by C. S. Lakin
#13 New subplot development that mirrors or is opposite of the main plot. In other words, show what key opposition your protagonist is facing and how she feels about it. Fran is called in to school. Trevor is in the principal’s office, accused of hacking the school’s computers to change grades. He swears he’s innocent but evidence proves otherwise. Parallels Fran’s case, with Jepson arrested for hit-and-run and swearing he’s innocent.
#4 Twist #1. Something new happens: a new ally, a friend becomes a foe. New info reveals a serious complication to reaching the goal. Protagonist must adjust to change with this setback. This twist pertains to the main plot. Mike finds items planted in his car from Libby. He’s starting to lose it. Alisa now doesn’t believe his innocence anymore (perfect example of “friend becomes a foe”). Cops come and check out the dent in the car.
#24 Alisa leaves to stay in a hotel. Mike begs his friend to help him. Things look bleak for Mike. (New action, followed by reaction and processing.)
#14 Progress with the subplot. Similar to the main plot, the character is trying to deal with the subplot issues, complications, and setbacks. Tension builds as things are getting more difficult or problematic. Fran plays softball with coworkers. Reveals the backstory about her marriage, her husband leaving without a word ten years ago, that ten-year anniversary looming, and how it ties in with her disconnect with Trevor, how she’s tried to be the best mom but feels she’s failed.
#25 A mother at the day care where Alisa works (DeeDee) suddenly becomes her BFF and takes her to lunch. (Subtle but big development in the plot.)
#5 The Midpoint (50%). No turning back. Important event that propels the story forward and solidifies the protagonist’s determination to reach her goal. Fran has to arrest Mike. She doesn’t know if he’s guilty, but she has no choice. Mike hires a PI from jail to help him. His life and marriage is in ruins. (Here it’s a Midpoint moment for both the protagonist and the main secondary characters, Mike and Alisa.)
#15 Things start coming to a head and creating high tension with the subplot. Now that the protagonist is committed to going all-in after her goal, the subplot adds stress to her load. Fran is home. Daughter Megan arrives distraught. Her boyfriend broke up with her, feels she’s unlovable. This unleashes Fran’s insecurities and loneliness, and emphasizes Fran’s need to be perfect and please everyone, never make a mistake.
#6 Pinch Point #2 (62% roughly). The opposition comes full force. Time to buckle down and fight through it. Mike meets with a lawyer who tells him there’s no hope. Mike swears he’s innocent. Falls apart. Deedee (who is the nemesis in the story) worms her way into Alisa’s home and life and starts drugging her and manipulating her while Mike is in jail.
#26 Mike’s lawyer pressures Mike to get through to Alisa. The lawyer is not on his side and paints a bleak picture. Alisa is falling hard under Deedee’s manipulation. (New action creating huge complications, barreling toward the climax.)
#16 Developments with the subplot reach critical mass. Things are falling apart, looking hopeless. Fran doesn’t believe her son is innocent—all evidence proves he hacked into the school’s computer. Their relationship is threatened to break.
#7 Twist 2. An unexpected surprise giving (false?) hope. The goal now looks within reach. A mentor gives encouragement, a secret weapon, or an important clue. The PI Mike’s hired finds clues to who is framing him. He has a name and now all evidence is showing she is the culprit (hope!). But she can’t be found.
#27 Alisa works up courage to meet with Fran and talk. Fran gets her to turn back to God, and this moves Alisa to give Mike a chance to explain, and hence become his support once again. (Decision, which prompts new actions.)
#17 Subplot feels at a standstill. Protagonist has no time to deal with it and so this creates more tension. Or something in the subplot could provide the help, insight, clue the protagonist needs to push harder to the goal. Fran can’t get through to Trevor, and she has no time to deal with him.
#27 Alisa visits Mike, she now believes in his innocence. PI is trying to find DeeDee. (Connecting scene for the main plot.)
#8 Turning Point #4 (75%). Major setback. All is lost and hopeless. Time for final push. The identity of Mike’s nemesis is clear, but she can’t be found. His arraignment is coming up. He dumps the bad lawyer and gets a new one. All looks hopeless.
#18 Same issues with the subplot. Seems unresolvable. Something happens that closes doors. Or the subplot might be resolved outwardly, but the desired emotional state is illusive. Fran finds Trevor at the park. She has good news—turns out, due to her efforts, that evidence proves Trevor was set up (just like Jepson). He gets angry—she didn’t believe he was innocent even though he insisted he was. She mentions that his dad leaving is at the heart of all his pain. He feels like he’s a loser and confesses that he believes that’s why Dad left. Then he storms off. This starts Fran’s descent into emotional darkness.
#28 Alisa, shocked, discovers her house guest is Mike’s nemesis. Deedee attacks Alisa and leaves her for dead, heading to the arraignment. (Big complication.)
#9 Turning Point #5 (76-99%). The climax in which the goal is either reached or not; the two MDQs are answered. Mike is exonerated in court when evidence proves he didn’t kill Libby. Deedee shows up in the courtroom about to mess with Mike further. The main plot goal (Mike trying to prove he is innocent) is resolved, but then . . .
#29 Mike ends up killing Deedee in the courthouse parking lot, then is taken into custody. Big twist at the end that puts him back in jail. (Adding a twist after the “supposed” climax is a great structural element.)
#19 The key scene that resolves the subplot in a completely satisfying, full way. The character has achieved the emotional resolution she’s wanted from the start. After the main plot climax, Fran leaves the new crime scene and arrives home with blood on her clothes. Trevor freaks at the sight, and Fran is feeling completely vulnerable. Fran and Trevor have the healing heart-to-heart when Fran breaks down, blames herself for hubby leaving, for being a terrible mom, and realizes she’s tried to be the perfect mom and that her efforts have backfired. She “comes into her essence” and the spiritual MDQ is resolved.
#10 The aftermath (90-99%). The wrap-up at the end. The wrap-up of the case for Fran. She’s helped Mike, so he won’t be in jail long. And she’s helped Alisa return to God. For Fran, it’s all wrapped up.
#30 Alisa accepts the outcome. Her character arc comes to completion. Mike has changed, and there is hope now for their marriage. Loose ends are tied up actually and emotionally. (Final processing scene.)
#20 A final, parting shot of the happy result of the subplot wrapped up. This could be included in the last scene (above) as the two plot elements merge together, or they might be separate scenes within the final chapter(s). Three months later Mike is out of jail. But the case is resolved, and Alisa and Mike reunite and heal. Just as Fran and Trevor have healed their relationship.
While there are more scenes in my novel, I hope you can see how this next layer brings in the additional scenes that advance the main plot, complicate, and resolve. Some of the scenes are processing. Some are ones in which characters make new decisions. Some are new actions based on those decisions.
So, study well the action-reaction cycle. Read great novels that portray characters exhibiting this natural behavior. This will go far in helping you create the scenes that will work as the sand that fills in the spaces between the pebbles.
While this may seem crazy and complicated, it really isn’t. If you start with those ten key scenes and layer in the next ten most important scenes and the next, you will keep adding on to a strong framework. And a solidly built structure won’t easily collapse.
* * *
Your assignment: Break down your favorite novel or one you just read. As you skim through the book, jot down the summary of each scene—maybe one or two sentences. Then, once you have all the scenes written down, try to identify first the ten key scenes, then the second set of scen
es, followed by the third layer of scenes.
Note what types of scenes are used to bridge the key scenes. Pay attention to which scenes are action, reaction, processing, or new action. I’ll bet you you’ll learn a lot by doing this.
Part 3: Layers in Contemporary Best-Selling Novels
Chapter 15: What Analysis Can Teach You
In these next chapters, I’m going to summarize a few novels I’ve recently read—best sellers in different genres—and do what I did with Catching Fire. I want you to see how these ten key scenes are typical of well-structured novels, regardless of whether the author had any forethought about such a method.
I’m also going to share with you a couple of titles that, while being best sellers, to me fail the test. The structure is flawed, and, as I reader, I found these novels losing my interest midway through. In fact, I had to press through to finish them for the sake of my analysis.
When I set out to read a novel that sounds intriguing, I’m always looking for that brilliant story. We search for those gems in the dirt—the rare novels that grab us and don’t let us go until the end. And those are the types of novels we authors want to write.
I’m so often disappointed. I wonder if you are too. Sometimes the writing is mediocre and boring. The characters are flat or unlikable or stereotyped. There are a lot of reasons a novel might fail our personal test of “brilliant.” And usually, to me, the biggest problem lies in the structure.
There Are a Lot of Lousy Novels Out There
There are a lot of best sellers out there that are pretty lousy stories. Some are just plain boring. Some are written badly. Some are horribly structured. Just because a novel has hit the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, it doesn’t mean it’s a great book.
I hope you don’t think I’m being arrogant. I apologize if I come across this way. Over the years I’ve groused with fellow authors about this sorry state of book publishing. We want to tear our hair out when we read some of these “masterpieces.”
However, a lot of people like these novels and sing their praises. What can I say? As you read through, maybe even deconstruct, some of those “great” novels in your mission to understand strong novel structure, you may end up scratching your head.
All this to say: I hope once you have solid novel structure deeply ingrained in your brain, you’ll be quick to spot where novels fail. Where their weak sections are and why. How you might have structured that novel differently to make it work—regardless of whether they have “Bestseller” written on the cover.
I also hope you will see, in time, over the long term, that starting with those ten key scenes in the right places is most often the best decision. And that you’ll adopt this layering method as your go-to method for success.
Intuitive Layering
I recently chatted with a close friend who is an award-winning novelist and a “sworn pantser,” something we joke about, as she ribs me about being so overly organized, and I chide her for winging it and suffering the accompanying agony. All kidding aside, when she asked me about this book I’ve been writing and I described my layering method, her reaction was one of surprise. “Hey, that’s what I do,” she said. “I start with a handful of key scenes, then I add in the transitional scenes . . .”
So, though she would never say she is a plotter, she is surely a “layerer,” and I hope that, if you’re a sworn pantser too, you’ll give this layering approach more than a cursory consideration.
But as you’ve seen, there is more to this method than coming up with ten important scenes in your novel and just sticking them where they “feel right.” My author friend may intuitively, after writing so many great novels, place those key scenes in just the right spots. Stephen King brags how he never plots, but I would bet you the farm (if I had one) that he has this structure so ingrained in him that those key scenes are usually right where they’re supposed to be.
Yes, these analyses are a lot to take in. A lot to read.
I hesitated when considering doing these extensive novel summaries, not because they take a lot of time on my part but because they require a lot of reading on your part. But my desire to have you truly get that strong novel framework is critical won out. By taking a hard look at novel scene outlines and identifying the structure, across multiple genres, you should be able to see the big picture of story structure. I hope you will take the time to go through all these analyses and master this layering concept.
No, Genre Doesn’t Matter
And I also hope you’ll see how this method works across genres.
Granted, a lot of novels veer off traditional structure and still work. With mainstream genres like thrillers and cozy mysteries, you may not see much sidetracking. But with other genres, such as contemporary and literary fiction, it may be more common. As with anything, some people break all the rules and they still succeed. But that’s a risky endeavor. Often the authors who veer off track are those with millions of faithful followers who either readily or reluctantly trail along. I wouldn’t recommend it for an aspiring writer.
You may find, as you deconstruct novels and start plotting out your scenes, that the layering method in this book doesn’t fit your purposes. And that’s fine. However, I would urge you, especially if you are new to novel writing, to try this first. Try coloring inside the lines before grabbing a paintbrush and sliding off the page and onto the dining table.
Feel free to experiment and play around with structure. But if your story feels stuck or begins wandering off into the hinterlands, rein it back in and work on those ten foundational scenes. See if you can’t at least make your story work within that basic structure.
Novels That Just Don’t Fit the Framework
Often novels are relational dramas—all about the characters and how they change, with little plot to speak of. And there is a place in the world of readers for these types of stories, many of which are wonderful beyond words.
So if you find that when you deconstruct well-written novels in your niche genre and summarize their scenes you can’t come up with the obvious ten key scenes, that doesn’t mean this method of layering doesn’t apply. I’ll venture to say that, with a bit of scrutiny, you will still find the basic story structure underlying the plot. There will still be those markers or milestones along the way that serve as foundational scenes—scenes that support the story as framework. And this is what we’re focusing on here when we talk about layering.
If you can identify the important moments in the plot—when characters change, when events create a definitive shift in opinion, thinking, belief—those are the scenes to look for.
A Look at Contemporary YA
Contemporary Young Adult novels often fall into this category. You might find a story made up of diary entries—a high school girl telling what happens during the school year. Or you might come across a novel about teens struggling in a “coming of age” story. When you have a novel in which not a whole lot of “plot” is going on, if it’s a terrific story, you should be able to see a clear and deliberate structure hidden below the surface of character exploration.
Let’s take a good, long look at a recent best seller in the YA Contemporary genre. I found this novel by searching Amazon best sellers and bought a copy. This novel is a perfect example of a “coming of age” character-driven story with little plot.
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner is set in rural Tennessee and alternates POV between three high school seniors who are misfits and struggling with their identity. Basically, this is a novel showing how Dill, Lydia, and Travis move from their persona to their true essence. In other words, by the end of the novel they grow, mature, face who they “really are,” and finally accept and like themselves.
It’s a hard, painful journey, and the “point” of the novel is succinctly expressed by the author: “I wanted to write about young people who struggle to lead lives of dignity and find beauty in a forgotten, unglamorous place.”
In my opinion, novels with little plot are high
ly dependent on great characters, clever and engaging dialogue, and deep inner conflict to be successful. The Serpent King delivers on all these counts.
As I lay out the scene summary and identify what I believe are the ten key scenes, pay attention to how these moments in the story create a strong first layer to build upon.
Again, I have no way of knowing how this author or any other authors plot out novels, but that’s beside the point. If a novel shows a clear, strong framework, to me, that’s the main reason for its success. It needs those ten key scenes in the right places.
You might write your scenes out of order or without considering order or placement. But if, at some point, you step back and examine where in your novel these important scenes are located and you don’t have a good sense of structure, your framework might collapse. You need to be able to move scenes around, or add or delete scenes, to get that framework strong. Using this layering method will help you move your pieces into place for maximum support of your story.
So, let’s look at the fifty-three scenes (some are half a page) of The Serpent King.
With all these novel breakdowns, there are going to be spoilers, and there’s a huge one in this book. So, while I apologize for the spoilers, they are necessary. If you want to read these novels first, put this book down and grab and read them. Then jump back in and study the breakdown.
Summary of The Serpent King
Let me give you a brief summary of this novel. Dillard Wayne Early Junior is the son of a charismatic preacher who is serving time in prison for child pornography. Dill is in a pitiable situation because he not only lives in a small town in which everyone knows what’s happened with his father, his parents (and many congregants) also blame Dill for Dad’s demise. His parents are fanatically religious and highly hypocritical. Instead of lying under oath and claiming the porn was his (since, being a minor, he wouldn’t have gone to jail), Dill told the truth, and Dad was carted off. His parents are furious at him, and his mom piles on the guilt as she works exhausting hours trying to support Dill and herself, living in total denial and blaming him.
