| When you're buying a writing system it's | | | | these three elements into a story. The |
| important to buy one that is able to help you to | | | | movement and revealing over time of character |
| write the type of writing you do. There's no point | | | | and scene is the basis of the story. |
| in buying a fiction writing system if you write | | | | A system which is designed for fiction writing |
| how-to books exclusively. | | | | needs to take into account these three elements. |
| You see any system should help you to structure | | | | It will almost certainly have an artifact for each. It |
| the end product. And to do that it needs to | | | | will also allow the writer to combine the elements |
| create artifacts that support that type of writing. | | | | to create the story - to describe the structure. A |
| Fiction writing is by its nature a much more | | | | good example of such a system is that used by |
| complex type of writing than non-fiction. As such | | | | film makers and animators -- storyboarding. |
| it requires more artifacts to support the writing. | | | | The complexity involved to write a how-to book |
| For example, fiction is time based writing. It | | | | is much less. |
| follows a time line and develops the story over a | | | | There is only one element involved in the |
| period of time in chunks called chapters. | | | | structure of a typical how-to book. That is the |
| But fiction is also character based. It brings | | | | development of the argument. Typically, if time or |
| together a soup of characters -- some of whom | | | | sequence is involved, then that is a secondary |
| are well planned and some of whom are only | | | | element and is best described in a diagram within |
| outlined. -- and then reveals their characters. It | | | | the book rather than as words and part of the |
| places those characters in conflict and the story is | | | | structure of the how-to book. |
| developed by how they move through that story. | | | | Designing the structure when writing a how-to |
| The third element that a fiction book must | | | | book is much easier than when writing a fiction |
| co-ordinate is called a scene. Sometimes, it's so | | | | book. The complexity of matching several |
| important that it's referred to as a third character. | | | | different artifacts just isn't part of the process. |
| Scenes consist of many items including locations | | | | As a result the best technique is to use a |
| and environments and the conditions the | | | | cognitive tool such as a structured mind map to |
| characters will find themselves in. | | | | design the structure of the argument. |
| The structure of fiction is the combination of | | | | |