Structure

Let's talk about Structure. Yes, yes I know, go ahead and groan, I'll wait.

Finished?

Good.

Structure is something that can either make your novel great or make it into a terrible mess of strung together words that sometimes make you fell goodby mostly make you grimace. That is before you give up and throw the thing away because you can't read it.

Through my quest to learn everything that I can about writing and mastering the basics, Ive found that story structure is one of those things that I really struggle with. And that's pretty tragic because structure is the bones of pretty much everything that I write. So I decided to read as much as i could about structure and hopefully someone somewhere out there will explain it in a way that will just click.

Here are a few of my resources:

First of all I took advantage of Holly Lisle's infamous How to think Sideways class right before it was no longer available as a weekly online course. It's still available in ebook format, and you can purchase them here. I love Holly, and the course, so I would definitely recommend it. 

Second, I purchased Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell.(It's actually the first book on writing that I ever bought!) I would recommend this book to everyone if you want to improve your writing. It is seriously worth it's weight in gold.

Finally, I recently stumbled upon Kristen Lamb's blog, and saw that she was posting a weekly blog about structure. If you don't take any of my other advice I would seriously advise you to check this series out. She seriously breaks down the concept and gives examples that really help you grasp everything. It's definitely a must read before Nano. Also, check out her book We Are Not Alone-The Writer's Guide to Social Media if you are thinking of starting an author's blog that helps create your author's platform.
Structure Part I , Part II--Plot Problems , Part III--Introducing the Opposition , Part IV--Is Your Idea Strong Enough?  , The Pitch and Your Seed Idea