A book that really helped me improve my art

Books about writing usually fail on one of the most important aspects of literature… conveying a comprehensible message. Fortunately, my wife likes to research A LOT before choosing my presents, and she found a literary jewel about writing and how to master this art.

Therefore, since I really dislike selfish people, today’s blog is simple, it focuses on sharing my experience with a fantastic book called Story Engineering. This book written by Larry Brooks (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J35J8W) focuses on Six Core Competencies needed for successful writing. To this point you may be thinking it sounds generic but hang on!

Brooks successfully explains how concept, character, theme and plot are elemental competencies, while scene construction and writing voice are executional competencies. This division helps an aspiring author to identify which competencies he or she must plan (elemental) and which he or she needs to practice (executional).

Additionally, he created a wonderful checklist which includes a series of questions the author should answer before starting to write, which leads to unknowingly develop the Six Core Competencies for his or her incipient literary creation.

If you read Story Engineering and take notes, you will be more than capable of adequately developing three dimensional characters (both heroes and antagonists), build a concept which needs to be answered through your story, anchor your creation to the real world with a theme, and create a plot that adequately leads your readers through four cohesive quartiles. All of this will be executed with a unique author voice and a thoroughly organized and fluid scene construction.

However, I have taken a step further, and created a Structured Writing Format for my works, based on Story Engineering. It is a simple Excel Worksheet which takes Larry Brooks’ 278 pages of wisdom and transforms them into a sequence of steps, questions, and charts. I hope it helps you in your endeavor.

Download my Structured Writing Format here (just look for the Microsoft Excel Icon and click on it): https://www.authordanielfernandez.com/totb!

Let me know if it works or ask me any question. I will be more than thrilled to help you in your adventure.