This looks like structure but isn't

A lot of writers who come to me have been at this for a long time. They know that one scene needs to flow logically into the next one, that the process of creating connections in their book is what creates a story.

Here is where the problem comes in: They connect the wrong thing.

I see this time and time again: A writer will come to me confident that one idea seamlessly leads into the next one. And that very well might be the case. But this is not the way to create plot. 

Let me show you what I mean with an example. In the text below, one idea brings up the next one. But does this work to tell a story?

There were so many things we had to do to get ready for Fernanda’s eighth birthday party. We needed to get two hundred balloons, all in pink. Pink was important for the party. It was Fernanda’s favorite color and it was the color of all her stuffed animals. She had a pink bear, a pink cat, a pink unicorn and a three-foot tall pink otter, which she loved. However, her favorite object was the photograph on her wall that her dad had taken when they’d visited the Grand Canyon. It had been a great trip even though Fernanda was afraid of heights. She was also afraid of spiders but she had managed to kill one on her own the other day by throwing a book at it. She hadn’t picked that book up since. Still, she loved reading. She also loved swimming and making cookies with her mom. But she was allergic to peanuts, so she needed to be careful when baking. Fortunately, she didn’t have any other allergies. Her best friend Sophia was allergic to wheat so we had to make sure not to serve pasta when she came over. Dinner at our house was usually a chaotic affair. It was also chaotic when it was time to clean out our garage.

Did this feel like a story to you? I’m guessing that your answer is no. Why not? In this example, one idea picked up where the previous idea left off, but the result was ending up somewhere completely different from where we  actually started. I began this text by talking about Fernanda’s eighth birthday party, but wound up talking about cleaning up the garage.
What does this writer need to do instead? Connect all of their events in a chapter around a single idea. If the chapter is about Fernanda's birthday party, that's what the writer needs to talk about, not cleaning out the garage. (By the way, this is the outline of the chapter, not the written out version. I always have my writers figure out their structure at the outline level.)

What I see far too often is writers who do understand the importance of making connections in their book, but they make the wrong connections. So the end result is much the same as if they had never even considered the concept of structure in the first place.

I'll be giving tips for how to structure your book in my Memoir Engineering System class. This is also the gateway class for anyone who wants to work with me further.

Enrollment opens on May 1 (May 2 for Kiwis and Aussies). Be sure to put the date on your calendar as the class always sells out in less than 24 hours.
Official enrollment date:
Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern for North Americans 
Thursday, May 2 at 9 a.m. Sydney time for Aussies and Kiwis

Here is the signup link:
https://www.memoirwritingforgeniuses.com/may2024mastermind


Wishing you happy writing! Till next week.