Just as an engineer relies on an architecturally sound blueprint to build a structure that will bear weight, writers can benefit from approaching the craft of storytelling armed with a keen command of the literary equivalent, according to Larry Brooks in his book Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing. The book describes a methodical way of crafting a compelling story using the following six core competencies:
- Concept: The “what if?” question that gives rise to the story
- Character: The hero of the story with whom the reader must empathize
- Theme: What message the story conveys about real life
- Structure: The order in which the events in the story progress
- Scene Execution: The manner in which the individual scenes in the story are written and linked
- Writing Voice: The writer’s narrative style
This book aims to do for the novelist what Robert McKee’s well-known book Story does for the screen writer. In McKee’s book the story is essentially a series of “beats” describing the conflicts which separate the protagonist from the object of his or her desire. In the present book, the story consists of Part I which sets up the story, contains the opening hook, and ends at the first plot point which ignites the hero’s journey; Part II describes the hero’s initial response to the journey and ends with the midpoint which provides new information changing the context of the story; Part III describes the hero’s attack on the problem, ending with the second plot point, which provides the final injection of new information into the story; and Part IV describes the resolution.
Some readers might not be enamoured with the author’s dogmatic writing style or his frequent promotion of the value of the information which he is about to impart. For example, chapters 19 to 21 are little more than advertisements for the content that is to come in the rest of Part 5 of the book. However, in my view they help to keep the content interesting by raising expectations.
I am not sufficiently familiar with the commercial fiction market to be able to evaluate the author’s advice. The six core competencies which he has described seem important, but I am somewhat surprised by the assertion that all good stories fit into the particular structure which he has outlined. I am a bit dismayed by his intimation that fluid elegant writing is unimportant, but in the context of the commercial fiction market that may well be true.
Overall I found the book very helpful for the insight that it gives into the techniques that a writer can use to create tension, interest and a compelling story. Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from BookSneeze.