So when it comes to my book writing project, it can finally be said that I have more or less completed the book. After spending tons of time writing and rewriting it, it looks like that in its current form the book is starting to get as good as it can only become.
Indeed, even though I've said it before, this time the 'story about a nine year old girl who helps others and tries to find out what happened to her father' is pretty much completed. The story works from its first to its last page and there is a nice, balanced flow in every chapter.
In any case, in order to illustrate the story a bit, I thought about showing how closely the structure in the book follows Blake Snyder's beat sheet. This is the story formula (click the link) that in my opinion is the best when it comes to explaining story in lay-man's terms.
So in the book, the first thing that happens in the story is that in its short prologue I sum up who my main character (Valerie) is and what she does [theme and set-up]. She's a curious girl who likes to help others - even homeless people - which gets her sometimes in trouble.
Arc-wise, when it comes to the story, the biggest and the most important 'goal' that she has is that she wants to know what happened to her father. This is an issue that her mother has said that she simply doesn't want to talk about until she becomes older.
Not surprisingly, since our protagonist is being raised by a single mother, financially they're not doing well. They live very frugally, which means that Valerie can't afford to have any hobbies that she would like to have - which is also why she has no friends either.
This lack of having no friends and hobbies also manifests in school where at the art class Valerie tends to draw paintings that are a bit depressing. This leads to Valerie visiting the school psychologist to talk about what to do about her problems in life [debate].
Story-wise the first big moment in the book happens [catalyst] when a new student joins Valerie's class. The new student is a girl who also happens to have a single mother - although this one is an extremely well off go-getter who only cares about her career.
Not surprisingly, Valerie and the new girl (who is overweight) quickly become friends and become a duo that has an opportunity to do things together. For once the girl has a real friend instead of her just playing alone with her expensive toys and games.
Entertainment-wise, the story really gets going [break into two] when the girl go to visit different places [fun and games] with their class. We have the usual visits to an amusement park (Valerie's friend helps her with the expenses), to the museum and some other things too.
For Valerie, there are quite a few things that she tries to do during these parts [B story]. Even though she's not yet doing anything about her father, she tries to 1) help the neighbour who sleepwalks, 2) help the homeless man 3) find the elusive stray cat and 4) help her friend.
Indeed, this section in the story is also when the new friend wants to change her life. Instead of being an overweight girl who likes to eat to feel better, she wants to do something about her weight problem - which leads to her to taking dancing as a hobby.
Story-wise, this is when things in many ways are at their best for both the characters. Even though they haven't yet managed to reach their goals and solve their problems, it seems like things are going their way and that 'nothing' is going to stop them.
However, once we reach the half way in the story [mid point], this is when things slowly start to get worse. Valerie starts her quest to know what happened her to father and there are some hints that her friend's mother has some plans too that the girls won't like.
Indeed, after Valerie tries to find some information about her father from some letters that her mother keeps in her room, she wants to know more. She goes to social services office, where she sneakily manages to get information that her father is in prison serving time.
For Valerie this is obviously depressing (is she a bad person too she asks) but her friend has even worse news. The girl's greedy mother announces that she's getting a promotion in a couple of months, which means that they're going to move again then [all is lost].
Naturally, this leads to both girls getting depressed [dark night of the soul] and thinking that there isn't anything that can be done about the whole thing. They can't stop her mother's plans and it looks like that their friendship is soon going to be over.
Yet, even though things do admittedly look genuinely bleak for the girls at this point, this is still not a reason to give up. Even though things seem hopeless and horrible, all is not lost and they have to keep going and make the best out of their situation.
Indeed, once we get to the third and the final act in the story [break into three] Valerie's friend's dancing hobby becomes even more important to her. Even though her transformation doesn't always go as well as she would have wanted, she does do her very best here.
Even more important in the third act of the book is the storyline - the most important arc in the book - that has to do with Valerie's father. This gets to the forefront again when Valerie goes to visit the homeless man - who is sick - at the hospital.
Indeed, when she visits the homeless man and tries to make the man contact his family before it's too late, she also thinks about her own father. As she writes a letter on the man's behalf, she decides that she should contact her father too (she writes a letter for her dad).
Resolution-wise, after all these events in the story, when we finally reach the [finale], we have all kinds of threads to resolve. There is the father question, Valerie's friendship, her friend's transformation, the sleepwalking neighbour and the situation with the homeless man too.
In theory, when it comes to concluding these storylines, if I hadn't properly introduced them (setup, theme, premise), in that case the story might have gone pretty much anywhere. Had I not taken care of the stuff in the first act, I guess anything could have happened.
However, based on how things were built especially in the first part, all these storylines get a resolution that is more or less satisfying to the audience. Based on the themes and the setup that I came up with, I had no choice but to do what I did here (uplifting resolutions).
Indeed, even though in the case of the sleepwalker there is a fairly tough lesson to be learned and the same goes for the girl's greedy mom, for others I had to be as gentle as possible. This includes the storyline with Valerie's father that actually has an open ended resolution.
In that sense, when I look at the story in the book as a whole, in hindsight it's pretty clear that I managed to come up with a fairly well structured story here. I managed to come up with a story that works and makes sense when it comes to the crucial and important stuff.
After all, even though I had no prior experience in writing books, the story is really surprisingly solid here. The characters in the book are likable and relatable (which is crucial) and as a reader you want to know what happens next to them in their storylines.
Beat sheet-wise, it has to be mentioned how closely the book follows the late Blake Snyder's story structure (beat sheet calculator). Once we get past the first act, most of the beats happen almost exactly on the pages that they 'in theory' should occur.
After all, even though the first act is bound to have some variance, the rest follow closely the beats. 'Fun & games' starts on page 56 (in theory 57), midpoint is in the middle, 'all is lost' is on page 134 (in theory 136) and 'dark night of the soul' ends on page 156 (154 in theory).
Still, when it comes to this whole thing, even though the book works and seems to be really solid, that still leaves us with one important question. Is this book that I've been working on for so long good enough to finally be published by one of the book companies out there?
After all, even though the book is now good, previous versions and attempts haven't been enough for any of the publishers. They haven't been good enough and instead the book companies have played it 'safe' with publishing others who have a built-in audience already.
Still, when it's all said and done, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the remaining publishers that are there. I'm trying to be optimistic and not give up, because even though it's hard to get published nowadays, this book that I wrote - at least in my opinion - really is worth publishing.
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