Story Trumps Structure

"All too often, following the "rules" of writing can constrict rather than inspire you. With Story Trumps Structure, you can shed those rules - about three-act structure, rising action, outlining, and more - to craft your most powerful, emotional, and gripping stories.

When you focus on what lies at the heart of story - tension, desire, crisis, escalation, struggle, discovery - rather than plot templates and formulas, you'll begin to break out of the box and write fiction that resonates with your readers. Story Trumps Structure will transform the way you think about stories and the way you write them, forever."

- Goodreads

Steven James indicates where a character's internal, external, and interpersonal struggles should take place throughout a novel.

This is a book for individuals who wish to hone their natural instincts by writing the book first and then tweaking it in ways that make sense. Authors who are pantsers can be just as successful as plotters, but there are still fundamental techniques in pantsing that can be used to improve one's craft. Some of the examples that James uses can be described as somewhat dated, but the core teachings of Story Trumps Structure will help you to understand story progression, characterization, and narrative forces in ways that will make your writing more organic and fluid.