Using a Framework

So, people wonder how you manage to write a book-length story. Perhaps they've given it a try themselves, and when they're done, they have around fifty pages. What's the trick to having enough material? How do you know what comes next? How to you prevent the ending from coming too soon?

Well, there is no trick, but having a framework helps. By that, I mean a structure to help you get from point A to point B to point C and so on. A lot of stories move through time (spending a year in a new place) or through space(traveling cross-country), giving the author a base to plan the story around. Let's find some popular examples.


Harry Potter and the School Year

J.K. Rowling uses the school year calendar to frame Harry Potter. She goes from the first day of school to Halloween to Christmas (dodging Easter—she handles religion well in those books by never addressing it) to final exams. She fills it in with a sports season. This gave a young author a nice structure to fit her story into.

As a side note, she necessarily abandons it in the last book, and as a result people thought the book meandered a bit. The pace of it seemed off. Rowling stated she's most proud of that last book, and I understand why. It must have been a challenge to abandon the structure she'd used for her first six books.


J.R.R. Tolkien, Map Master Supreme

Now Tolkien was different. He had a whole world ready to draw upon. This is pure conjecture, but I suspect he simply traced the path his characters would take and that dictated what they would encounter. A lot of his chapters encapsulate a location. There is a chapter for the Prancing Pony Inn, Helm's Deep, etc.

It's also an excellent way to show off your settings, giving the reader a tour of your world. I admit, I use this one a bit. It's really helpful having a fully designed world at my fingertips. Having to build it as I wrote would have been daunting.

Ender's Game: the Repeating Framework

Ender goes to Battleschool; he's new and has to prove himself. He does and earns respect. Ender becomes a commander; he's new and has to prove himself. He does and earns respect. Ender is sent to command school. Everything is new, and he has to prove himself. He does and...

The framework here is introducing the character into a new environment, having him master it, and then going on to another new environment.


A Series of Unfortunate Events, a Series of Settings

The kids go to a new area and they meet their new guardian. Count Olaf shows up in disguise and causes problems, forcing the kids to move on a robbing them of any allies. I've only read the first three of these, so don't come after me if it eventually changed.

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These works have a few things in common:

- They are all early works by new authors. I think each found a framework that helped them chart apath and fill out their stories.

- They are all great books. Having a framework doesn't mean a book will be bad. It's just a structure for the story and characters.


T.V. shows follow the same frame work all the time, House and Scooby Doo being prime examples. Don't ask me why Scooby Doo came to mind. Movie sequels often follow the framework of the first film, but I think that's an attempt to safely emulate the first film's success, basically giving the audience the same movie.


So my suggestion would be to choose either time or space and establish the starting and ending point. Move your characters and story through it. Knowing what comes next can help when deciding what happens next.