1. Introduction
2. Understanding Speculative Fiction
3. Key Elements of Speculative Fiction Story Structure
4. Common Story Structures for Speculative Fiction
5. Planning Your Speculative Fiction Novel
6. Writing Exercise: Build Your Outline
7. Conclusion

Introduction

This week we’re going through an overview of story structures to help you plan out your novel. I know there are all forms of writers out there, so you can also use this post to help you reverse-plot your novel.

Why worry about this at all, even if you’re a pantser/discoverer/gardener writer? Because just like a house or living space needs to have a sturdy structure, so does your story. Think of it as putting in the right support system to build the best version of your story. When writing, we often have a sense of the unplanned stories. However, knowing the key scenes and their order will help you guide your reader’s experience of the story.

Today, you’ll learn about speculative fiction, story structures, and how to plan your novel.

Understanding Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction includes many genres and subgenres of fiction. These stories often contain speculative, fantastical, and supernatural elements. But can also include elements that don’t exist in reality, known history, nature, or our universe. The term Speculative Fiction gives writers more freedom from the constraints of mainstream genres that only marketing teams really care about. Giving yourself the wiggle room for experimentation until you’re ready to go to publishing is a great way to test everything you want in your story.

Each of these subgenres have their own subgenres, confusing right? Understanding various subgenres can assist you in structuring your story, and you can remain flexible until the editing process. We’ll talk about finding your niche, or subgenre, next week. For now, here’s a list of subgenres you can research until then.

• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Horror
• Magical Realism
• Superhero
• Utopian/Dystopian
• Alternative History
• Biographical Alternate History
• Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic
• Supernatural

As you can see, there are a lot of options to choose from. With those genres and subgenres in mind, it’s time to look at the key elements of a speculative fiction story structure.

Key Elements of Speculative Fiction Story Structure

World-building, as we’ve already talked about, is essential to Speculative Fiction and the structure of the story. Though the full range of world-building will depend on the story you’re writing, you can review the post from a few weeks ago, or keep your eyes out for future posts on world-building. The great thing about speculative fiction is it’s a lot easier to build worlds that add another layer of challenge or of mirrored images to the character’s journey. At the hardest parts of the story, they may also climb the side of a mountain, or going through an assessment to see if their journey taught them what it needed to. What are some ways you’ve already experimented with setting in your story?

Character development is the forefront of what agents and publishers are looking for, or at least according to social media. In reality, character development is the most important for keeping your readers and yourself engaged with the story. Speculative fiction allows for a wide range of character arcs that may not be as common in adventure and romance stories. For example, romance is widely accepted as the happy ending story and if you break that trope, your story becomes another genre. With a Speculative Fiction story you have the ranges to include Dark Romance, Destructive character arcs, and well, unhappy endings. Often the decay or growth of these characters is paralleled or contrasted by the world around them. Can you think of the characters you loved? Growth and Destructive arcs?

Plotting and subplots are the last key element in Speculative Fiction Story Structures for many reasons. Readers of speculative fiction often expect more exposition tied in with the world-building without massive info-dumps. For the time being, the Tolkien-esk pages of world-building aren’t common or successful in many modern novels. This is due to the competitive nature of our world for entertainment. Why would a reader stay engaged with your book when they could enjoy a similar movie that shows all of those facts in a fraction of the time? Also, you’ll have to work a little harder to balance the main plots with subplots.

Speculative Fiction stories are known for their Multi-POV narratives or where the side characters are more important than in many other genres. This is often why you see a side series in these genres. Taking the extra time to get to know your main character and side characters will make driving the story easier and help your readers connect with the larger cast of your stories. The balance of POVs becomes just as important to Speculative Fiction as with the plots and subplots. This balance isn’t just in how many characters you have, but also in how many you introduce at once. One of my early flaws in writing was trying to introduce all the characters in the first few pages of the book. The mass introduction leads to many readers closing books or becoming overwhelmed and skipping to an interesting part.

With three of the key elements of speculative fiction in mind, it’s time to look at what areas you’ll apply these to in your story.

Common Story Structures for Speculative Fiction

There are many story structures used in speculative fiction stories, and the ones listed below aren’t the only ones to choose from. I’m just summarizing each and offering some examples/resources to help you build your own story.

• Hero’s Journey: The Hero’s Journey is one of the most recognizable and practiced story structure. The term Hero’s Journey was created by Joseph Campbell and is most commonly found in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces published in 1949. The Hero’s Journey focus’s on three distinct stages: the Departure, the Initiation, and the Return. Each of those stages are broken down into 5 or 6 steps the Hero must take to achieve their arc. You should find this article from prowritingaid.com extremely helpful. Examples of this story structure include Beowulf, Star Wars, or the Hobbit.
• Three-Act Structure: The Three-Act Structure is a more general structure that doesn’t focus as much on the character’s journey, but gives you a framework to build your story around. The three act structure can be seen in many of the stories that are identified as other structures, but if you just need a bare bones breakdown of a plot outline, this can be your go to. The most basic explanation of the three act structure is that your story will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are many variations on this model, but for the most part the middle will take up 50% of your story and the beginning and ending will be 25% each. You might find this article from Reedsy helpful in your understanding of the three-act structure. You can find examples of this story structure in The Matrix, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and The Hunger Games.
• In medias res: In medias res is a Latin term that means “in the midst of things.” These stories begin right at the juicy part of the set-up portion of the three-act structure and offer insights through flashbacks or shared information from the characters. The In medias res structure isn’t there just for you to skip unnecessary backstory, but also hook your readers with the more enticing opening. Another way to look at using In medias res is by reading Lisa Cron’s Story Genius and following that outlining approach. You can find In medias res in narratives like Killing Floor by Lee Child and the Iliad by Homer.
• Non-linear narratives: The Non-Linear Narrative structure might be one of the hardest one to pull off. At its core, the Non-Linear narrative is a story told out of chronological order. These are challenging because, well, most readers enjoy reading stories in a linear fashion. But sometimes this non-linear structure helps you build suspense, mystery, or if you’re looking to subvert some tropes within your genre. You can see examples of non-linear structures in stories with flashbacks, framed narratives, and parallel plots. Some great examples of this non-linear story structure are The Time Traveler’s wife, Memento, and Frankenstein.

Planning Your Speculative Fiction Novel

Not every structure will work with every story, and sometimes the thing holding you back from completing your story is trying to use a structure that weakens your story. Researching and brainstorming ideas for your story structure is important before you begin your writing. Even if you’re 100% pantser, knowing what type of story you’re shooting for will help prevent many writing block issues you might have faced if you hadn’t prepared that small bit. But what are some ways you can brainstorm ideas and know what to research?

Begin by reading as many craft books as you can, especially those focused on structure. Though I recommend buying them if you can, and hard copy at that, don’t forget that your local library probably has many writing books available. Also, if you don’t take advantage of the app Libby, you’re truly missing out. I’m not a paid sponsor, but it’s a little known secret to rent digital books and audiobooks. The only downfall is that you could be waiting in long lines of holds, depending on the book. But for the most part, it’s a great way to gain access to free writing resources. The best piece of advice I’ve gained from a writing book is to learn as much as you can until you can’t remember where you learned it from, and that’s when it becomes yours.

Also, study books you feel most embody the type of story you’d like to write. Begin by reading in the genre as much as you can. As you read more and more, you’ll find what you like and what you don’t, and don’t disregard the books you don’t like. Though it may not be clear at first, there are reasons you don’t like it. One of the hardest things starting out is knowing the why you don’t like something. Often this is because the author mixes tenses, uses language that doesn’t match the tone of the book, or they are inconsistent. A recommended practice is to note every time you find your mind wandering from the book. You’ve reached the point where you’re no longer interested in the text. Try to figure out why.

Once you’ve created your base knowledge for writing, then it comes time to begin your novel’s preparation. Begin with outlining plot points and subplots.

Outlining the plot and subplots sounds a lot like a plotter’s dream and a pantser’s nightmare. But one of the best ways to view this part for pantsers is that an outline is setting up posts along the fence of a story. They are a guideline that you can fill with whatever type of fencing ends up appearing. You may realize that these posts keep your story from falling down non-productive rabbit holes. Once you’ve decided on the structure for your story, whether based on the ones identified above or your own, it’s time to start adding the key points. Remember that these won’t cover every scene in your story, but will tell you what the points the readers will need to interpret the story as whole. How detailed or vague your outline is will depend on your writing personality and how much you want to prep vs. discover. This is a very general summary of plotting and outlining, but the act of it varies depending on what structure you plan to use.

Writing Exercise: Build Your Outline

Plot Outline Exercise Choose a story structure from the ones mentioned in the post (e.g., Hero’s Journey, Three-Act Structure, In Medias Res, or Non-linear Narrative), and create a basic plot outline for a speculative fiction story using that structure. Identify the key plot points, obstacles, and turning points that your protagonist will encounter.

Add a comment on the challenges you faced in this exercise or tricks you use to ease your outlining process.

Conclusion

Writing speculative fiction offers endless possibilities for world-building, character development, and unique storytelling structures. To create engaging stories, you can explore subgenres, study craft books and exemplary works, and experiment with different plotting techniques. Find the structure that suits your story’s vision, whether it’s the Hero’s Journey, In medias res, or blending genres. With practice and dedication, you can master the art of weaving fantastical elements into compelling tales that transport readers to realms beyond their wildest imaginations. Embrace the freedom of speculative fiction, and let your creativity soar.

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