FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING

by Deborah Chester

Master the proven principles of plot construction as Deborah Chester guides you through translating your idea into a plausible plot of any length, in any genre. Learn how to generate well-planned, exciting stories from gripping start to emotionally satisfying finish.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 21, 2017

About the author

The internationally published, award-winning author of 41 novels, Deborah Chester has written Regency romances, historical romances, young adult, science fiction, and fantasy. She is a tenured professor of professional writing in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches novel and short story writing.
She holds a B.A. with General Honors and an M.A. in Journalism; both degrees are from the University of Oklahoma, where she studied professional writing from author/teachers Jack M. Bickham, Robert L. Duncan, and Pulitzer-nominee Carolyn Hart. Chester has been writing professionally since 1978, and has used three pseudonyms – Jay D. Blakeney and Sean Dalton and C. Aubrey Hall for some of her science fiction and fantasy works.
In 2004, she was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America.

Reviews

[Zora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I nearly worship Bickham and Swain. The scion of that line wrote this book and yes, it's also excellent. It's funny, too, that the problems I have with trade-published SF these past several years are addressed here. (Interesting-funny, that is, not ha-ha funny). She has some ideas about that, the cultural causes and the problematic effects on tension, both of which rang true to me. I'd like to sit down and have coffee with her and talk about that more, but she sounds terribly busy!

Free right now on Kindle Unlimited, but it's worth its price as ebook if you don't have KU.

[Mender · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. It's not world shaking, nor is it bad. Mostly it's unintentionally hilarious - the author is talking along in normal 'teacher' voice, then all of a sudden she devolves into these mad rants.

Like, she is totally passionate about these points. If you were with her in real life, she'd be pounding her fists on the coffee table.

So here are some things you MUST NOT DO: Have more than one protagonist. A story is only a story if it has a single main character and everyone else is a sidekick. PARTICULARLY do not have two main characters with switching pov's, with one a boy and one a girl. These sorts of books are popular only because of some politically correct bullshit, and must die a firey death. (If you are writing a story like this, I'm sorry, you're only doing it because you feel you must, for the sake of 'equality', and you are a pitiful, misguided thing. Sorry to be the one who had, via Deborah, to let you know).

Also you must break your book's main plot and all of its subplots down into having five categories for each of them. You cannot skimp on any of the categories. There absolutely must be an opponent. Man vs Nature is no longer a category of fiction, it is only Man vs Man and the other man must be specifically chosen at every time.

I can't recall if that point above was linked directly to her rant at the end about how everyone nowadays gets participation trophies and no-one knows how to compete, which is what is bringing about the failure of civilisation. But it's under an umbrella in my head - compete, dudes. You have to always be fighting someone. Or you're an apathetic loser.

She also mentions that people nowadays are so exposed to stories that they see your endings coming a mile away. But doesn't connect that fact in any way to overly didactic writing instructors hammering on formulas and saying all the things you must do. Clearly the correct answer is to make your scenarios even more extreme while fitting exactly the same mould. How did you not know that, reader? It's so obvious now she's benevolently pointed it out.

Aaaanyway, none of her 'points' actually clips on any of the stories I'm writing, but her strident and self-righteous tones surely did raise my eyebrows.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a few other books on writing but this one beats them all. The others have been highly rated and I thought they were good and I gleaned some useful information from them. But I loved this book.

At first I found the title a bit off-putting. For some reason I have an instinctive reaction against "formula fiction". I guess I think that anything written to a formula is somehow "less than" something written from pure inspiration. There are all kinds of things wrong with that thinking.

First of all, following a formula and being hit by inspiration are not mutually exclusive. One can write a book completely devoid of formula and inspiration and it will be a dull book. On the other hand, one can write a book following a strict formula and filling it with tons of creating inspiration and it will be a thrill to read.

Secondly, for me to turn my nose up at "following a formula" while writing a story but then insisting that the best way to write software is to "do it the right way" is a bit hypocritical. I realize that fiction and software are two different fields but that's not to say that they are opposites. In fact, there is a lot of similarity between how a software program is crafted and how a story is crafted.

Thirdly, the majority of successful books have been written according to a very small set of rules and patterns. It's probably true that many authors only stumbled onto these patterns by accident or good intuition. However, that doesn't mean that someone who deliberately used those same rules and patterns created something of lower quality.

Fourthly, ... well, I could go on with a few more comments on "using a formula" but that's not the point of this review so I'll stop.

This author did an excellent job of breaking down the process of creating the plot in a novel into several sequential steps. Not only did she explain the steps, but she also showed why those steps were important, how they tied together, and how they affected the reader. She also illustrated each of these steps by drawing from well-known books and movies.

It was inspiring to read this book. I can't help but wonder how many others were inspired and actually followed through and wrote something. Who knows, maybe someday I'll do that too.

[Isaac Butterworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential Instruction for Prose Writers

Reading Deborah Chester’s book, Fiction Formula Plotting, is like sitting down with her over coffee and listening to her talk about writing commercial fiction. I have read a number of writing craft books—all of them helpful—but there’s a unique quality to this one. The author discusses the difference between writing for the screen and writing for the page. She illustrates the sequence of scenes and reflection segments. She clarifies the use of shifting points of view. She offers advanced plotting techniques for those who want to experiment with non traditional patterns. She emphasizes what’s most important for the writer to keep in mind: a protagonist with a goal who must overcome challenges to accomplish that goal and emerge a changed (or at least more experienced) person. And she does all this—and much more—in a personal, engaging style. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in strengthening their skill in writing.

[Christopher Armani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Deborah's conversational tone in this book. She delivers great information, stemming from her application of the principles in this book, in an engaging and easy manner. I read a lot of writing books, and few are as useful and as well-presented as this.
A welcome addition to any writer's bookshelf and, more importantly, an essential component of their arsenal of the craft.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is excellent! However I don't think it best for beginning fiction writers or someone who has never tried to tackle a novel or longer work before. It is also not a book that can be "read" evening to traditional way or sense of that word. It's a book where you more often should 'read & do, read & do." What I mean by this is it doesn't seem useful to read too far ahead in the book beyond you are with writing your piece of fiction. If you are going to follow Prof. Chester's formula, it feels like you should read a chapter do that work on your manuscript and only then move onto the next chapter. My sense, as a beginning fiction writer, but by no means a total neophyte, is that readers will be too far ahead might only confuse and overwhelm themselves. I also think there are books out there for the fiction writer/novelist who is a complete beginner. By "complete beginner" I mean he or she has never taken fiction writing class or tackled the writing of any short stories. My sense is that Prof. Chester's book is not best for the aspiring fiction writer who is actually attempting to start their first work as a writer.
For those people I think I will be reviewing a more appropriate book soon.

[Thiago d'Evecque · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente continuação do The Fantasy Fiction Formula. A autora nos guia desde a ideia da história (e como expandi-la para um livro) até o outline detalhado da trama. Passa por construção de personagens, antagonistas, planejamento de cenas de ação e reação, como lidar com pontos de vistas múltiplos, um método para planejar o clímax em seis partes, e até mesmo uma seção para plots avançados (para planejamentos não-lineares, principalmente).

Pegue uma ideia que tem para alguma história, ainda que seja bem abstrata, e tente usar o livro como guia para ver se é pra você. Use como teste e veja no que vai dar.

Também possui uma versão "workbook" (FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING PRACTICE), com exercícios e sugestões, que recomendo comprar junto. São fantásticos e estão entre os favoritos sobre escrita.

[Jake Zemeckis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent continuation of The Fantasy Fiction Formula. The author guides us from the initial story idea (and how to expand it into a full book) all the way to a detailed outline of the plot. It covers character building, antagonists, planning action and reaction scenes, how to handle multiple points of view, a method for planning the climax in six parts, and even a section on advanced plots (mainly for non-linear planning).

Take an idea you have for a story, even if it’s very abstract, and try using the book as a guide to see if it’s for you. Use it as a test and see what comes out of it.

There’s also a “workbook” version (Fiction Formula Plotting Practice), with exercises and suggestions, which I recommend buying together. They’re fantastic and among my favorites on writing.

[Ramon Veras · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive from Chester's other plotting book, but we did get some more thoughts. At first, the two books intrigued me, and there are lot of helpful thoughts on scene-sequel, conflict, and scene structure that could be very useful for my writing process. I don't think this book dives much into nuances and at some points it felt like the advice was very surface level and not as applicable as the writer believed it to be. This is a 3.5 star, but I'll round it to four for goodreads.

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend of mine suggested that I read Fiction Formula Plotting by Deborah Chester, so I picked it up, trusting her recommendations. It's just 126 pages, but it's loaded with ideas that I’m already weaving into my writing process. Read more

[Isabel Fain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is essential for anyone wanting to write a fictional story, but Chester makes it seem like this is the ONLY way to do it and you cannot deviate from it. Throughout reading I could think of plenty popular stories that did not follow this structure and did just fine. But it did help me generate some ideas for how to make my novel stronger.

[Tish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty thin and has some good advice, but with all the advice floating around out there, its not really standing out with any new information. Good but not great. Helpful, but not revolutionary.