Structuring Your Novel Workbook: Hands-On Help for Building Strong and Successful Stories

Helping Writers Become Authors #4

by K.M. Weiland

Discover the Proven Blueprint for Creating Stories That Sell!


Award-winning author K.M. Weiland’s previous book, the bestselling Structuring Your Novel, showed writers how to create stories with strong and compelling plot structure.


Now it’s time to put those lessons to use! Building upon the principles you’ve already learned, the Structuring Your Novel Workbook presents a guided approach to writing solid first drafts, identifying and fixing plot problems, and writing consistently good stories.


Containing hundreds of incisive questions and imagination-revving exercises, this valuable resource will show you how


•Implement a strong three-act structure
•Time your acts and your plot points
•Unleash your unique and personal vision for your story
•Identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths
•Eliminate saggy middles by discovering your story’s “centerpiece”
•And so much more!


This accessible and streamlined workbook will empower you to create an effective structure—and an outstanding novel.


Start writing your best book today!

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts, How To, Adult

154 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2014

About the author

K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally published author of acclaimed writing guides such as Structuring Your Novel, Creating Character Arcs, and Writing Archetypal Character Arcs. She writes historical and speculative fiction and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all my friends who are or want to be writers, if you want to give yourself some homework, discover the work of KM Weiland. She's helped me wrap my whole head around conceptualizing the structure of novels (and how to do it well). It's an art just like learning any other craft. (Reading this, I felt the way I did in my early days of photography, piecing together all the elements that entailed shooting in manual).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

So helpful! It aids in helping you process, assemble, and execute your story. Highly recommend, along with the other two workbooks.

[Nothing]

I feel like this “exercise book” is more for writing a story with definitive black and white sides. So like if there isn’t an evil and good then the formulation won’t work. But that’s just me. It might be helpful to someone else.

[Monica T. Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a GREAT guide for any fiction writer. Even after you've written your story, this will help you in revisions. I'm using it to make sure I've hit all the important points. But it's most helpful when you find yourself lost in the weeds of your story and you're not sure which direction will get you to the end.

The questions that follow each section provide terrific guidance. They help you order your thoughts about your story. And sometimes you come across a question you hadn't thought of or don't know the answer to. Those are the most revealing.

The bonus to this book is the section on structuring your scenes. I'm familiar with the concept, but the author has a way of posing questions that force you to clarify what you're trying to accomplish in a scene and figure out why these events happen and why is the character reacting that way. I read the sections on scene goals while struggling with a couple of my scenes and I realized what was missing, what I needed to emphasize more, and perhaps consider ending the previous scene later. It helped me keep the scene linked to the overall story as well as keep the story moving forward.

Even if you've already written your first draft, this book is so helpful for untangling knots you might have gotten yourself into. Highly recommend it.

[Polt · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are just beginning to dabble in the world of story writing, then this workbook would most likely be an incredibly useful guide. However, if you've been dabbling in this world for a while and are simply looking to hone your craft or find your "it" factor, then this book may not be as useful to you. A lot of the information in here are just reiterations of things that an English teacher would tell you about the process of good story structure (in my opinion). I found myself nodding a lot and saying, "Yeah, I already know," as I read through the exercises. So this book was not particularly helpful to me, but I'm not saying that it is poorly written. Just that it's not for everybody.
I think that part of the thrill of story writing is also breaking the rules and finding your own style and voice in your writing. This workbook doesn't necessarily allow for that. Which is fine for a beginning writer; you've got to learn the rules before you can break them, after all. All in all, it's a fair refresher for basic story structure that you may have forgotten, but otherwise simply contains exercises that I believe most aspiring or professional writers already use in order to organize their stories.

[Angel Leya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would make a great electronic fillable form. As it stands, I got the kindle version, which is fine, but lacks that satisfying, fill-it-in aspect. The paperback would be nice, but I'd likely need to buy one for every story. :) I do love all the directions and questions in it. It's like getting the anatomy of your story laid out in an easy to digest format. I feel the need to rearrange some of the items, though. I think this book blends really well with Randy Ingermanson's How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method (Advanced Fiction Writing Book 1) - Start with the general idea, find the big plot points, then start filling in pinch points and hooks and foreshadowing and such. Might have to make my own electronic version of the workbook to help me set up plots. Excited to see what this does for my writing.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and its companion book "Outlining Your Novel Workbook." I'm a complete discovery writer, a pantser, and I'm so glad I have these wonderful books to give me just the amount of structure and help that I need. Weiland breaks down each act of a story, and helps you figure out the must useful places for bits and pieces to go. This is a truly invaluable resource, and I know I'll keep referring to it for years to come!

I LOVE the way K.M. writes about writing, she gives it such a clinical, helpful perspective that is interesting and practical for those authors who want to add more structure to their approach.

[D.G. Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writer's guide for scene and plot structure. Lots of detailed descriptions and examples, and although geared more towards fiction writing, I think this book is helpful for writing in all genres and for beginners and older writers alike.

[Janet Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL WORKBOOK by K. M. Weiland

Learning anything new is a challenge, especially when there is more than one way to go about it. That's why I love this workbook. The questions in the workbook spotlight problems in your novel that you never noticed before. I had quite a few moments of gratitude to Miss Weiland. Once I realized there was a deficiency, I was able to attack it. But first it needed to be brought to my attention. The workbook did that for me. It was truly eye-opening.

You should go through the workbook each time you start a new story. It's also good to use with novels you have already written. This is what I did. It pinpoints any weak areas so you can fix them. Just remember this workbook is your friend. It's designed to help you see the errors you missed before. Don't get discouraged! Instead, be encouraged by the fact that you have an "editor" on your side, telling you what you need to do to make your story the best it can be.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to work through in order, given that it expects you to already know your project outline, pinch points, plot points, etc. A little jumping backwards and forwards may be in order, especially for those who have a beginning and ending in mind but not necessarily all the middle, or a bunch of events but not necessarily know the exact order or where they fall in the three act structure yet.

Lots of good questions and exercises, very good at making you think about how events flow into each other and how you could improve the flow, foreshadowing, etc.

Briefly covers scene structure as well, though I personally don’t find that super helpful or necessary at the planning/structuring stage just yet.

Would recommend over the non-workbook. Good to use in conjunction with the author’s Outlining Workbook.

[Ingrid Haunold · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not bad, but it doesn't contain a single original thought.

I've read quite a few books on the craft of screenwriting, and K. M. Weiland basically rehashes ideas formulated by screenwriting teachers/consultants many years ago.

Read anything by Syd Field (I recommend"The Screenwriter's Problem Solver") or anything by Linda Seger (I recommend "Making a Good Script Great") or any of the many books published years ago by screenwriting consultants.

Weiland bases her advice on the craft of screenwriting, and advises novelists to apply that knowledge to the craft of novel writing. In my opinion, there are differences, which is why I'm not overly impressed with this book.

But if you've never read a book about the craft of fiction writing, Weiland's book is an easily comprehensible introduction.

[Jacqueline Mudge-Cooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a good resource but as hard as I tried, I felt like I just did not get it. For my writing ideas kept on changing and molding, and it probably would show if anyone looked at my answers.

Sometimes I felt like I was being asked the same question again and again or the answer I write is for the wrong question. This book is more ideal for a planning writer who knows everything from A-Z to the book. Than if you say are a discovery writer. Although throughout the frustration I've had with this book, I did learn some things to make the story better. Just overall, it was hard for me to get it done. Like that textbook in a subject you're struggling with and you know enough of the subject but can't ask for help.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rigorous companion to Weiland's Structuring Your Novel that put my plot through its paces. I've been working on my novel for a while (too long), so I was already pretty far along in the process, and the workbook still led me to make several changes that I think improved it greatly. I don't know how well I would've done if I'd been starting from scratch, but I definitely recommend it for stories that seem stuck or aren't coming together properly. I also recommend using it alongside Structuring Your Novel, which goes into greater detail concerning the topics covered. Read the relevant chapters and then move to the workbook. The two dovetail nicely.

[ukuklele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini membuat penjelasan mengenai struktur tiga babak di bukunya Richard Krevolin tampak simpel. Lebih dari tiga babak, lebih dari "Six-Stage Plot Structure-nya Michael Hauge, buku ini memerincinya sampai:

The Hook
The First Act
The First Plot Point
The First Half of the Second Act
The Midpoint
The Second Half of the Second Act
The Third Plot Point
The Third Act
The Climax
The Resolution

Malah lebih-lebih lagi, jika kita mau menjawab setiap pertanyaan di sepanjang buku ini.

Saya memulai buku petunjuk menulis yang berupa workbook ini tadinya untuk mengerjakan latihan-latihannya, untuk membantu menyusun dan mengembangkan ide yang telah lama merundung. Namun, pada akhirnya, lagi-lagi, saya cuma membaca dari awal sampai akhir, meninjau isinya secara keseluruhan. Bisa saja sih setelah ini saya membacanya lagi dari awal, dan karena sudah tahu keseluruhan isinya, maka kali ini dengan sangat perlahan-lahan sambil berusaha menjawab setiap pertanyaannya, mengaitkannya dengan ide yang dimiliki, mengarahkannya supaya tersusun alur yang tajam, efektif dan efisien. (Lirik Bimbingan Apresiasi Puisi , Berguru kepada Sastrawan Dunia , dan masih banyak lagi buku petunjuk lainnya yang telah dibaca tuntas tapi diabaikan saja tugas dan latihannya, sigh ....)

Tiap materi dalam buku ini memberikan contoh dari beberapa karya yang berbeda-beda. Timbul pertanyaan, kenapa penulis enggak mencontohkan satu karya saja yang ngepas dengan keseluruhan petunjuknya ini? (sebagaimana Pak Doktor S. Effendi dengan puisi "Tanah Kelahiran" Ramadhan KH dalam Bimbingan Apresiasi Puisi.) Apa jangan-jangan enggak ada karya yang ngepas dengan semua teorinya ini sehingga diambillah banyak contoh asal bersesuaian dengan yang lagi dibahas? Saya sendiri tidak selalu bisa mencocokkan ide yang saya miliki dengan setiap poin di sini. Kadang ada yang cocok, kadang tidak. Apa mesti selalu dicocok-cocokkan?

Structure should never be about trying to force our stories into a box. Structure is about creating a framework to support our ideas--and then letting our imaginations fly free. ("CONCLUSION")

"CHAPTER 10. SCENES" saya rasa paling applicable untuk maju selangkah demi selangkah, bab demi bab. Sebelum menemukannya lagi dalam buku ini, saya telah mencoba menerapkannya pada ide saya. Cuma meskipun sudah mendefinisikan Goal-Obstacles-Transformation/Twist-Atmosphere untuk tiap bab, tetap saja kurang dorongan untuk menguraikannya jadi narasi yang layak :v wakwakwak.

Bab ini berada di "Part 2. STRUCTURING YOUR SCENES. Jadi setelah bagian satu menerangkan tentang struktur umum sebuah novel, bagian dua ini memberi tahu cara memerincinya menjadi rangkaian scene dengan sedetail-detailnya.

In My Naive Opinion, kalau ada kemudahan dalam menulis narasi yang mengalir, tidak perlu amat mengikuti setiap petunjuk dalam buku ini--bahkan buku manapun. Kalau lagi mandek atau butuh prompt yang inspiring, barulah coba jawab pertanyaan atau kerjakan latihan-latihan dalam buku serupa itu sebagai pemantik untuk mengembangkan narasi.

"CONCLUSION" dalam buku ini mengesankan bahwa the fastest outline, fastest first draft, fastest revision process = the best writing experiences. Memang draf-draf sepanjang puluhan ribu kata yang pernah saya tuntaskan itu diketik dalam tempo beberapa minggu saja alias relatif lancar jaya. Namun itu sebelum saya kenal struktur tiga babak dan sebagai-bagainya teknik kepenulisan. (Malah boleh dibilang saya belum dapat memahami teknik-teknik itu hingga saya melewati fase puas menulis semau-maunya, alias mesti ada cukup pengalaman untuk dapat menangkap maksud dari teori.) Outline hanyalah rangkaian poin yang tidak kudu mendetail amat, dan dalam proses mengetik saya sekadar mengurai dan menyambung-nyambungkan dari satu poin ke poin lain. Saya baru satu kali merevisi atau menulis ulang draf novel dan seingat saya tidak begitu sulit menyesuaikannya dengan struktur tiga babak yang waktu itu baru saya pahami, mungkin karena ceritanya sederhana juga.

Bagi saya, yang "worked" itu yang bisa membuat saya tuntas menuliskannya dan merasa senang, takjub, terhibur, terngiang-ngiang ketika membacanya sendiri di kemudian hari. Sedangkan standar orang lain kan misalnya mesti sampai bagaimana draf itu bisa terjual, menarik sebanyak-banyaknya orang untuk membacanya.

Yah, sepertinya ide-ide yang telah lama bercokol dalam kepala saya ini memang masih berantakan, mentah, dan pada momen sembelit jiwa beginilah saya butuh framework untuk men-support-nya dan buku ini coba menawarkan solusi. Yok, coba lagi, yok .... Entah untuk apa, tak tahu. Mungkin ibarat Tuhan tak bisa ditanya alasannya menciptakan makhluk yang suka berbuat kerusakan di muka bumi, yang penting bagi makhluk itu adalah beribadah saja sepanjang hayat. Begitu pula halnya dengan menulis, bukan untuk dipertanyakan kenapanya, tapi menulis sajalah terus. Entah pun apa boleh dikatakan menulis itu termasuk upaya menjalankan ibadah membaca, membaca jiwa sendiri yang mesti senantiasa dibenahi. (Ea eaaa ....)

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love every one of K. M. Weiland’s books

As a systems thinker (retired systems engineer actually), I really resonate with her clear systematic approach and relevant examples. Her books are among my top go-to’s for learning and reference as I continue to grow as a writer and as a person.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This workbook companion is a great help. I read Structuring Your Novel, then bought the workbook with fill-in spaces and references back to the various sections of the book. I finished my novel
recently (yea!) and.am currently gathering critiques and comments from my beta readers. I will refer to these two books over and over as I do my final revision before self-publishing.

[Cassandra Lee Yieng · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate the comprehensive questions to highlight the strengths and strengthen the weaknesses in novels-in-progress. Although it's tough to give each question a long answer, the wordiness is essential, especially for writers who need to get everything down before they begin the first draft like me. Working through the workbook will take time, but the effort is worth it at the end.

[G. Edward Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

This is by far the single greatest book I have read concerning novel writing advice. K.M. Welland puts forth her knowledge in a straight forward and easily understandable manner. Highly recommend this book and all of her others.

[M.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een fantastisch werkboek! het helpt je om de lessen van Structuring your novel in praktijk te brengen en toe te passen door vele vragen en oefeningen. Een aanrader!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for in-progress works or those in need of revision.

[Chris Derby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous resource

[Margaretha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great writing resource workbook. Using this you will have a solid plot with an interesting journey. I recommend using it in tandom with the book and the Character Arc book and workbook.

[Jason Prugar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great companion to the Structure your Novel book.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It suddenly became my new Bible.

[Carrie Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I love her book on character arcs, I didn't find this one particularly insightful or helpful. Also, most of this content can be found on the author's blog, so I'd start there and if you like the way she explains things, get the book, but if not, this might not be for you.

[Ann Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to want-to-be-writers and/or writers. The book is well-organized, highly informational, and accessible. It's not rated a great read for nothing.

-Ann Brown

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Structure should never be about trying to force our stories into a box." Weiland, K.M..

I'm a newbie in the writing world, never been published, and feel very self-conscious about my writing ability, so I've been reading just about everything I can in the writing-self-help category. I began outlining a project I feel very close with, and I think with the information in this book I fine-tune my plotting and answer some questions I haven't been able to put into words. (For instance some scenes I know what I want to happen, but I need more in-depth questions to make the scene flow with the theme of the story).

With this workbook alone there are plenty of questions to ask yourself about any given point in your story. From working on the development of the story to actually working on the details in the simplest of scenes in the story. I also would recommend looking up Weiland other's published writing books and look for her free blog site which is full of useful information.

The only thing that threw me off track is she uses a lot of movie plots, in her examples...which I guess in fairness a movie story is pretty much told the same way a book story is (and I'm not talking about books made into movies)...

(this is an independent review, I was not paid or requested to write it, nor do I have any affiliation with K.M. Weiland or her publication company).

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got the book and this workbook in the summer of 2015 to help me prep the writing of my second novel in time for Nanowrimo. It was during the reading of the book that I realized that my first novel, Chrysalis, was unsound and would need to be restructured.

In December of 2015 I decided to go back to revising Chrysalis. I have been dutifully working on it the last three months, not by re-writing any words, but by going through the workbook, thinking through the questions, exploring different possibilities, rearranging the scenes so that they fall into the right plot and pinch points.

The questions helped me understand my novel in a much deeper level and gave me the permission to take the time to slow down and think through characterization, foreshadowing, theme, plot, everything! Even though nothing has been altered in the manuscript, the story is much stronger and much deeper thanks to going through the workbook.

Whether you want to prep or evaluate your novel, this book is an excellent option. In addition to reading this, I would suggest that you read through her Character Arc series on her blog. I found those to be incredibly helpful and go to a deeper level of structuring your work.

[Chiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

E' un utile completamento del libro Structuring your novel, della medesima autrice. Qui vengono ripresi i punti fondamentali della struttura del romanzo, e per ogni punto oltre agli esempi ci sono utilissimi esercizi da svolgere e anche delle checklist che permettono di verificare il corretto sviluppo dei punti della struttura nei propri testi. Utili anche i numerosi link ad articoli di approfondimento online. Consiglio questo libro e consiglio più in generale di seguire online K. Weiland se si conosce un po' l'inglese! Aiuta molto a chiarirsi le idee sulla struttura e a mettere in ordine le conoscenze che già si hanno sulle regole del romanzo. (less)

It's a useful completion of the book Structuring your novel, by the same author. For every key points of the structure of the novel there are examples and useful exercises to do and also checklists for the verification of the correct development of the structure points in our text. Very useful links to online feature articles. I recommend this book and recommend to follow K. Weiland online!

[Kathleen Denly · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, I must confess I did not read the book this workbook is based on. That said, this approach of comparing the novel to a play simply did not work for me. While the book posed several thought provoking and helpful questions, I do not feel that I learned as much as I wished to from this workbook. After struggling through the first few chapters, I wound up skimming the rest of the book in my spare moments here and there over several months. I have given it three stars because I feel most of the book's failings have more to do with my learning style and the fact that I did not read the accompanying book, than it did the workbook itself.