A listener of my Wizards, Warriors, & Words podcast recently wrote to ask about how I structure my novels:
Hi Jed,
Firstly I just want to say that I am really enjoying the podcast. I have searched around and listened to a few different podcasts on fantasy writing. Wizards, Warriors and Words is definitely the best out there.
I’ve already gained so much insight into writing and several different resources just from listening to you guys chat.
I’ve just listened to episode 2.6 on structure (I’m abit behind). You mentioned at the end about putting your structure up so aspiring authors could see how a professional approaches their structure.
Did that end up going up somewhere? Could you potentially point me in the right direction to find it?
2.6 Our thoughts on story structure – Wizards, Warriors, & Words: A Fantasy Writing Advice Podcast
Thanks for the question! As you’ve probably worked out from listening to the podcast, I’m a huge fan of structure. Learning story structure (mostly from Structuring Your Novel by K. M. Weiland) let me write my second book in 60 days. The first draft, at least.
By comparison, my first novel took 360 days to write the first draft. So structure made things much easier!
Today, I wanted to share my complete outline for The Thunder Heist (Twisted Seas # 1) – my oceanpunk fantasy novel. This outline has massive spoilers (duh!) so only read it after you’ve read the book :).
In case you need a refresher, here’s the blurb for the book:
A relentless thief. A magical device. And a heist to change everything.
Kef Cutmark is the greatest pirate in the Twisted Seas. Just ask her – she’s more than happy to talk about her exploits. She’s a woman of sharp wit and an even sharper sword. She’s killed sea monsters, toppled kings, stolen priceless artifacts, and made a hefty sum of gold along the way.
But her charming, roguish exterior hides a dark past. As a child, she was a slave in Zorith – a tangled jungle of a thousand boats, all lashed together to make a floating city-ship. After a life spent running from her past, she’s had enough. Now, it’s time for revenge.
Zorith is powered by a magical device that draws energy from lightning. Mysterious, unique, and locked in an unbreachable tower, it’s the envy of Zorith’s rivals.
And Kef? She’s here to steal it.
To do that, she’ll need a water-breathing mutant, a grumpy architect, and a deaf alchemist. If Kef can take the device, it will cripple Zorith, and serve out justice for what the city did to her. But with all the odds stacked against Kef, failure looks more likely. And if she fails, she’ll never find peace again.
The Thunder Heist’s Outline:
What I’m about to share is the story structure outline that I created for The Thunder Heist (which was originally called The Lightning Heist, but I changed it because it sounded too similar to The Lightning Thief). As the title suggests, this is a heist story. As such, I drew inspiration from the Golden Fleece plot archetype, which you can read more about on Save The Cat’s website.
(I’m not a massive fan of the overly prescriptive nature of Save The Cat, but they do provide useful scaffolds to build upon, which is what I did).
So with all that preamble out of the way, here’s what my structural outline looked like.
Comment below if you have any questions!
| Title | Synopsis | The Lighting Heist v1 Outline | |
| ACT I | ||
| 1 | Prison Breakout | Hook: Kef’s in jail. Conflict: Kef’s about to be executed. Climax: reveal that she entered the jail to extract a target (the ARCHITECT). She escapes on to a boat by using electrical powers, a crane, and a riot. – Have them read Kef’s crimes to characterise her – Show her snarky voice – Show the Wardens (who will later hunt her) |
| 2 | Prison Getaway | Hook: Kef gets onto a speedboat to flee jail, with her target. Conflict: they’re pursued by Wingers & other boats. Climax: They escape by doing a boat switcheroo. – Kef gets target to hold wheel while she drinks booze. – Throws bottle at Winger – Chase sequence goes through a NeoArc, developing the setting more. |
| 3 | Arrival at NeoArc Dolphin | Hook: they arrive at the city with the lightning tower. Conflict: the Architect tries to leave, refusing to help them. Climax: Kef persuades/blackmails the Architect by saying that the prison wardens will be searching for him. She’s his only chance of survival :if they complete the mission (which we introduce here), she’ll set him up with a new identity. He reluctantly agrees to help. |
| 4 | Customs | Hook: Kef and the Architect reach the NeoArc’s harbour. Conflict: Kef expects it to be easy to get into the city, but they go through incredibly strict customs that try to turn them away :there’s been a regime change (establish the ORIGINS OF THE HOUND) that Kef didn’t know about, and as a result martial law has been instigated over the city. This will complicate her plans. Climax: Kef’s bargaining/blackmailing skills gets them into the city :but she has to use up practically all her money. We get the sense that maybe things won’t go that smoothly after all … |
| 5 | Walking through Streets | As they walk through the city’s streets: – Establish world building of the city – Establish the air of oppression and menace, with random police checks, etc. – Have architect say that it’s impossible for Kef to steal the Surge. He doesn’t know what the device looks like, but judging by the size of the room he had to design for it, it’s huge! Also have him doubt that Kef can pull it off alone. – Kef says she’s not going to pull it off alone: she’s about to recruit a team |
| ACT II | ||
| 6 | Visit Gangsters | Hook: Kef goes to the slums to find her old friend. Conflict: Unfortunately, he’s dead. She’s taken to his replacement :a gang leader. Kef asks to hire one of his mutants (maybe a Winger/Gill?). He demands half payment now. Climax: Kef’s like ‘no problem!’ When she walks out, she says ‘big problem.’ She has zero money :as the architect well knows (and almost accidentally gave away through a guilty face). |
| 7 | Steal from an Aristocratic Party | Hook: Kef and Architect infiltrate an upper-class party on the Captain’s ship to get money to pay the gang leader.She gets the Architect to act as the Face for the heist, letting Kef sneak in to the building. Conflict: They’re suprised by Courtier, but Kef manages to recruit him to their mission by pretending they’re working for one of the rich nobles. Climax: the greedy and naive courtier agrees to help, thinking it will lead to him becoming strong. – Establish this is easier than robbing a bank. |
| 8 | Recruit Giller | Hook: with the money stolen from the party, (or jewlry they’ve sinced fenced), Kef proudly shows the Gangster she can pay. Conflict: Kef wants a strong Giller, but the gangster offers her his weakest rookie. Climax: furious but unable to budge him, Kef accepts and the Giller joins her team. |
| 9 | MIDPOINT: Prison Wardens Arrive | Hook: while they’re walking to recruit the alchemist, Kef sees a wanted poster with her name and the architect’s. Conflict: now they must tread extra carefully. They architect gets scared. Kef reminds him that if they follow through with her plan, the architect will get to escape with a new ID. Climax: they continue to the alchemist, still cautious. |
| 10 | Recruiting the Alchemist | Hook: they go to the alchemists to recruit the Alchemist. Conflict: he’s been exiled in disgrace. Climax: they find and recruit the alchemist, but he seems seriously shady. |
| 11 | Recruit the Pilot? | Hook: Kef needs to recruit a pilot. Conflict: can’t leave safehouse without getting caught, so she sends a coded message instead – super risky though. In the background show the alchemist brewing explosives and the tattoos. Climax: they get their pilot, but having never met him in person, it feels risky. |
| 12 | Making the Plan | Hook: now that the team’s recruited, they start the plan. Conflict: pushback from others, Kef refusing to share parts of the plan (like how she knows their extraction of the Surge Device will work). Climax: fade away before revealing the whole plan. |
| 13 | Betrayal by Giller | Hook: Giller takes her to see something. Conflict: he springs an ambush on her. Climax: she uses the Rorschach trick to kill them, then chases after Giller through the interior of a ship, eventually finding, and (after seeing that he hasn’t given away the plan), kills him. |
| 14 | Fallout from Betrayal | Hook: Kef returns to tell bad news to her team. Conflict: they think the plan will fail now that they don’t have a Giller. Climax: Kef tells them they’ll have to push through, and modify where they can. |
| Part III | ||
| 15 | Kef swims under | Hook: Kef pulls off a distraction (with aid of Architect – flares of some kind?), pulling the Gillers away from the Surge Compound, and then she swims under to get to the access pipe. Conflict: it doesn’t open when she expects it to. (There was a signal from the alchemist before, indicating he was about to make the switch, but he hasn’t due to delays). Climax: cut away before we see resolution. |
| 16 | Disabling the Desal Plant | Hook: Alchemist must disble the desal plant, just long enough for the backup turbines to kick in in the Surge Compound. Conflict: one of the Alchemist’s former coworkers are there – along with a prison Warden. Alchemist has to bluff his way around them. Climax: cuts away just before we see resolution. |
| 17 | Kef gets in | Hook: Kef struggling underwater. Conflict: does she leave or does she wait? Climax: the entrance opens, she blows her way in, and after a frantic few seconds, she finally gets through the pipes and into the Engine Room. She leaves a mysterious package inside the room (it’s a bomb for later, but don’t tell audience that). Then someone enters the room. It’s the governer’s kid, who’s playing hide and seak with her guards (not what they want, but what’s happening). Kef ties into this somehow? |
| 18 | Courtier Enters Party | Hook: the Courtier (aka the face) enters the party. Conflict: bullied by other courtiers – strict security checks before allowed to enter. The prison wardens are also there. They find the temp tattoos but don’t know what they are; likewise they find his hipflasks but think they’re alchohol instead of chemicals which, when combined with the champagin at the party, will form knockout gas. Climax: gets inside and starts socialising. Maybe hears a speach given by the dictator? |
| 19 | Kef steals key 1 | Hook: after ‘dealing’ with the kid (ties her up), Kef navigates up through the compound. Conflict: some sort of difficult stealth obstacle to steal the key, which she gets past. Climax: arrives at door to LC room, with the key in hand. |
| 20 | Kef finds the LC | Hook: Kef sneaks into the Lightning Caller’s room. Conflict: they ‘don’t want to leave.’ (Kef is secretly communicating with them). Outside, guards are pounding on the door to get let in. Climax: The LC electrocute Kef. As she falls she presses the trigger for the bomb, causing the power to blackout. |
| 21 | Courtier does Tats | Hook: the power blacks out in the ballroom. Conflict: the courtier releases the KO gas, then slaps tattoos onto the targets’ heads, then inhales the KO gas himself. Climax: the Courtier passes out. |
| 22 | Kef, Captured | Hook: Kef wakes up captured. Conflict: it looks like her plan has failed. Climax: it isn’t. She reveals truth (there was a fake body swap, which made he guards do the swapping for them) then escapes. |
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