Blueprint Your Bestseller is 219 pages long and arranged into six major sections. Within the six major sections, Horwitz organized the ten chapters as well as included the 22 steps of the book architecture method. He included not only a reading copy of The Ugly Duckling but also an annotated copy. Finally, he added a guide for beta readers.
The six major sections include:
- Scene, Part I
- Series, Part I
- Theme, Part I
- Theme, Part II
- Series, Part II
- Scene, Part II
Across the Horwitz’s three books, I am seeing similar content. Each book is more detailed than another and each emphasizes a different point but the method is the same.
In each section, Horwitz detailed what step you should be focusing on as you move from your first raw draft to a polished manuscript. The 22 steps begin with a raw manuscript. From that point, you dissect your manuscript into scenes after inventorying it from memory. You then identify forgotten and missing scenes with the aid of your manuscript. When I say dissect, I mean, er, Horwitz means to break out the scissors and cut up your manuscript into individual scenes.
Scene by scene, you will then determine what your series are and plot them on a matrix. This entire idea of a series showed me a path for improving the book I am writing. The bad thing about learning about series is that I am now seeing them everywhere. I can’t read a book or watch a movie without seeing the series.
Once you reveal your series, you need to hone in on your theme. Your theme can only be about one thing. Horwitz provided several strategies for narrowing down your them to one thing.
After identifying your them, you will work backward. You will work from theme to scene. You have to identify which series and scenes are relevant to your theme. If they are true outliers, you should discard them.
We have now traveled back to the series. At this step, you are identifying your central series. It is a series that helps control the movement of the book. Horwitz also discussed the importance of repetition and variation as you put your series back together. You want to spread your series out but not too far that readers lose track of what is happening.
Finally, Horwitz provided guidance for pulling everything together in the scenes. It is a matter of organizing the scenes to craft a story.
Naturally, there is a lot more to his method, but you will have to discover that for yourself. All I can say, this series of books particularly Blueprint Your Bestseller and Book Architecture have caused me to think about writing books differently. I am very happy that I have found this series. If you are writing, I would definitely recommend that you check them out.
Additional Reading
- Book Review: Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula
- Book Review: Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It
- Book Review: On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
- Book Review: On Reading, Writing and Living With Books
- Book Review: Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day
- Improve Your Writing With Grammarly
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