Book Review: Blueprint for a Book
Blueprint for a Book: Build your Novel From the Inside Out, by Jennie Nash
Full disclosure: I was trained as a book coach by Jennie through her Author Accelerator book coach certification program. I use the Blueprint method specifically in one of my own coaching packages. And I use it to develop my own books. So, I didn’t exactly come to read this book from a fresh perspective.
Instead, I was excited to see that Jennie had finally written it out in a way that was even more accessible to writers than doing the course she has available on Teachable.
This book is all about the Blueprint process. Jennie takes you through it step by step, explaining along the way why you should do each step, and that you should take it slowly. Don’t rush through it; that defeats the whole purpose.
It starts with some seemingly simple questions: Why are you writing this book? As in, this book in particular? Do you know the genre? Have you thought of a working title? Who is your ideal reader?
Once you have the basics in place, Jennie talks about the structure of the story. Can you telling your story in a paragraph or two? What about your characters? Who are they and where are they in relation to the story? These are just a few of the questions to ask to help clarify the story in your mind.
The “because of that” story summary is the key. Too many stories have too much plot (random things that happen, mainly because the writer wants them to) and others are all character with nothing actually happening. Jennie talks about the cause and effect trajectory, which helps marry the action arc to the character arc. Something happens to propel the protagonist from her everyday life, and because of that… she reacts a certain way, and because of that the next thing happens.
The Inside Outline is where you put it all together, starting with the main scenes. It’s invaluable because your scenes actually go somewhere. They have a purpose that is wedded to character development. It’s what happens, and why it matters to the protagonist.
This is important, since once you sit down to write, you know what you are writing toward. You don’t have the fear of the blank page. You not only have something to write, but you know how it fits into the story.
Some writers who are instinctive pantsers balk at all this. They are afraid if they know too much before they start writing, the magic will disappear. The story will be like an insect in amber, forever stuck in whatever form they’ve chosen. All the energy to tell it will dissipate. But it’s not a straitjacket. It’s flexible enough to work with you as your story develops. It saves you potentially years of frustration, chasing down false tangents and dead ends.
Plotters, or fervent followers of the Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat, Story Grid, or one of the many other formulas out there may worry that it will impede their ability to use their chosen system. Not at all; in fact, it works with your system to make sure you actually have narrative drive and all the pieces work together.
Jennie clearly outlines all the steps, and gives some great examples of various stages of the process. One tiny niggle I had was that she doesn't annotate the examples of the Inside Outline, so it may be hard for a person new to it to really understand what works in the good examples and what needs to be fleshed out in the ones that aren’t quite there yet.
I will say, it can be very hard to see your own work clearly, and the Inside Outline is no exception. It’s easy to gloss over things that aren’t really clear or just aren’t working and still have the illusion of having done it properly.
This can be especially true for writers who are using it as a revision tool. Jennie talks about this as well as how to use the Inside Outline to develop the synopsis. To use it in revision requires clear-sightedness in terms of what is on the page (vs. what you wish was on the page) and a willingness to be brutal in getting rid of characters or plot points that aren’t pulling their weight. The great thing is that as long as you’re honest, it can help you gain that clarity and give you a real place to start the revisions. And I mean the big-picture stuff that actually means making significant changes but that will phenomenally improve your novel, not just moving a paragraph or adding commas.
As I mentioned, it takes time to do this process right. Ideally you have some sort of feedback to help you see your blind spots. If not a coach trained in the method, then perhaps a writer’s group that can read the book together and review each other’s Inside Outlines.
All in all, this book can be an invaluable addition to your writer’s library, especially if you are looking to shave time off the first draft and actually come out with a story that works.
