When bookshelves (and stories) collapse: Finding structural integrity

Hi Reader,

Happy almost-fall! If you’re new here, welcome! I’m Karyn Fischer, book coach, editor, and former literary agent bringing you craft and motivational tips, plus occasional publishing industry insight. This week I'm taking you on a quick trip back to the basics...

​[Want to listen instead? Here's my unedited raw recording of this newsletter.]​

Three and a half years ago we moved into our home and I had a vision: a perfect library/office with wall-to-wall bookshelves and cabinets and an old-fashioned library ladder gliding effortless across the 20-foot wall of books. After other more necessary home projects, my husband finally got to work. He mounted cabinets, got a beautiful butcher-block countertop, did wiring for lighting in the cabinets, ordered the ladder, and built the pre-fab shelves he would mount to the wall.

It took us a lot of time to figure out how to tackle the project. Do we hire a carpenter? Do we use the Ikea hacks that fill DIY-ers' Instagram feeds? Do we get premade shelve and cabinets and fit them to the space?

My husband wanted to build the shelves from scratch. And while I knew he was perfectly capable of building bookshelves, I was impatient and pushed (hard) for pre-fab shelves he could retrofit and mount. He reluctantly agreed. So one weekend in June he assembled, trimmed, and got going on the bookshelves that we had delivered. Satisfied with the overall fit, he clamped them together, then brought them down to do some other prep-work before he could mount them for good. I was over-the-moon. We were making progress on my dream of having my very own library!

But then the other day it all came crashing down.

Literally. Splintered wood, broken shelves, the whole she-bang. Like, someone would have had to yell tim-ber had they been in the room. Good thing no one was hurt.

But we had to figure out what to do next: Try to repair, which would salvage the money we sunk into the project but potentially threaten the structural integrity of the shelves…or start over and let him build them from scratch. Aka sink double the cost and time into the project, but do it right.

Sigh. There’s only one right answer here.

There’s a lesson to be learned here that can be applied to writing a book: don’t cut corners by going for the faster, lower-quality route. Instead, aim for structural integrity.

Like bookshelves, the foundation of your story is going to hold a lot of weight. It’s going to hold characters, dialogue, scenes, setting, POV, voice, plot, nuance. There is a lot to balance when writing a book. And if that structure isn’t strong enough to hold it all…then your story will come crashing down just like my cheap bookshelves.

And let me tell you, starting over from scratch is not fun. You’ll be lamenting the time and energy you spent on the book, wishing you’d done the foundational work before moving forward onto the other stuff.

So what do I mean by foundational items? If you’ve been with me a long time then you’ll have heard this before (many times…Pretty sure I’m a broken record at this point but that’s okay.)

· Theme and Point
· Character and Desire
· Obstacles and Stakes
· Plot

Here are some questions to get you started:

Theme and Point
​What are you trying to say about the world and/or humanity? What are the themes you’re trying to convey? What will make it universal and make readers feel deeply seen? What is the point of your book? Can you narrow it down to one single sentence? (Mine: “The biggest life is the one with the biggest love.”)

Character and Desire
​Who is your character and what do they want? What is their object of desire or motivation? What is their backstory? What made them who they are when your story starts? What will their choices and behavior be as they work toward what they want? How will they change over the course of the story? (What will their transformation be?) What is their voice and personality?

Obstacles and Stakes
​What stands in the way of your character getting what they want (internally and externally)? What will they do to overcome these obstacles or challenges? How will they grow and change? What is at stake? What happens if they fail? What happens if they succeed (what will they win/earn?) Why does your character need this? What does it mean to them? What is at stake internally and externally?

Plot
​What happens in your story? Is every scene moving your character further on their transformation? What choices does your character make? Is it building toward something? Does it follow a cause-and-effect pattern? Does it follow a specific plot structure (eg: Save the Cat, Story Grid, Hero’s Journey, etc.)? Does everything that happens move the story forward (ie: your character’s transformation)?

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Start by answering these questions. If you don’t have the answers yet, or you’re coming up blank, you will need to stop and do some thinking.

There is a reason that my Revision Confidence Workshop (restarting the beginning of October!) begins with full lessons on these foundational elements. Because even if you’ve written a full draft, you can’t line-edit a draft that has a wobbly foundation. Sometimes you need a full redo, like my bookshelves. (Sigh, again.)

I know some of you are pantsers—you value exploratory writing and let the story lead you. And I think that can work for the seasoned storytellers, people for whom these foundations are mostly ingrained, and for whom they’ve thought through much of this stuff before they begin. But for the rest of us—those of us who are still learning and learning through practice, it’s good to write it down.

In fact, I’ve been having the experience lately of going back to the basics with my own WIP. I stalled out around the 35k-word mark, lost momentum, and decided I needed to shore up the flimsy foundation. I needed to relearn my characters, my plot, my characters’ transformations, rethink the scenes and their points and the characters’ obstacles and stakes. And guess what? I think I’m finding my way back in. (I’m also getting extra help and second sharp pair of eyes on it, which is the most helpful thing.)

But sometimes you must go backwards to go forwards.

And some of us learn that the hard way. You just might not have to—or it might not be quite as hard—if you make sure your story can support the weight of the whole book early on in the writing process.

Don’t make the mistake of skipping this step. Take your time. Think it through. I promise your story will be much stronger for it.

Offerings

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Thanks so much for being here with me. I value you and I sincerely hope that I provide value for your writing journey. If you feel inclined, drop me a line and let me know what you’re working on!

Happy Writing,

Karyn

P.S. Loving these emails? Buy me a cup of tea to say thanks. Or you can book a free 30-min story strategy chat here if you're interested in getting specific help with your book.

Granite Bay, CA
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