This book has helped me A LOT. Recommended by an editor, it does exactly what it says in the title, demystifies story structure. It has been incredibly helpful to me, detailing a simple story structure, that best-selling authors use either organically or planned, to create a successful fiction novel. Brook’s used examples of best-selling famous books that have followed this structure to illuminate the process.  Thereby, justifying his premise that if you want to write a bestselling book, these are the structural points you must consider because they work.

The book did contain a lot of fluff and analogies to demonstrate a straight-forward, but highly effective way of structuring a story. I did feel that the book could have been simplified, however this maybe due to my experience as a writer and even though the concepts were new, writing is not.

Brooks is extremely conscious of the organic writing v’s the formulaic writing argument. He is keen to defend his belief that following the rules of story structure will result in successful books. It is a formula that has worked for him and one he believes makes writing a story easier. He also believes that this process will reduce rewrites and endless drafts and instead will produce a polished piece almost ready for publishing.

After reading this book, I thought about my own opinion of writing. I feel that the ideas are organic, as are your voice and creativity for the story you want to tell. However, readers (usually unconsciously) like stories written in a certain way. Perhaps it is the predictability, like the happy ending or twists coming at the right time, so the story does not become too boring or over exciting. Whatever it is, this structure has shown that it will help your book shine.

A great story idea, with the help of a story structure, will create a story ripe for publishing.

I will be trying this process with my next book.