I was tremendously honored to discover that Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story is an IPPY Award winner! It was awarded a Bronze in the Writing/Publishing category. From the official press release:
Launched in 1996 and conducted each year to honor the year’s best independently published books, the “IPPY” Awards recognize merit in a broad range of subjects and reward authors and publishers who “take chances and break new ground.” … The medal-winning books will be celebrated with … IPPY medallions awarded in 78 national, 22 regional, and ten e-book categories. This year’s contest drew over 5,500 entries from authors and publishers in all 50 U.S. states, nine Canadian provinces, and 32 countries overseas.
Structuring Your Novel is particularly dear to my heart, so I’m extra tickled it was chosen.
About Structuring Your Novel
Why do some stories work and others don’t? The answer is structure. In this guide, you will learn the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will show you how to perfectly time your story’s major events and will provide you with an unerring standard against which to evaluate your novel’s pacing and progression.
Structuring Your Novel will show you:
- How to determine the best techniques for empowering your unique and personal vision for your story.
- How to identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths.
- How to eliminate saggy middles by discovering your “centerpiece.”
- Why you should NEVER include conflict in every scene.
- How to discover the questions you don’t want readers asking about your plot—and then how to get them to ask the right questions.
I’m not surprised at all, Swain’s the only other writer who’s come close to creating a book that encapsulates the necessary micro and macro structure of fiction that’s both comprehensive and informative, congrats!
Hard to beat Dwight V. Swain!
… on MRU’s it’s impossible, but your explanation of scene and sequel is unrivaled in the field of story structure.