I recently had the privilege, actually that’s an understatement, it was a true honor, to read Larry Brooks’ new Writer’s Digest publication of Story Engineering. My review at Amazon.com is still pending at the time of this blog post, but I wanted to share it here anyway.

My review: Story Engineering by Larry Brooks

This is not a how to book on the mechanics of writing. Larry doesn’t tell you when or where to use adverbs and adjectives or why you should or shouldn’t. This book covers what the title says..story engineering. He tells you exactly what elements you need for a publishable story, where it goes and why it goes where it does. If you want to learn about writing dialogue or how to choose the best descriptive words in your writing, this is not the book. This book goes much deeper into the structure of a great story. This book is the blueprint of building that great story. You can have great characters, great scenes, a great plot, and all the other components of a great story, but if you don’t have all of those elements where they belong–you have something that will need a ton of edits until those elements are in the right place. Save yourself and your editor a lot of time by studying this book and getting it down right the first time.
Many people believe their creativity is hampered by using structure. I can tell you it’s not. I started using Larry’s “timeline” of events awhile back. I lay out the big things that need to happen in my story, where they should happen and then write from point A to point B to point C. Everything in between those points is still creative freedom. You know where your character is and where he needs to go–you can be as free as you want in getting him there, but you have to get him there and get him in the right place at the right time.
I have books on writing dialogue, writing great plots, writing the setting of your story and all those things that go into a great story, Larry’s book pulls it all together and explains the when, and more importantly, the why of all these elements. He shows you how to put the puzzle pieces together.
I’ve had the priviledge of communicating with Larry privately over the past two years. He is warm and charming but when it comes to story structure he’s a no-fluff kind of guy. He doesn’t do the hand holding or candy coating thing.
Story Engineering contains a ton of stuff. If you want to dabble in writing, this is probably not the book for you. It’s a mouth full, very in-depth and Larry doesn’t hold back, he is not here to motivate you and tell you how easy it is to craft a great story. But if you take writing seriously, get this book and study it religiously. You won’t be disappointed.

Grab your copy today! By ordering through the link below you can get a free copy of Larry’s book, “101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters.”

Simply place your order, then send an email to Larry (storyfixer at gmail.com) and tell him, “Patti sent me.” He will send you a copy of his ebook. And yes, it is very good. I have a copy of it myself. :)
Order Story Engineering

You can also check out his website: Story Fix.

Dancing With the Muse – An Introduction to the Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling

We are inundated with writing wisdom. It cascades around us like political fallout, right and left, plotter and pantser, light and dark, first person and third, commercial and literary, nuanced and smack in your face.

How to unblock. How to craft compelling characters (an alliterative gem in its own right). How to write scenes. How to write genre fiction. How to not make your English teacher turn over in her grave. How to get it published.

And how to keep from going insane trying to make sense of it all.

It’s like newsstand health and fashion magazines – different cover model, same old rehashed shit, issue after issue. It’s all just recycled conventional wisdom, and – here’s the really confusing part – none of it is inherently wrong.

The New Language of Writing Advice

And yet, nobody has been able to define what it means, what it really takes, to write a successful – as in, publishable – novel. For the most part it’s all theory and rhetoric, a fluid mass of tumbling ideas, tips and techniques, none of which covers the cradle-to-grave process of it all.

That is, perhaps until now.

The problem is this: we have been trying to stuff the conventional wisdom of writing fiction into a bottle using right-brained, soft-edged literary jargon. When in fact, it all becomes much clearer, much more doable, when we step back for a moment to regard the craft of writing stories from a cold-blooded engineering perspective.

The underlying proposition, or if you prefer, supposition, is that the sum of what goes into a successful novel, screenplay or short story, can be categorized and poured into six separate and highly definable buckets.

Regarded separately, each bucket comes with a user’s manual that delivers standards and criteria for excellence. Fall short of the criteria within any one category and your story suffers for it.

Nail them all, times six, and your story gets a dust jacket and a review in Publishers Weekly.

An Engineering-Oriented Approach

Of course, every engineer knows that the key to success goes beyond functionality to embrace the nuance of aesthetic elegance. Which is why a writer can indeed nail all six of the requisite core competencies and still create a story that ultimately tanks.

It’s like an athlete with all the tools, but lacks the spirit and heart of a champion.

It’s like a musician with a God-given ear who lacks the love of music itself.

It begins with an understanding of a set of core competencies. It flourishes with the artful and inspired combination of them into something, an organic whole, that exceeds the sum of those parts.

That’s the art of it. That’s why, even through this engineering lens, there is still no way to fully convey what it takes to write a successful story. The writer needs to arrive at that place of their own volition, and in their own time.

But first, they need the tools to put it all together. And the tools arrive in six buckets of writing elements and executional processes.

Trouble is, most of us are stuck at square one. From the moment we enter a creative writing classroom, and then in writing workshops, critique groups and in every how-to book ever written, we hear the siren song of character and sub-text, of organic storytelling that relies on nothing other than the writer’s inherent sensibilities.

All without ever really understanding where to start, what comes next, what follows what, and what elements glue it all together.

That’s What the Six Core Competencies Do

There is really nothing about writing a successful story that resides outside of these six basics, other than the source and inspiration for the story itself. From that point on, these six buckets define both the process and the product.

Because at the end of the writing day, all six have to be there. Come up short on any one of them, and the story won’t work as well as it could.

What are they? What are these six magic buckets of brilliance? Be prepared to be under-whelmed. Because you know this already. Just like you know that that all it takes to fly is a set of wings, sufficient forward motion and a weight-to-life ratio that defies gravity.

And yet, flight eludes you.

Within the simplicity of these six core competencies resides a key that unlocks the much more complex essence of storytelling. And that is the balance, pacing, power, emotional resonance, dramatic tension, compelling allure, vicarious experience and the electric thrill of resolution that a successful story delivers.

If you write your story knowing what they are, what the target and its criteria are, then you’ll get there all the quicker.

The six core competencies include:

1. CONCEPT… a stage upon which a compelling and richly layered dramatic narrative may unfold, an irresistible “what if?” proposition.
2. CHARACTER… a multi-dimensional protagonist that demands the reader’s vicarious interest and allegiance as a silent partner in their quest.
3. THEME… the real-life emotional relevance and resonance the story evokes within the reader.
4. STRUCTURE… a four-part sequential context that defines what scenes go where, resulting in optimal pacing and character arc across an unfolding series of expositional revelations.
5. SCENE EXECUTION… the building blocks of narrative exposition that artfully unleash the story, moment by moment, with the delivery of both information and character shadings.
6. WRITING VOICE… the writer’s unique way of crafting words, phrases and sentences that, when combined, evoke an experiential essence that adds value, power and intimacy to the story.

There is nothing else in the storytelling universe, other than the initial determination of genre and the intention to publish it when it’s completed.

Unless you have honored all six of these, that moment has not yet arrived.

Larry Brooks is a bestselling author and writing instructor, and the creator of Storyfix.com, an instructional resource for novelists and screenwriters. He is the author of Story Structure – Demystified, an ebook available through his site. His groundbreaking new book, The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling, will be available in early 2011 from Writers Digest Books.

John Francis is an ex-military pilot, turned fulltime writer. John feels his military background gives him more than enough ammunition to tell great stories. And yes, he does like using that as a pun.

John’s interests include creative writing, fiction, and action adventure.
John also enjoys writing military fiction (which he can draw on from personal accounts), police drama and he’s the author of many short stories in various genre’s.

Our writing group first met John on the 10K Day for Writer’s. Since then we’ve created a writer’s support group to keep up our commaradie on a daily basis. John has become a valued member of the support group. We love his wit and humor and the stories he shares with us. Currently being the only active male member of the group, I think he just loves hanging out with us girls.

Being a fulltime (work from home) freelance writer, John doesn’t get a ton of play time, but he does stay very active in the group and sometimes it’s apparant by his posting time that he works well into the night.

You can find John at his own blog, Bloguscripts. Stop by and give him a big “Hello”.

Passion.  It can go a long way in your writing.  All too often writers fail to put words on paper and call it writers’ block.  But sometimes it goes deeper than that; sometimes its a loss of passion about your writing.  Afterall, if you aren’t writing with passion, the words often won’t come and if they do they’ll be forced.  Forced words never match up to words written with passion and they will read with a forced sense–the reader will know.

I’ve recently had the honor to become friends with a writer who writes with vivid passion.  There’s never a day goes by that she hasn’t written an enourmous word count–whether it’s in story, outlining, or writing down ideas.

She’s given several of her characters their own blogs.  I think this is an excellent idea to help a writer really get into the mind of their character.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of this method before now either.  Many tips suggest a writer should journal or create character outlines, but to journal from your characters POV?  It seems that would be an excellent way to allow them to grow and become who they are.

I wanted to share this with you and introduce you to fellow writer, and friend, Lois Eighmy.  You can read her main blog, Musings of a Creative Writer, as well as her livejournal, LMEighmy.

Lois is indeed an inspiration to all of her writing friends.  She has spunk, loves to write and most importantly–she has passion!

Happy Writing!