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Why stop at essays or technical articles? As an engineer, I've always been fascinated by the structure and inner mechanics of stories - what makes them work.

As a hobby I've done a lot of reading around this; I've written three feature-length screenplays, and a novel you can find in Amazon[1], using very structure-centric approaches (as a result, my characters tend to be too flat).

Take a look at The Snowflake Method[2], unsurprisingly designed by a novelist who is also a theoretical physicist. Even with The Hero's Journey, there's a surprising amount of well-understood structure behind every story.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QPBYGFI [2] http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-met...




The pistol on your novel's cover is a CZ-75. It's not an unknown gun by any means, but it's relatively uncommon in real life; sushi to the hamburger that is a Glock or a Beretta. Despite this, it's a common choice for infographics where just "a gun" is needed, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

I'm curious - do you know why that particular pistol was chosen for your cover?


Interesting, never thought of figuring out the model!

The cover was made by a freelancer I found on 99designs.com (I'm really happy about that experience, BTW - and I have nothing to do with them, I just liked the service). The pistol looks good and the image was royalty-free, which is probably why the freelancer chose it.

But in retrospect you're right, I should have checked. The only pistol specifically mentioned in the novel is a "H&K" (not even the model), but there are many other anonymous ones. This CZ-75 could be one of these :)


I've just completed a screen-writing course, and wrote a feature-length screenplay as part of that process, and was struck by how much like technical writing it was. A screenplay is not a story the way a novel or short story is, but rather a technical description of a story that allows the various people involved to do their jobs: http://www.tjradcliffe.com/?p=1666

Screenplay structure is so tight and formal it's almost like poetry, an analogy I found very useful.

My novel (http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/...) was developed much more organically.

I'm an experimental physicist, and the process for me was more like setting up an experiment, from early ideas to failed prototypes to little side explorations to a final result with (hopefully) all the loose ends tied neatly away where the reader can't see what went into the making.

I found Stephen King's book on writing to be one of the best for understanding the organic process of creating stories. If you haven't read it, I'd strongly recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B000FC0S...


Wow, fantastic work :)

I agree with what you're saying... a novel is the end product, a screenplay is a blueprint. It took me 4 years to write the novel (admittedly very on and off) and ~3 months to write each of the screenplays. Hopefully my next novel will be faster.

What was your experience of writing both formats in terms of time and effort?


Thanks! :-)

My novel took 5+ years of blood, sweat and re-writes.

Writing a passable screenplay took five days, about six hours a day (evenings 6 - midnight). I don't expect I'll ever sell it, but I'm as certain as anything that it's better than a lot of screenplays that have been sold.

I'm mostly a poet, and love structure. Once I understood the structure of a screenplay, it just happened. Novels in contrast are these huge unstructured messy awkward wobbling teenage flailing morasses. The lack of structure, the lack of constraint, the lack of form is something I struggled with for a long time, and while I expect my next effort won't be quite as painful, I don't ever expect it to be easy.

"Form is liberating", as the engineer's proverb goes. Novels don't have it, and are therefore much more work.


Congratulations on getting the book written and on Amazon. I hope to follow in your footsteps in the coming year.

Like you, I'm fascinated by story structure, the hero's journey, and the mono-myth. And I've struggled with creating something less than flat characters.

I've read the Snowflake method, and parts of it definitely work for me. Another book that I highly value is Dwight Swain's Technique's of the Selling Writing. This was one of the first books that I read on writing fiction, and I still think it's one of the best. I would also recommend Baboulene's, The Story Book, for it's discussion on subtext.

Unfortunately for me, the focus on technique left me not only with flat characters but also a severe case of writer's block. However, I may have found a solution to both problems in John Dufresne's Is Life Like This? Dufresne advocates a more organic, even serendipitous, approach to story creation. For him at least, the results can be wonderful (read his Love Warps the Mind a Little, or his short stories in Johnny Too Bad), and for me, it's got me writing (finally!) and seeing my characters as something more than just cardboard cutouts. Like anything else, it's not for everybody, and YMMV.

Good luck, and keep writing!


Best of luck with your book :)

The first book I've read that really resonated with me about giving life to characters is The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier. BTW, I've read a lot more books about screenwriting than about writing novels, but I believe both apply... stories are stories.


Great point! Completely overlooked that aspect.




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