9 Comments

This'll keep writers busy for a while. It's a whole workshop in a post. I didn't make any progress with structure until I started using Scrivener, which made it easy to see the manuscript at a glance and weed out every chapter that added nothing new to the story.

Expand full comment

I haven't made the shift to Scrivener, though I know many who swear by it. I'm inching my way toward it, Rona!

Expand full comment

I haven't used Scrivener for a manuscript, but I've found it to be really useful for drafting a marketing plan for a book. It's so much easier to stay organized and on track when you have that birds' eye view of everything you'd like to do.

Expand full comment

Kim, you make clear something that seems extremely complicated and frustrating when floundering in the weeds of the early drafts. I've wrestled with structure for every one of my books without knowing exactly what was wrong or what was needed to fix it. This is very helpful. Time to start a new one.

Expand full comment

Thanks Beth--glad it was helpful. When I realized this on one of my own projects, it was so helpful!

Expand full comment

A generous post, Kim, thank you! You've given me lots of ideas to think about when considering alternate structures for my memoir.

Expand full comment

Thanks Margaret--glad it is helpful!

Expand full comment

Nice one, Kim!

Expand full comment

Highly recommended for anyone who is writing a novel or a book-length work of narrative non-fiction or who is otherwise obsessed with narrative structure.

Expand full comment