Back in August I announced that I had finished the first draft of ‘Evil Eye’, and like all writers I immediately started work on improving that copy. ‘Evil Eye’ is my third novel and I’m getting used to that process of polishing and embellishing my work, but this time around I was thrown by some unexpected feedback from an alpha reader who said “Nothing much seems to be happening at the start…”
Wow – that really gave me a pause for thought because the last thing I want to do is bore my readers with what should be an exciting story. It was time to get back to work!
I quickly realised that the story was not properly structured and whilst plenty of exciting things were happening, they were not in the right places. I took the novel apart, scene by scene, and then reordered the entire manuscript in line with the 7-Point Story Structure:
- Hook
- First Plot Point
- Pinch Point 1
- Mid-Point
- Pinch Point 2
- Second Plot Point
- Resolution
For more about this approach to structuring a novel take a look at this link.
It has taken me 4 months to restructure ‘Evil Eye’ and I am very pleased to have taken the time to do it because the story is now much stronger!
I had the pleasure of printing the first 4 updated copies for my alpha readers today – 3 copies ar
e already allocated and I’m hoping to get some more helpful feedback before the manuscript is edited next year.
Lee J. Russell, Author 
Your Lissa Blackwood thrillers look like they will be an exciting and interesting read. Especially as they are set in the UK. I’m going to look at your 7 point structure.. may be I should be applying that. Reading about your new book is does honestly sound like it will be a good read!
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