Here Are The 3 Reasons Structure Is So Essential To Creative Writing
We can spend hours writing pages of wonderful description, create funny dialogue and build characters everyone could fall in love with, but if we don’t have a narrative structure alongside this, we don’t have a story.
It might not feel quite as imaginative as other aspects of creative writing, such as developing our protagonist, or world-building for example, but structure has a key role to play. Alongside the other essentials, such as character and plot, structure is crucial.
But why exactly is structure so important? Why is it worth dedicating time to? Well, as crime writer Peter James says, ‘You wouldn’t just get into a car and drive without knowing where you’re going. Know your most important plot points. This does not mean that things won’t change, but you will never get stuck.’
What Is Structure In Our Stories
Structure helps us write to plan.
When you first start reading and learning about story structure, it’s easy to get totally overwhelmed. It can be a really complicated element of our stories. You can read hundreds of books that tell you all the different ways to create and use structure in your stories, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Understanding story structure is like an iceberg, you only need to know the tiniest amount of information to allow it to help you write a story. However, you can keep learning and developing your knowledge the more you write to grow your understanding.
Once you learn about structure, you will see it everywhere, not just in books but in films and in day-to-day life. We are so conditioned to its structure we don’t even realise.
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. Your novel always needs to be moving forward and structure helps you to do that. It’s a framework to add your setting, characters and description to.
In this blog post, we will explore the 3 reasons why structure is so crucial to creative writing…
3 Reasons Why Structure is Crucial To Our Stories Success
1. It Provides A Strong Foundation
Structure can often be a strong foundation for us to build our writing from. When we’re struggling to add substance to our ideas, putting them into a structure gives us a base to work from. It allows us to see our ideas clearly and gives us a chance to explore and expand them.
If you’re grappling with how to bring your ideas together, structure could be a good place to start. Break your ideas down, try laying them out into individual sections. You can then play around with them, twisting and testing the order of events until you feel the shape is right.
Taking ideas from your head and getting them down on the page can also provide a new sense of clarity. When we can see the ideas in front of us, it can not only help us feel more organised, but opens the door for new creative thoughts and possibilities to emerge too.
2. It Helps The Story Flow
Some of the power of creative writing lies in its ability to transport us to new worlds. When a story flows smoothly, as readers, we are drawn into that world. Scenes that seem to flow into one another naturally act as hooks between reader and story. It’s that gripping sensation when you just can’t put the book down.
Putting our story into a kind of framework can help us to see things clearly. We can recognise if one scene works next to another. It allows us to find connections between our creative ideas, and to see which pieces fit together.
Our ideas can change, but with a solid structure, we have a creative crutch we can keep turning back to for support. Keep tweaking, playing and experimenting until you uncover the structure that feels right to you.
3. It Expands Our Creativity
As much as we love writing, it isn’t always easy. We can play with our writing for what can sometimes feel like endless hours, and still not be completely satisfied with the result. Feeling stuck is something so many of us will experience on our writing journeys. We can try so hard that we start to overthink and get in our own way.
However, we can help with this. Our Beating Writer’s Block workbook is here to help kick-start your imagination and help you become more confident in your writing process.
By applying structure, we can break down that particular creative barrier. Structure can fuel our creativity by helping us find links between the elements in our story. Whether it’s describing a setting or a moment of conflict, exploring structure encourages our creativity to find a way to bring together the distinct elements in a compelling way. It acts as a framework for our creativity. Allowing us to layer our ideas onto a foundation that will make sense and share our story with the reader in a coherent and interesting way.
Structure can also expand our creativity by urging us to focus on attention to detail. As we search for that smooth narrative flow, we begin to explore how we can weave things together in a way that feels natural. How to link even those finer details together, leaving clues for our reader to follow.
Why Is structure important?
We all have emotional connections to stories. Structure is built to make us care.
We know the structure of story and expect the conventions without even knowing we
know.
Without structure, we’ll run out of steam and direction.
Structure satisfies our reader.
Structure can also help define your genre, and knowing your genre will help you get an agent and sell books.
The problems with structure? Some people hate this idea of structure and that’s fine. Once you’ve learnt the rules, you can break them. Most importantly, it’s our job to hide structure from the reader.
It can feel formulaic.
It can feel unoriginal and tired.
Don’t Be Afraid To Play With Structure
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different structures. Experimentation is a valuable tool in your writer’s arsenal, and you never know what ideas might develop from it. Trust in your writing self and you will find the shape you’ve been searching for.
Structures to try:
Freytag’s Pyramid
The Three Act Structure
Finding the right structure for our stories can be challenging. Yet, like so much of creative writing, the more we do it, the more confident we will become in our process and ability. Keep going and keep writing!
What are your thoughts on structure? Is it something you enjoy working on, or does it give you a bit of a headache? Get in touch and let us know! We’d love to hear from you. We talk more about structure in our How To Write Your First Novel course.
Everyone has a book in them. Will this be the year you finally write yours? Our ‘how to write your first novel’ course is a perfect introduction for those looking to learn how to start writing fiction. Whether you’re hoping to get your novel published or if you’re writing just for fun – this course will help you feel motivated and excited to start writing your first novel.
