First Sunday Q&A: Working with a Structural Analysis Chart
I taught this chart for years, used it myself, and marveled at how it answered the most gnarly structure dilemmas in my writing
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Q: I’m deep in revision for my second novel, and I want to make the process as easy as possible. Do you have any special techniques for analyzing structure at this stage? I’ve worked with your storyboard W structure, loved it for my early drafts, but I think I need something more sophisticated (if that’s the right word) for this very challenging revision. Please share whatever you can. Thank you!
A: I was in the very same dilemma, working on revisions for my second novel. One of my students was stuck and she asked me to create a chart that she could use to navigate her revision. She’d worked through the W storyboard, had a fairly cohesive structure, but needed something that went beyond that template to finish.
I decided we could both learn together, and she agreed to be my test case for this new idea.
It was a good experiment. I thought about what I might put on such a chart, the elements I’d learned, over years of teaching, coaching, and writing, that are catch points at revision. Things that make or break the final version.
Does it work for other genres?
Yes! The chart worked so well for her—and for me—that I began testing it with all my clients who were revising their manuscripts. I adapted it for different genres. Almost everyone who was tolerant of the tedium of making a chart in the first place benefited quite a bit.
A memoir writer used the chart for backstory placement—key moments of her traumatic childhood—and where they might appear in the front story.
A nonfiction writer working on a biography of a botanist used it to track historical information about botany and where to place it in the narrative.
A fiction writer used a twelve-column version of the chart to organize the three locations and three narrators in his novel.
A writer compiling a self-help book made up of different expert interviews used the chart to catch the themes within each interview and organize them into a flow.
The columns of the chart varied for each project, but many repeated, I learned, based on genre. I went on to use the chart, which I called a structural analysis chart (SAC), for the rest of my teaching and coaching career.
It was my go-to for my own manuscripts as well. When I reached a certain point in revision, I’d put one together.
Love-hate relationship with charts and outlines
Like I said, charts are not sexy or fun for most of us. I resist such tedium in my writing life; it feels like the opposite of creativity. For years, I divorced myself from outlines and charts, until I was so swamped in words that I couldn’t make sense of anything. I first learned a fluid chart system with the W storyboard but soon graduated to the SAC. It made all the difference.
To give you some insights in how exactly, I will show you three sample SAC’s in today’s post, along with the story of a writer who just released his debut successfully, thanks in part to using his chart.
You can create your own from the samples below, customizing it to where you are in your drafting or revision.
Jim’s story
Jim’s debut, Moon Over Humbolt (Black Rose Writing) came out earlier this year. “An old-school logger and a young environmentalist, enemies in the culture war dividing their rural California county, cross paths in a 12-step program and find in each other a kindred spirit who could help each man rebuild a life shattered by addiction and loss—if they can navigate their differences.”
Jim worked on his first draft for more than six years, yet after all that work, he says, “the opening was weak, there were too many characters for readers to track, and many scenes were redundant or superfluous.” Jim didn’t see these flaws himself, but as we began to work together and I pointed them out, he was able to create a structure that in his words, “really worked.”
Jim had tried the three-act storyboard structure, the W, and found it helpful, but the process that he “initially resisted as tedious and boring” but carried the most value was the structural analysis chart (SAC).
Together, we created a huge spreadsheet that, as Jim says, listed “every scene, its POV, the people in it, location, date, main outer event, the POV character’s outer obstacle, inner obstacle, the author’s intent, and other elements.” I had experimented with the SAC for other students, but Jim’s enthusiasm and obvious benefit from using the chart inspired me to really develop it.
Here’s a screenshot of Jim’s chart for one of his chapters.
The column headers I suggested to Jim were:
Chapter/Scene
POV (who narrates)
People (other than narrator who are in the scene)
Location
Date/Season
Main Outer Event (what’s happening)
Outer Obstacle (what is the narrator irritated by or fighting against in this scene—can be something small, like a smelly room or heat or loud voices)
Inner Obstacle (primary emotion, thought, or belief the narrator has at this moment, again something the narrator is conflicted or affected by)
The screenshot is a bit hard to read, but the main reason I wanted to share it is for the headers. This was a novel in mid- to late revision, which needed structure work but had good characters and a strong plot already in place. Each chapter was now analyzed for its purpose in the novel, each scene was studied for uniqueness and the ability to drive the story forward.
Jim found the SAC not only helped him see which characters, scenes, and chapters were unnecessary or redundant. It gave him “a flexible and convenient tool—like a huge whiteboard—to make revisions,” he says.
“I worked on my novel for years,” he adds, “without ever stepping back and developing an outline or structure.”
A basic SAC
The SAC is a tool any writer can use, and if you try it you may have the ah-ha moments it brought to Jim. Basically, it’s chart created in Excel, Word, or whatever program you use. It doesn’t have to be as complex as Jim’s. You choose column headers depending on where you are in revision.
Here’s another example, a very basic SAC that I used when working with writers in early revision, maybe having just completed their manuscript draft. There are only four columns: People, Event, Location, and Scene Type. Just filling in these columns can help the writer doublecheck the draft for each scene or chapter and its effectiveness in the larger manuscript and figure out where to go next. I’ve filled in the columns with an example of a draft story.
Under People, you’d list the characters in that scene. Under Event, you describe what’s happening onstage—the actual action. Under Location, you enter where the action is taking place. And the final column lets you note what kind of scene it is: action, reflection, backstory, etc.
As Jim says, filling in the SAC is tedious. You’re forced to back away from your story and view it as an editor might. As you fill in the columns, here are some things you might notice:
There are way too many people in the scene. Or, there are too many scenes with only one person (makes it tough to move characters forward).
You don’t have enough happening or too much is happening. That tells you to either add more activity or break the scene into more scenes that allow you to more fully develop each event.
You don’t have a clear location yet. Needs work. Or we move around way too much for one scene—again, an indicator that this could be multiple scenes.
There are too many of the same type of scene in a row. Vary them more. Move them around to create more tension.
SAC for later revision
Here’s another version that I use with more developed manuscripts.
Tracking the timeline of a story is a super important step when revising, and the Time or Date column allows you to do that.
Transition asks you to note how you’re moving from scene to scene—for instance, you study the end of each scene and the beginning of the next, then note what you use to carry the reader forward smoothly. “The next morning,” or another time marker? A repeating word or image?
Purpose is a challenging one to fill in but also super important. Why are you including this scene? What purpose does it serve in the larger story? This really forces the writer to fish or cut bait—a scene can’t be in your story just because you love it. It has to have a reason the reader will grasp.
Revision Notes is a very useful column. This is where I write down all the changes I want to make. Sometimes this is the main place I keep my revision notes, linked to the scene that needs the changes.
Customize
Like I said above, the whole point of the SAC is to help a writer take their revision to the next step by forcing them to see their manuscript as an editor might. To do this effectively, you need to test out the columns in the samples above, but also feel free to customize the headers to fit where you are in your revision.
I used this chart for a decade with my clients, used it in developing three books of my own, and although I found the process as tedious as Jim did, the benefits far outweighed the tedium. I loved what it showed me—so easily and quickly. I could tell right away where I’d fallen asleep, where I needed to shift or delete things, what was missing.
A good number of my past clients, like Jim, have gone on to publish. And I can’t help but think the SAC they used had something to do with that.
Questions? Ideas for your own? Comments? Please share!
This is great! I'm going to give it a try.