Janice Hardy - Fixing Your Plot & Story Structure Problems

Foundations of Fiction

Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure

Plotting Your Novel Workbook

Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft ( Series )

Book One: Fixing Your Character and Point of View Problems

Book Two: Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems

Book Three: Fixing Your Setting and Description Problems

Skill Builders

Understanding Show, Dont Tell (And Really Getting It )

Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means )

Novels

The Healing Wars Trilogy :

The Shifter

Blue Fire

Darkfall

Books as J.T. Hardy

Blood Ties

Welcome to Book Two of Revising Your Novel :

Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems

T heres something both exhilarating and terrifying about finishing a first draft. The story is finally written down, and youve seen how your characters have grown and developed, but you also see all the plot holes, weak areas, and parts you know for sure dont work .

Most of the time, turning that first draft into the novel in your head takes work. A lot of work .

My goal with this series is to help writers of all skill levels revise a first draft, and help you develop your rough manuscript into a finished draft. This series will provide guidance if youre new to revisions, and work as a stand-in critique partner if youre not yet ready to show the manuscript to another person. It will help you determine which revision techniques and processes work best for you, how to think about the revision process, and how to put those skills into practice .

To help make the process a little more manageable, Ive broken the original Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft into three smaller books. Book One is Fixing Your Character and Point of View Problems, focusing on character-specific aspects such as, characters, point of view, dialogue, internalization, and theme. Book Two is Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems, taking a closer look at plotting, scene and story structure, and pacing. Book Three is Fixing Your Setting and Description Problems, digging into setting, world building and description. At times, a problem in one area could be due to issues in another area, such as a character motivation issue thats really a plot problem, and Ill refer you to another book in those cases. There is also an omnibus version containing all three books for those who prefer one guide .

Please note that some aspects of revision carry over regardless of what you're revision, so there will be some duplication within the three books in the seriessuch as preparing to revise and getting ready for revising your manuscript (as well as this welcome letter). The prep work sessions and Workshop One are roughly the same in each book, as are the final workshops that look at word count and the entire manuscriptwhich might reveal issues in other areas you didn't realize you had .

Just as there is no right way to write, theres no right way to revise. Its a process every writer must work out for themselves, and can even vary from book to book. You never know what extra effort a manuscript will need until you see how that first draft shakes out .

For first-time revisers, this can be overwhelming. Theres so much to consider, keep track of, and remember. They often dont know how to start or what to work on first .

For seasoned writers, it can be just as intimidating, especially if revision isnt something they enjoy doing .

For those of us who love revisions and do our best writing after we know how the story unfolds, its still a lot of work. Fun work, but theres still a long way to go from the end to Its done !

But I'm here to help with that .

Ready to go? Then roll up your sleeves and let's get to work .

W hat Youll Get From This Book

Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems is a mix of book doctor and personal editor. The goal of the analysis sections is to help you develop your book doctor skills and teach you what you need to objectively review your manuscript. The revision steps and options will guide you to the best way to fix any issues youll find during your analysis .

Youll review the manuscript from the top down, looking at the larger macro issues of structure and plot, all the way to the micro issues of how an individual scene works. Youll focus on the pieces and how they fit within the larger framework of the novel .

Theres a lot of information in these pages. Take it session by session and work at a pace thats comfortable for you. No one expects you to revise an entire novel over a weekend, so dont worry if it takes you more time. Revising a novel is often hard work, but well worth it in the end .

This information is here to guide you, encourage you, give you goals to strive for, and most of allhelp you .

By the end of the workshops, youll have a clean, well-developed plot thats ready to move on to the next step .

Whatever your goal for your novel, this book will help you get there .

W hat Youll Encounter in This Book

Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems is a series of self-guided workshops designed to lead writers through the revision process. Each workshop covers one step of that process, with smaller sessions that focus on individual topics within that step. At the end of this book, youll have a cleaner manuscript and a novel that fits your vision .

Workshops: The workshops go step by step through revising a novel. Each workshop offers topics with questions, directions, tips and tricks, plus common problem areas within each topic and suggestions on how to fix them .

Analysis: Each workshop starts with an analysis that examines an aspect of the manuscript and helps you determine where any weak spots might be .

Revision Tasks: These go step by step with tasks to do, or further questions to ask to fix the problems found in the analysis .

Revision Options: Most workshops offer multiple options on how to revise that aspect of the manuscript, focusing on the most common problems in that area .

Revision Red Flags: These prompts draw attention to common problems found in early drafts of a novel .

Problems Found? These prompts suggest where to go to solve problems found during the workshop analysis .

H ow to Get the Most From the Sessions

Ive structured Fixing Your Plot and Story Structure Problems in a way I find the most helpful when revising, but feel free to adjust the order of the workshops to best suit your own writing process .

If you know what plot and structure areas you want to work on already, feel free to jump ahead to the workshops that fit your needs. Use this book to guide you, but dont feel you must follow every last suggestion and do every single option. This is why Ill frequently say, probably likely, and often throughout this book, and suggest things to try, consider, and think about. Just because advice or a technique typically works a certain way, every novel