Structuring Your Novel (Everyday handbooks, 325) [Hardcover]

Robert C Meredith (Author), John D Fitzgerald (Author)

Book Description

Series: Everyday handbooks, 325 | Publication Date: March 27, 1991

Here's the bestselling guide that teaches aspiring novelists how to employ the 14 structural elements common to all novels.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Grafton; 1st edition (March 27, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006463325X
• ISBN-13: 978-0064633253
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,258,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rarity today: Great detail on plotting, structure, March 2, 2000

By 

Rick M. (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Structuring Your Novel (Paperback)

I'm tired of new age writing books that simply tell you to write about your passion with no guidelines on how to structure, plan and plot a novel. This book is old school: it talks about what goes into a great, believable, literary novel, and uses these books as examples: Madame Bovary, To Kill a Mockingbird, From Here to Eternity, Tom Jones, The Grapes of Wrath and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. It was written in 1972 and isn't shy about putting down a lot of helpful rules that you just don't see in much of today's "writing about writing." One example from their excellent chapter on developing plots and/or story lines: "Begin a novel with an event outside the character of the protagonist that starts a chain reaction of causally related events." They also point out that great fiction isn't really true to life; few women view suicide as the answer to boredom and bankruptcy as does Emma Bovary, yet great fiction is made from those believable and compelling departures (or exaggerations) from the norm. It is the job of the novelist to create those surprises to prove some larger point via their art. Speaking of that, they say all novelists should begin with a written, defininitive mission statement that solidifies in their minds the aim and purpose of their novel. All novels in the end seek to prove a point (absolute power corrupts absolutely, for example), and the novelist should keep his/her aim in mind while writing. This excellent book is a welcome departure from all the writing books and classes that offer no practical, concrete advice on how to make good (and bad) fiction. Their book is for commercial and literary writers: they encourage writers to just craft a good, compelling story, and note that as writers develop a unique style their work will naturally find its own niche either in the "literary fiction" camp or in the "mainstream" arena.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Structuring Your Novel: The One to Buy, July 3, 2002

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Structuring Your Novel (Paperback)

Would be novelists most often write novels that never see the light of publishing day. The reasons for rejection are as many as the number of things the writer can do wrong. There are many books that teach How To Write a Novel (and I've read most of them), but only STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL by Meredith and Fitzgerald discuss how to do it well. Both authors know what works and what does not work in getting a novel published. They recommend that after the novelist thinks of His Bright Idea, he ought to look at his idea in the way that an agent or publisher will. They recommend concepts as basic as the following:
1) Can the intention, attitude, and purpose be written as one
sentence each?
2) How can the conflict be developed?
3) Who or what is the protagonist, setting, significance?
4) How will the author create causally related events?
5) Is there a dramatic driving device for the protagonist?
6) What is the viewpoint? Omniscient? (avoid) First Person?
(Maybe) Third Person (best bet)
7) How will the author inform the reader about the relevant
details of the novel?
8)What about dialogue? (when/how much) Characterization? (how)
The above points are usually omitted by rookie authors, and their ignorance of them is the most common reason for rejection.
The value behind forcing a writer to think like a publisher is to anticipate pitfalls and correct them before too many hastily written words hit the paper. This book should be required reading for anyone who hopes to write and publish novels, and not have to wonder why their career is going nowhere.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but be careful, February 4, 2005

By 

bookloversfriend (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Structuring Your Novel (Paperback)

First, this book is not about structuring your novel. It is a general book on fiction writing. Second, it is very basic, for beginning writers only. That said, if you are just starting out, this book has it over the other beginning books in that, at least, it says what it has to say and doesn't beat around the bush. If you need a cookbook approach, this is it.
It is very brief. Also, its format is to say what it has to say in bold characters, then repeat the same thing in a couple of paragraphs, as though you were hard of hearing or as though teaching a class of bored students whose minds may have been wandering when he said it the first time. For instance: "The protagonist in a novel can be singular (just the main character) or plural (more than one of the leading characters)." (p.11) Then, just in case that statement was too difficult for you, he spells it out in the next half-page. And so it goes. "To set the stage for the basic conflict..., place the protagonist in conflict with his own environment or the environment of others." (p.14) Again, a half page to repeat that. In other words, you can get all there is in the book just from reading the statements in bold print. That way, you can finish the book in one hour.
All this might be safe enough, except that some of these bold statements are debatable. For instance: "The basic conflict cannot be developed or sustained unless the author exaggerates the reaction of the protagonist to the stimulus of the environment." (p.20) "The event...that starts the chain of causally related events may or may not be presented in the first chapter." (p.128) Beware of such advice unless you have a good friend who is an acquisitions editor!
The author touches all the bases: idea, conflict, plot, viewpoint, theme, exposition, description, narration and action, characterization, symbolism. He also has two brief chapters on "craftsmanship" in which we are told to "Make every word count" (p.164) and that "The motivation of everything a character says and does in a novel must be established in the reader's mind." (p.158) And in a chapter on style we are told that "Style in novel writing cannot be taught." (.p.187)
As long as you go on to read several other beginning books on fiction writing and take many of the proclamations with a grain of salt, it might be safe to read this book. Certainly, it will get you started quickly.