Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.

If I was to tell you that 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters reads like 101 blog posts for writers I’d be doing it an incredible disservice. With that said though, it does read like 101 blog posts.

The thing to bear in mind is that those blog posts have been written by best selling author Larry Brooks, and every one of those blog posts is awesome. You’ve probably have seen some of them before, hell two of them I’ve mentioned on my site, but what Larry does in 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters is present the 101 tips in ways that you haven’t thought of before.

If you do get 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters, and I recommend you do, then read all 101 tips, even the ones you think you know. Especially the ones you think you know.

On top of all of this, there’s something in 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters that’s especially for seat of the pants writers (me included) that is going to change the way you write forever. I have resisted, sometimes violently, the idea that you need to map out you story before you begin.

I’ve been converted.

Not to outlines necessarily, but to the idea that every story, planned or not, needs structure in order to work*. When Larry recently commented that the seat of the pants vs. outliner debate was over, it was because of this concept of structure rendered the argument moot. It’s this discussion of structure that I liked the most about 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters; it’s also the part I found the most frustrating… because damn it I want more. Fortunately there is more, and free too, on Larry’s website **. Apparently Larry also has a full book coming on story structure.

As soon as it comes out, I’m buying it. I went from a manuscript struggling on its second draft to having two fully structured stories ready to go.

I got 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters yesterday. My writing is better today. I didn’t have a number rating system before now, but I’m inventing one for 101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters.

10/10. Go buy it.

* This is true. If your story doesn’t have a structure, I won’t read it. Go get your favorite book… I guarantee you that it has a structure.

** Larry’s blog is at www.storyfix.com there’s a ton of free, excellent information there.