This Ranter's Pick for #1 Book on Devising Plot: "Story Structure Architect"

I'm going to make this brief (or I'll try) - if you want to hone your plotting skills, go out and get Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations & Compelling Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. Now.

I tend to be very critical of books pertaining to rules of writing when it comes to style, voice and plot. With style and voice, you must have both, but there shouldn't be any one person or thing determining what the characteristics of your style and voice should be. It's individual to the writer, something that's there from the beginning and forever grows throughout a writer's career. A book really can't define or dictate your personal traits for composition, just as  your eye color or height can't be defined or dictated by any other entity but genetics. (Although, who knows right now, with the manipulation of DNA and all. But for the moment, just go with the idea ...) As for plotting, there are formulas that we all know work and have been regurgitated in a multitude of  "how-to" writing books, so once you've read one, it's as if you've read all of them. But you haven't. Story Structure Architect is not only an informative book on setting up plot, it's also engaging to the point that you'll probably pick it up just for fun. Yes! Can you believe it?

What makes this book different is the way it's laid out: it covers all plot types in different sections e.g. The Roller Coaster Ride, The Melodrama, The Parallel, Romance, Metafiction, etc., etc., and the author explains plans, themes and other ideas utilizing simple script structure. You may say - "Oh well, I'm not writing a script." It doesn't matter. Schmidt has single-handedly and successfully applied methodology for scripting to writing novels, and along the way, has provided a tool for those suffering with writer's block by exploring unique story lines (FYI-sure cure for writer's block: writing).

Here's a brief synopsis of the book from the publisher:

Story Structure Architect is your comprehensive reference to the classic recurring story structures used by every great author throughout the ages. You'll find master models for characters, plots, and complication motifs, along with guide lines for combining them to create unique short stories, novels, scripts, or plays." Especially featured are the standard dramatic situations inspired by Georges Polti's well-known 19th-century work, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. But author Victoria Schmidt puts a 21st-century spin on these timeless classics and offers fifty-five situations to inspire your creativity and allow you even more writing freedom. Story Structure Architect will give you the mold and then help you break it.

Hope this helps some writers out there, and if you do purchase this book, please feel free to provide comments concerning this blog post. I'm interested in your feedback and ideas.

Wow, I really thought I was going to be brief. Oh, what's a ranter to do? ... 

Thanks to everyone who participated in  Chick Lit Shorties’ “Technology Twist” contest featuring my novel “Text Me, A Tale of Love and Technology” and congrats to all the winners! Also, thanks to all my readers who’ve made “Text Me” an Amazon.com Best Seller! ... You can purchase “Text Me, A Tale of Love and Technology” and “Rantalicious: True Tirades from a Woman on the Edge, “ my new collection of humorous essays,  in both print and eBook edition at Amazon.com , BarnesandNoble.com, and other major book retailers. If you’d like additional information, please go to www.alisadanasteinberg.com   .