Our Creative Top Tips for Adding Structure to Your Writing
Today, we're delving into a crucial aspect of creative writing: structure. Whether you're an experienced author or just starting your literary adventure, mastering the art of structuring your writing can help elevate your work, give you confidence and make your story stand out.
Here at Derbyshire Writing School, we believe having a solid framework for your words can be helpful in so many ways. That’s why we’ve put together some tips for adding structure to your writing. We hope they help bring your stories to life!
Why Working On Structure Is So Valuable
The art of structuring our writing is an important one, but it can also be challenging. As we piece together our stories, we are creating a narrative, we need our story to flow and to have pace and most importantly – for it to make sense. This is where structure comes into play. Structure is the overall design, layout, and organisation of your story. It is the high-level planning, the story arc and even the movement within your novel. Although it can feel like a maze when we’re trying to work out where everything goes, it’s a huge step forward to finishing our story!
How To Add Structure To Your Writing
Start with a Clear Outline
Just like a sturdy foundation is essential for a building, a well-defined outline provides the structure for our writing. You can read more reasons why structure is so important for our stories in our blog post.
Before diving headfirst into your piece, take the time to outline your main points, subtopics, and the overall flow of your narrative. This creative writing blueprint will keep you on track with what you want to say and where you want your words to go. Plus, it can help prevent feelings of being stuck by giving you a clear direction to follow as you work through your writing journey. This could also be known as you writing down your ‘plot points’ or creating your ‘snowflake’ if you like Randy Ingermanson's famous method of novel planning.
For some people an outline looks like a 30-page document stuffed with detail, for others, an outline is ten bullet points simply listed rising and falling action with climax points within the story. There isn’t a right or wrong way, you might just need to experiment and see what works best for you.
2. Organise Your Ideas Logically
At this stage, structure isn't just about arranging words on a page. It's about guiding your readers through a logical progression of ideas. To help with this, we should try to organise our thoughts in a way that flows naturally. It's all about making our writing transition smoothly from one point to the next. Even if you plan to write your story in a non-sequential order and to jump from different time zones, characters or even worlds, you still need some sort of order. You can mix everything up once you know your plan. This will ensure you don’t have plot holes or you don’t confuse your reader.
3. Balance Structure with Creativity
While structure provides the framework for your writing, don't be afraid to let your creativity shine through. We think it’s important to remember that while structure is a valuable part of creative writing, it should be used to help enhance our writing, rather than stifle it. It’s a kind of creative constraint that can be a valuable tool in helping us bring our writing to life.
So, as we try to organise our ideas logically, we should try not to forget to have fun and enjoy releasing our creativity too. Experiment with different genres, narrative techniques, and storytelling devices. Creative play is another important of creative writing. By embracing both the framework of structure and the freedom of creativity, we can craft narratives that deeply connect with both us and our readers.
4. Revise and Refine
Remember, the first draft is just the beginning. Just like so much of creative writing, becoming comfortable with structure comes with consistency and practice. Take the time to review your work with a critical eye. Whether it’s tightening up loose ends or clarifying certain passages, keep polishing your prose until it shines. And remember the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, you are getting your ideas down, testing them and then you get to make them better.
You could also ask for feedback on your work from someone you trust. This could be anyone from friends and family to a writing mentor. A fresh perspective on our work can open our eyes to new insights and help us build our writing skills even further. Our podcast episode on how to deal with feedback can help you get the most out of the notes you’re given.
Do you have a technique you use to help build structure into your writing? Do you enjoy this element of creative writing or is it one of your least favourite things? We’d love to hear your thoughts! You can get in touch with us at info@derbyshirewritingschool.com. process!
