The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction: Your Blueprint for Building a Strong Story (The Writer's Toolbox Series)

I will most likely refer back to this book many times (seeing as I highlighted a good portion of it). Being new to the novel-writing field, there were a lot of great considerations that Ms. Lakin pointed out. I found her to be very thorough in explaining her 12 Pillars. Several authors will probably differ with her about which pillars are the four strongest, but whatever the case may be, she had great information for pretty much all aspects of novel-writing.Many of the things she pointed out made me go, "OH! That's what was wrong with _______ novel that I couldn't put my finger on." I agreed so much with her about the many novelists out there who publish their works before it really has enough substance. Reading this has also made me rethink a lot of my own writing.I really enjoyed the 12 links she shared for print-outs. Those I will likely use and reuse. Though I'm not as much of a planner, they are still very helpful for brainstorming.I would recommend this to 16+ for conservative readers. To my memory, there was mainly one plot example she gave that disgusted me...she did refer to many books and movies that I've not read/watched, so whether or not those are edifying for the Christian to read, I don't know. However, in using those examples, I found that I could come away with the message she was trying to expound upon without me personally wanting to go and watch/read them all.One of the MANY quotes I highlighted:"Don’t try to cram by flipping through a few how-to books and reading a couple of articles. Becoming adept at any difficult skill takes hard work and practice. You need that hands-on experience and the 'book' learning to become a great novelist."

I'm always looking for a good book to help me with my novel construction. This book delivers. The author explains the concepts quite well, and I even learned something new (which doesn't often happen). The first four pillars are pretty basic, and there is some repetition (in titles, in transitions from one section to another, and in basic information at times). But they're good to go over if you want a solid story foundation.The last pillars were the most interesting, talking about theme (the heart of your story) and motif (recurring symbolism within the story). Theme gets less and less elusive the more I read about it, and Lakin's explanation was as good as any I've heard. The motif pillar blew my mind, and I've latched onto that idea quite enthusiastically. :)I also love that there are links to checklists, so when you get done with the book, you have a distilled version of the information for checking against your story structure. Only thing that would have made that better is having a page where you can download everything, since I read it on my Kindle and didn't want to use the experimental browser for all those goodies.A solid read for anyone looking to widen their understanding of how to compile the components of your story into a cohesive unit. **This is not a book on the particulars of plot structure. If you're looking for that, I recommend Monica Leonelle's  Nail Your Story: Add Tension, Build Emotion, and Keep Your Readers Addicted: Growth Hacking for Storytellers #2  or K.M. Weiland's  Structuring Your Novel Box Set: How to Write Solid Stories That Sell (Helping Writers Become Authors) .

I have a lot of how-to write books. There are many great ones out there, but unfortunately this is not on the top of the list. There are some gems in the book. I love the checklists. I usually cross-reference examples back to where the concept was discussed. In this book, there are only 2 sections with examples (incidentally pages 25-29, and 93-95). If a book is really good and invaluable, I have so many flags and highlighting it looks like a coloring book. I only flagged the checklists.There is a lack of examples, either from popular books/movies, or made up on the spot. For example: Page 38 has a section "a great novel is not just a string of events." It starts out saying you need a goal. The next paragraph says "Does there really have to be a point?" and then goes on to say yes, you need a point, and if you have a great idea without a goal, the author would love to hear it. The section ends with "Ask yourself about your favorite novel or two. What did the hero/heroin want?" The section ends. The next section begins with "So, now that you understand your story needs a goal......" When did we understand that? It was not illustrated with examples of stories with great goals, and how awful they would be if you removed the goal.Each section is only 4-5 paragraphs and lacks examples and substance. In one of the only two sections with examples, there are some "examples" of one-sentence story concepts from popular movies. The sentence preceding these 5 examples says "note how these ......contain the four elements." The one sentence summaries are then listed (which we could get from IMDB ourselves), but without much follow up discussion. One even says, after the one sentence summary, "no need to comment on the unique setting ....or high stakes." Really? Apparently it's obvious? Isn't it your job as an author/teacher to point all of this out? Not only this, but the four pillars/elements are not pointed out. Granted, they shouldn't be too hard to find, but that is because I have read 50 other how-to books and learned from them.I'd love to see a new version published with added examples from novels, or just made up examples to illustrate the points. Without examples, it's all just conceptual. I am sure that this author has good ideas, as the checklists seem to be very good. I know it's hard to teach something that is so integrated into your thought process that you don't know how much to say about everything, or you assume that a lot of things are just obvious. I would not recommend this to those who prefer examples. If you love conceptual, go for it! It has a $14 workbook to go with it (which I bought), which is the checklists spread out over many pages with blank lines under them to help you write down your ideas.

I spent a fortune on books to help me write a book and my book case is still full of them half of which I haven't even finished wading through. Trouble with most of them is that they specialise only in one area of writing. This is the first book I have found that takes you through all of the components of writing a book not unlike a cookery book. The author likens the creation of a book to building a house with strong foundations and good quality materials.The 12 key pillars of Novel construction is without doubt the best book that I have read to date on writing. It takes you through all the aspects of building a good strong foundation for your book explaining how each area of writing impacts the others from 'Concept with a Kicker, Protagonist with a goal, Conflict with high stakes, plots, subplots, secondary characters, themes, settings, tension, dialogue, character voice etc. It also gives you links to downloadable checklists to print off that help you build the foundations for your book. Its easy to follow and makes a great deal of sense. You still have to write your novel but with this book as a tool you can break everything down into smaller chunks and really make every word, character, scene and piece of dialogue count. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone starting out or in the process of writing a book.

This book changed the way I think about novel writing. Many guides focus on character, plot, scene; instead Lakin focuses on what makes a story compelling in itself.. what makes it exciting, stuck in your head and keeps you reading. After reading I went to a bookshop and I could immediately identify on every book blurb how a bestselling author had executed the four 'corner pillars' of Lakin's book.In terms of the book, about 1/3-1/2 is spent on four 'Corner Pillars', the remainder on the other 8. Each pillar is linked to every other and every chapter finishes with a checklist (and occassionally acitivities) to make you challenge your own work and make sure it's on track. There is a bit of repetition/reiteration throughout but I suspect this comes from Lakin's exasperation at repeatedly having to drum the same lessons into 200 manuscript authors a year.This is very useful and well worth the money - don't be too proud to buy it and read it honestly!

Brilliantly clear, fantastically well presented and enjoyably written. The checklists at the end of each section are really helpful. It's given me so many good ideas and sensible advice. It's clarified how to structure my novel with changes I knew I was searching for but couldn't quite put my finger on. Really recommend for anyone starting to write a nove.

This book accompanies the workbook and compliments it. I couldn't get through the workbook without it. It explains what you need to know and do in order to plan and outline your story in-depth. Great for anyone wishing to plan their novel and think deeply about characters and their motivations.

Made me think clearly about the novel I’m writing, and showed me areas that I need to improve. The house building analogy was a little heavy handed, but otherwise a helpful read for the aspiring author who wants to up their game.