2. What does it mean?

What happens is your Plot.

What it means is your Theme.

7 PLOT TYPES

While stories seem limitless, most plots fall into these categories:

1. Adventure: A person goes to new places, tries new things, and faces myrid obstacles. Examples: Harry Potter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Chronicles of Narnia, Gulliver's Travels, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

2. Change: A person undergoes a dramatic transformation. Examples: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Great Expectations, Beauty and the Beast, A Little Princess, Don Quixote, Moby Dick, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings.

3. Romance: Jealousy and misunderstandings threaten lovers' happiness. Examples: Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, The Fault in Our Stars, The Notebook, Wuthering Heights, Water for Elephants, Redeeming Love.

4. Mistake: An innocent person caught in a situation he doesn't understand must overcome foes and dodge dangers he never expected. Examples: Indiana Jones, Finding Nemo, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, Left Behind.

5. Lure: A person must decide whether to give in to temptation, revenge, rage, or some other passion. He grows from discovering things about himself. Examples:The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Riven, A Christmas Carol, Les Miserables, The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, The Hobbit, MacBeth, The Pearl, Oliver Twist, The Secret Life of Bees, Animal Farm.

6. Race: Characters chase wealth or fame but must overcome others to succeed. Examples: The Great Gatsby, Catch-22, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Treasure Island, Chariots of Fire, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Devil Wears Prada.

7. Gift: An ordinary person sacrifices to aid someone else. The lead may not be aware of his own heroism until he rises to the occasion. Examples: A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Red Badge of Courage, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey, The Green Mile, Charlotte's Web, Schindler's List.

Regardless which basic plot you choose, your goal should be to grab your reader by the throat from the get-go and never let go.

Dean Koontz's Classic Story Structure

1. Plunge your main character into terrible trouble as soon as possible.

The terrible trouble depends on your genre, but in short it's the worst possible dilemma you can think of your main character. For a thriller it might be a life or death situation. In a romance novel, it could mean a young woman must decide between two equally qualified suitors—and then her choice is revealed a disaster.

Just remember, this trouble must bear stakes high enough to carry the entire novel.

One caveat: whatever the dilemma, it will mean little to readers if they don't first find reasons to care about your character. The trouble is seen in an entirely different light once a reader is invested in the character.

2. Everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble makes it only worse...

Avoid the temptation to make life easy for your protagonist.

Every complication must be logical (not the result of coincidence), and things must grow progressively worse.

3. ...until the situation appears hopeless.

Novelist Angela Hunt refers to this as The Bleakest Moment. Even you should wonder how you're ever going to write your character out of this.

Make your predicament so hopeless that it forces your lead to take action, to use every new muscle and technique gained from facing a book full of obstacles to become heroic and prove that things only appeared beyond repair.

4. Finally, your hero learns to succeed against all odds.

Reward readers with the payoff they expected by keeping your hero on stage, taking action. Give them a finish that rivets them to the very last word.

BEWARE OF THOES PLOT KILLERS!

Beginning with chapter one, page one, your singular mission is to make every word count.

Gone are the days when a reader enjoyed curling up with a book and spending the first hour or two by immersing herself in he beauty of the setting and culture. These are important, certainly, and must be woven into the narrative as seasoning.

But today's readers have nanosecond attention spans. By the end of the first page, they should be hooked.

One final piece of advice: avoid main characters who can do no wrong.

Heroes should be fundamentally likable, but we need to see their struggles too. They shouldn't be wimps or cowards, but they must have imperfections. Character arc is crucial to a successful plot.

 Villains should be three-dimensional too. Yes, even bad guys need a soft side, a weak spot, maybe even a modicum of generosity. And their evil has to have some genuine motivation. No one is simply mean for no reason.

Adding dimensions to your character gives dimension to your plot.