THE TWO PILLARS OF NOVEL STRUCTURE ACCORDING TO JAMES SCOTT BELL

I want to talk briefly about novel structure because, as a novel editor, I see all kinds of basic issues from the majority of the aspiring writer-clients I work with. There is a wealth of info out there on the web but I wanted to give you a little taste of what makes a solid novel. Because, especially if you write commercial fiction and hope to land an agent and get published, novel structure is incredibly important to pay attention to.

The basic concept of the three-act novel structure dates back to Aristotle from his “Poetics” (335 BCE) in which he studies dramatic structure in plays of the ancient Greeks. In modern times, the three-act structure has been more sharply defined and explored by Joseph Campbell, author of such classics as “The Hero’s Journey” and “The Power of Myth,” among many others.

Campbell’s three-act novel structure included Act One (the setup); Act Two (the confrontation); and Act Three (the resolution). In Act One is the “inciting” incident, the event which propels the character into the story journey. There is a climax at the end of Act One which pushes the character into Act Two. In Act Two the MC (Main Character) pushes through obstacles galore, chasing their goal. There is ascending action and there is a mid-point twist, more obstacles, a disaster, and then the climax of Act Two, which forces the MC into Act Three. In Act Three there is the climax and then descending action and the denouement (wrap up) and the end.

Setup, confrontation, and resolution.

And then there is, most recently, James Scott Bell, a master of the modern day thriller and author of such writing how-to books as “Plot and Structure,” “Revision and Self Editing,” “The Art of War for Writers,” “Conflict and Suspense,” and many more.

Bell wrote an article a few years back (CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO BELL’S ARTICLE) titled “The Two Pillars of Novel Structure.” I am going to give you a rough, general sketch of what that article says and also relate it to my own experience working with writers.

You can’t just “write a book” and be done with it. Not if you expect to sell. Not if you expect to write engaging, suspenseful prose and a book that readers simply cannot put down. There are Reader Expectations that writers need to know about. Readers themselves often don’t know they demand certain things from novels…but they do. And, as a writer, if you don’t know what those demands are…you’ll likely be dead in the water before you even get to page 10.

Bell talks about this idea of writing “hot” and editing/revising “cold.” The first draft is never going to be ready to go anywhere except into a drawer for a few weeks or a month until you reread it as objectively as possible then take the red pen out and revise/rewrite. So, write that first draft with passion; write hot. But when you pause and return with the sacred (and infuriating!) red pen, write cold; in other words, look at structure. Because in the first draft you were getting sucked into the world (hopefully), focusing instead on character and world-building and dialogue, etc.

Bell uses the metaphor of story structure being like a suspension bridge. The two key foundations are there holding up the bridge, the pillars. He says: “Every story has to begin, and every story has to end. And the middle has to hold the reader’s interest.” Right. The middle. The hardest and longest portion of your novel. Kind of a tall order, huh?

“The craft of structure tells you how to begin with a bang, knock readers out at the end, and keep them turning pages all the way through,” Bell continues. “When you ignore structure, your novel can begin to feel like one of those rope bridges swinging wildly in the wind over a 1,000-foot gorge. Not many readers are going to want to go across.”

THE FIRST PILLAR

Bell lets us know that the beginning of a novel should do a few things: Let us know who the protagonist is; introduce the Story Problem/Goal; set the tone/introduce the voice; and set the stakes. Getting to the first pillar is what he calls The Door of No Return. (This is like Campbell’s The Hero’s journey; descent into hell and return). Once the character passes through this door, BEFORE the 1/5th mark of your novel, they cannot return. They have walked through a one-way-only portal.

Bell mentions also that the protagonist must suffer and struggle. I tell this to clients all the time. Readers read for two main reasons: To empathize and to sympathize. They want to relate to your character and feel their pain, and yet also, at the same time, they want to think, “God, I’m sure glad I’m not them!” It’s the irony of the human condition. Bell says, “A successful novel is about high-stakes trouble. True character is revealed only in crisis.” Bell calls the opening issue the “opening disturbance.” The MC should experience this in the opening pages.

Then the first pillar thrusts the MC into Act Two. The character wants to stay in the “ordinary” world but now cannot and is instead, against their will, thrust into the “dark world” of Act Two. From now on their will be major troubles and hurdles/obstacles that the MC must push through and barely survive.

Act Two is all about “death stakes.” Bell explains the three types of death: physical, professional, psychological. Your character must face one of the three or more. Remember (and this is key): Your MC MUST change/transform through the journey. By the end of the novel they must be different than they were on page one, and we must have seen that transformation throughout the novel. Think of your overarching Story Question (also called Premise or Theme).

Bell says, “…in novels it’s best to have that first doorway appear earlier. In a fast-moving action novel like The Hunger Games, it can happen quickly. It’s in chapter 1 that Katniss hears her sister’s name chosen for the games, and in the beginning of chapter 2 volunteers to take her place.” Bell uses several examples in his article to demonstrate the passage of the first pillar. One is Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Starling is thrust into a psychological game with Lecter and this might possibly be the only way she can ultimately solve the case.

THE SECOND PILLAR

The second pillar is another Doorway of No Return, only this pillar makes the final resolution necessary. This act, in the middle of the two pillars (on the “bridge”) is where all the action happens. “The second act is a series of actions where the character confronts and resists death, and is opposed by counterforces.” There are obstacles in the MC’s way and the MC must fight. No exceptions. At last the second pillar/doorway opens in the form of a major crisis or setback, clue or discovery. It forces the MC into Act Three and the final battle and resolution.

In Bell’s article he goes over these points with a fine-tooth comb. He asks simple novel-in-progress questions related to these points, to get you going in the right direction. The main thing to remember is that almost all good novels that sell (or 99 percent of them) have some type of basic novel structure. Learn it, live it, love it. If you allow the basic three act structure and the two pillar structure idea to seep into your consciousness, you are that much closer to creating a kick-ass novel that readers won’t be able to put down.

And when you’re ready come hire me for the developmental editing.

Write on.

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“You said it. Let’s edit.”

Michael Mohr

*** My rates, info on what developmental and line editing are, my bio, and other info is on this website. If you have a project and are interested in the next level please email me: michaelmohreditor@gmail.com.

BOOK REVIEW, ‘DOWN SOLO,’ EARL JAVORSKY

Here is the Amazon synopsis for DOWN SOLO, a novel by Earl Javorsky:

“Things haven't been going well for Charlie Miner. His work as a private investigator involves him with an endless roster of shady characters. His ex-wife is borderline crazy. And he hasn't been getting to spend anywhere near enough time with his teenage daughter Mindy, the one person in his life who truly matters to him. When he wakes up on a slab in the morgue with a hole in his head, though, things get even worse. Just before the shooting, Charlie was investigating a case involving fraud, gold, religious zealots, and a gorgeous woman who seemed to be at the center of everything. Even with a fatal bullet wound, Charlie can connect the dots from the case to his attack. And when his daughter is abducted by someone involved, the stakes get exponentially higher. Charlie needs to find Mindy before the criminals do the same thing to her that they did to him. After that, maybe he'll try to figure out how he's walking around dead. Irreverent, circuitous, and surprisingly touching, Down Solo introduces a crisp new voice to suspense fiction.”

To be honest, this isn’t generally the type of novel I like to read. Dead PIs with holes in their head don’t usually tickle my fancy. However, I gave this one a try and I wasn’t disappointed. If you liked Tom Pitts’s “Hustle” (www.tompittsauthor.com) or Joe Clifford’s “Lamentation,” (www.joeclifford.com), or Willy Vlautin’s “The Motel Life” or “North Line” (http://willyvlautin.com/), then you might want to give DOWN SOLO a try.

Then again, it’s hard to argue with the first two sentences, which open the novel:

“They say once a junkie, always a junkie, but that is ridiculous. I haven’t been dead more than a few hours and I already need a fix.” (Page 9, DOWN SOLO [first page])

These opening lines do their job: They give us a strong taste of the narrator’s voice; they set up the plot, to an extent, and the circumstances; they show you a snippet of what the main character’s journey is going to be, in a clipped manner; and, perhaps most importantly, the lines hook you in and grab your collar. PAY ATTENTION TO ME, is what those lines yell. From the very start, we know we’re with an author who has control over his craft, who can deliberately, concisely, confidently pull us in, like a fish on a line, and hold us there, right where he wants us.

The fact that the novel gets nods from bestselling authors such as T. Jefferson Parker and the renowned James Frey (A Million Little Pieces; Bright Shiny Morning) is a testament to the strength of the prose. From the editorial point of view I felt Javorsky’s best writing stems from his physical descriptions of people and places, his crisp, tight use of language and syntax, his brief, authentic dialogue, his metaphor and imagery, his use of short, fast back story which emotionally connects us to his hero, and the building of tension masterfully using action scenes which force us to keep reading and wonder what will happen next, making our heart pump harder while he does it.

His craftsmanship never left me feeling cold or like he didn’t know what he was doing. I felt the whole time like I was in the hands of a very capable author.

“Hunter looks like a movie star in the traditional mold: tanned, aristocratic, slightly graying at the temples, and poised. Only his eyes give him away as a street fighter, a predator’s patient calculating of odds and possibilities hidden in the unblinking gaze.” (Page 170, DOWN SOLO.)

The above quoted passage is just a little taste of the author’s often gem-tight, clear prose style which floats effortlessly just above the page and which demonstrates beautifully his narrator’s voice. That fierce confidence and knowledge—we feel he may have actually lived through some of these experiences, though not surviving a bullet to the dome—shines through much of this novel, bringing to bear the feeling that we are being held by an accomplished, practiced writer.

The journey the hero, Charlie Miner, goes on, to find and retrieve his 15-year-old daughter while simultaneously attempting to solve all the sordid, confusing riddles in his world, is a fun, raw ride, which I always wanted to get back into, after taking a break from the book.

Javorsky also manages to write a squalid tale about mostly low-down, noir-ish characters while also somehow bonding us emotionally to those grimy characters:

“I didn’t start out a junkie. Most of them start out as kids partying on booze and weed. Then they get bored and experiment with more exotic stuff. Acid, Ecstasy, DMT, you name it. Then coke and speed, which means downers for the end of the ride: Xanax and Oxy. When the balancing act gets too tricky, the first snort of heroin solves the whole riddle of how to get right. It’s no longer a question of how to get high, it’s a matter of simply trying to feel human again. Heroin can do that. Until you run out.” (Page 102, DOWN SOLO.)

It’s now no longer just some measly junkie low-down loser but a fully fleshed-out human being who made mistakes and landed in the Heroin Cage of Addiction. Especially with our current culture of prescription drug addiction (which often leads to heroin), this seems like an appropriate representation of a decent guy who’s fallen to the beast of opiates.

There are some fantastic, popping suspense scenes throughout this 200-page novel which made my heart beat quicker. The author clearly knows how to build up a scene, then slow it down or cut the chapter off with a cliff-hanger so we need to keep turning pages to find out more. And his use of minor [concrete] details creates a sensual, vivid landscape which we cannot resist, like catnip for a kitten.

“The hissing of the shower stops abruptly, leaving the room in silence except for the dripping of the nozzles and the sound of bare feet padding across the tiles.” (Page 56, DOWN SOLO.)

Or, describing Mexico (Baja): “…We pass a structure that looks like a mescaline-induced cubist totem pole. A one-legged vendor thrusts a churro at my window. I shake my head and he hobbles on to feed the cars behind me. Women dressed as nurses hold out cans for donations; old men offer plaster Tweety birds, sunglasses, cactuses in pots, monkey puppets on strings attached to the ends of sticks, and a plaster Mary with a halo of concentric shiny wire rings.” (Page 164, DOWN SOLO.)

Having been to Baja, California (Mexico) myself many times over the years, this vivid description placed me right back there.

And finally, I felt that he also did a fine job emotionally bonding me to the Main Character/Hero/Protagonist. In a novel like this—and I have read many, minus the dead hero—it is often too easy to create two-dimensional characters or to write scenes or back story or prose in general that lacks real emotion and empathy. Not the case with DOWN SOLO. Throughout the tale, he weaves emotionally bonding snippets into the real-time action scenes and also into the back story, so that we care and relate to this dead protagonist. No easy feat if you think about it.

“I try to picture how a life can crumble as completely as mine did, and I get a slideshow of the Miner family devolving to its current state. The early part, the glorious, exhausting stage of new parenthood, that holy state of surrender to what’s really important, only serves to remind me of what is now so irrevocably gone. There’s a trigger point, somewhere, a rifle shot that caused the avalanche that changed it all, but I can’t put a finger on it. But Mindy, with her sly little lopsided smile and her inexplicable faith in me after all my failures, is still a part of my life. Something to work toward. Something to hope for.” (Page 18, DOWN SOLO.)

Referring to the above quotation—which reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson, describing that metaphorical wave crashing against the hillsides, representing the final peak and dissolution of the wild, lurid 1960s—you might just as easily be reading Dave Eggers, or perhaps even Paul Auster. I love the literary bent, distributed in quick, sneaky snippets like the above, sandwiched within the squalid chaos of action-packed, heart-racing boom-boom-boom scenes which slice-and-dice and carve serious, deep trails down the storyline, creating a rich, layered, complex plot that grips you by the collar and never lets go. If good writing is about fulfilling a promise from the author to the reader, Javorsky has fulfilled his obligation. Buy this book. You won’t regret it.

Michael Mohr

writer, former literary agent’s assistant, book editor

Earl Javorsky bio (from Amazon):

Earl Javorsky was born in Berlin and emigrated to the US when he was two. He grew up in Los Angeles and attended the local community college and UCLA. He then went to Emerson College, a teacher training school in England. Besides having written two published novels, he has created strategically optimized content (blogs, feature articles, and web pages) for treatment centers throughout the country, taught music at Pepperdine University (Malibu campus), worked in technical sales and marketing, and been employed as a writer for several Hollywood entertainment periodicals. Additionally, he has worked as an editor and/or proofreader for several publishers, including The Story Plant, Belle Books, and The Learning Company, as well as (on the technical side) The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. You can read more about him at www.earljavorsky.com

THE WRITER/EDITOR RELATIONSHIP: PATIENCE

I’d say 95 percent of the clients I work with on book editing projects are filled with impatience. As a writer as well as a book editor, I of course understand this feeling perfectly. It makes sense. For the most part, developing writers approach me with a first or second or third draft, or even sometimes a memoir or novel they’ve worked on for years, and they have a specific plan for how they want that project to go.

The problems with this approach are many-fold. For one thing, the majority of developing writers out there don’t necessarily understand how “the industry” works, and also how book editing itself works. Due to the popularity of writing nowadays, people have been told they can very easily self-publish or simply hire a book editor for a quick edit and then, ZOOM; you’re getting published!

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that writing and editing (and publishing) take a long. Freaking. Time.

For me, as your book editor, I want your work to be the very best it can be. This means I want to often do two, three, even four or more (usually it’s two-to-three) developmental edits (general edit looking at plot, structure, pace, characters, setting, voice, logic concerns, etc) and then a line edit after that. This process easily can take anywhere between six months to a full year or longer. That’s right, you heard correctly; up to a full year. As you move through the process (and you’ll take time off each draft to allow your eyes to become objective with your own work again) you will undoubtedly become a stronger writer. This is part of the point. Also, you can do some research and try to understand agents, query letters (which I can help you with as well) and the market a little better so that when we’re done, you’ll have a better grasp on what you’re doing.

I perform only developmental and line editing (line is going through the whole manuscript line by line and strengthening your writing) which means you’ll still have to then hire a proofreader when you’re done with me. But the point of everything I’m saying is: SLOW DOWN AND BE PATIENT. Let me let you in on a little trade secret: Good novels and good memoir (I only work with novels and memoir) come from writers who take their time, slow down, and put out their very best work. Don’t rush the process! As a client, be willing to be teachable. Remain humble. You don’t have to swallow everything I tell you, and by all means disagree with whatever you wish (and we can discuss each issue/concern) but don’t make the rookie mistake of either rushing your not-truly-ready manuscript to agents or even worse perhaps, releasing an unprepared self-published book into the digital world that isn’t your best material. We’ve all seen some grizzly stuff out there, and you don’t want to be in that category.

Instead, do the right thing and take it slow. Yes, each draft is going to cost you more money, but it’s worth the price when you consider what you’re getting back: A solid, tight, finished product worthy of readers’ expectations. I am a published writer, a freelance book editor, and a former literary agent’s assistant at a reputable firm in the Bay Area, so I know how all this works from a personal as well as professional standpoint. I have worked with clients like Christian Picciolini (“WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH [Hachette Book Group, 2017]”) and have seen clients like Tom Pitts (“Hustle,” Snubnose Press) get their books published successfully. I worked with Christian for over a year on a book he’d been working on for a decade. Tom Pitts I worked with through the agency I was with and we went through several drafts.

The point? You don’t need to spend a decade on your book, or even half that. But you do need, in my opinion, to spend some real time going over your material to make sure it shines brightly and performs its main functions: to entertain, to teach, and to enlighten.

Are you ready for me to help take your novel or memoir to the next level? Got the patience? Give me a try.

Write on.

“You said it. Let’s edit.”

Michael Mohr

***

Have a project for me? Send me the first chapter as a word.doc, a description (short) of the book and of the author, and a basic description of your desires and goals as pertaining to the project to michaelmohreditor@gmail.com.