On novel structure

Photo by Brooke Shaden

First, let me apologize for this blog post being late. I have successfully moved to the Moon, but have lost a bit of time to a black hole, it seems. Am I forgiven? Yes? Excellent. Let us proceed with the curious topic of novel structure. I got this question from a reader in the email:

"I'm writing my first novel, and it's based on a true story that I experienced, but of course it is fiction so I can tell it better. I'm struggling with the structure. At first I thought...