Ignoring Structure: When to Toss the Blueprint
I’m a rule-follower. To an extent, at least, especially when it comes to the story coaching of and performing developmental edits for queer romance authors. At the same time, I recognize that on the rare occasion, when something doesn’t make logical sense, I blatantly ignore it and continue on my way. In writing queer romance, that rebellion often starts with ignoring structure.
Whether it’s your framework choice or what you put your characters through, the blueprints for authoring your queer romance aren’t drawn in ink. Relying on framework or character arc templates can actually hinder you. Your story sounds contrived. Your characters turn into cardboard cutouts. Readers don’t make it past the first five pages.
Indeed, Janice Hardy reiterates this point:
For every rule, structure, or process out there, there are people for whom it just doesn’t work—or worse, has negative effects on their writing.
Writing is an individual journey. You determine the scope of sensory details, the depth of characterization, the pacing of external and internal changes, and more. That starts with ignoring structure. So, follow along to learn when to ignore the frameworks pushed on you. In other words, sometimes tossing the blueprint is the best decision you can make as a queer romance author.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Ignoring Structural Frameworks
Yes, I’ve previously discussed the importance of structure in developing queer romance stories. All stories deserve that solid foundation. At the same time, I recognize when certain structural frameworks don’t work for the story a queer author is trying to tell.
For example, the Three-Act Structure initially left a bad taste in my authorial mouth. The blueprint read like a recipe for creative disaster. Still, I recognized why it was so popular. Having clear-cut steppingstones makes it (mostly) a breeze for plotters. Just like actors, you know roughly when it’s time to hit major milestones or when to circumvent expectations.
As a developmental editor, of course, I constantly study various aspects of the writing craft. I read an average of two to three craft books a month. All authors know how inseparable plot, structure, and character are from each other. Adjust on the fly, instead of following the frameworks as they’re designed. As a result, you’re actively ignoring those standard constructions.
Just so you know, plot, character, and conflict show up in everything I analyze, even when I read for pleasure. Tiffany Yates Martin reiterates this lesson.
In learning to understand these core craft elements, we start with observing our own reactions to the stories we take in, and trace our subjective reaction to the objective techniques that elicited them.
(emphasis in original)
Big events are awesome. Emotionally fraught decisions made in the heat of the moment? Even better. Yet every major turning point and decision point you think up shouldn’t make it into the final draft. In fact, ignoring them prevents you from forcing your round story peg to fit inside the square framework hole. Your readers will be better off for it.
Ignoring Character Structure
Every author who has ever authored knows one thing. Characters become their own people at a certain point. You regularly argue that they’re not listening to you, they don’t do what you tell them, or (worse) they won’t even show up when you’re ready to write.
In moving through the framework you’ve personalized, your story’s protagonists (and even side characters) transform as a result of the events they experience or cause. Part of ignoring character structure is in letting that natural transformation embolden the character’s autonomy. Give them freedom to take your narrative in unexpected directions.
You may think you know who your characters will be at the end of the story compared to who they were at the start. You may even believe you know the path they’ll take to get from Inciting Incident to Climax. Yet, their failures or successes at different junctures, sooner or later, branch out in ways you never see coming.
Remember Jess Lourey’s words of wisdom.
Every single story worth telling is about transformation via trials. There is no pattern to that because each character’s evolution is as unique and as individual as your transformation or mine.
(emphasis in original)
So, explore the effects of your characters’ failures and successes in the early drafting stages. Get to know your characters beyond the world you’ve set them in. Learn their voice and way of moving and acting with characters other than those who populate your stories. Let them figure out how to make the best decisions they can. Be there to support them when those decisions turn out to be the wrong ones.
Tossing the Blueprint
The beauty of writing is that what works for one story might not work for the next one. The blueprint you jotted down prior to your writing session blows up in your face, and you’re stuck picking up the pieces. As you sweep up the shards, you wonder if you’ll be able to come up with something just as good to engage readers, to take them on the journey you envisioned.
Try plantsing when you’re feeling stuck. That idea you had on the way to the grocery store? That you then role-played on the drive home? It’s stuck in your head for a reason. In due time, you may find that scene to be a gamechanger in the overall structure of your story’s arc and your characters’ development. Tiffany Yates Martin explains that all craft techniques stem from the same central story concept.
A character is invested in something or wants something; they face what stands in the way of their getting it, with varying results; and their failure or success in achieving it effects some meaningful change (in the character, their world, or both).
Full character development convinces you that ignoring the accepted frameworks of queer romance is best for these characters and this story. At the same time, recognize that not all advice is equal. No matter the strength of your outline, the depth of your characters, wordless days will happen. Give yourself grace to get through them. If you spend your day shredding your blueprints, maybe you’ll find ignoring them was what should’ve been done the whole time.
To Sum It All Up
How you approach drafting a plot-centered story isn’t the same way you’d approach creating a character-centered story. Structural framework and character arc templates hem in your creativity when thought of as guaranteed paths to a bestseller. There’s a time to follow the “rules,” sure. But readers will see through your work quickly if all you’ve done is fill in the blanks like a game of Mad Libs.
Let your story and characters grow from the inside. This means ignoring structure when the moment, scene, or chapter calls for it. Readers like variety, even as they find joy in recognizing the tropes and conventions you use. In fact, Lucy Monroe says, “The very existence of the diverse stories and even story structure within the romance genre defies the idea that the genre can or should be defined by everyone that way.”
When you try to graph a particular framework or character journey onto your story idea, you limit the places that story and those characters traverse. These templates are just there to guide the way.
Give yourself permission to break the rules, ignoring structural frameworks and character arc templates along the way. When and where you go offroad, of course, depends on you, your characters’ unique decisions, and the narrative arc(s) that comes from those decisions. Trust your writer’s intuition, even when it means tossing the blueprint of your story to the winds.
Reflecting On Your Story One Word At A Time!
