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in this lesson I'm going to talk to you
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about the importance of following a
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certain structure when you write your
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novel when I wrote my first book Lucy in
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the Sky I didn't know anything about
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story structure I hadn't done any
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courses on it I hadn't read up about it
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but after I had written the book I
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realized that it followed a certain
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structure that most books tend to follow
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in some ways I don't really want to talk
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to you about story structure because I
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don't want to take away spontaneity cuz
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I didn't know about story structure
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myself but I do think it's quite
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important just to have a rough idea of
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the sort of things that will need to
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happen in your story to keep it moving
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forward I'm going to demonstrate so
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usually it starts with your characters
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going about their Ordinary Day in the
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case of Lucy in the Sky my character has
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getting on a plane to Australia and then
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something happens that changes
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everything she receives a text message
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onto her mobile phone from the woman
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claiming to be sleeping with her
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boyfriend so this is your life changing
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moment what follows is what we call
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rising action this is kind of like the
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character development the story sort of
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building characters starting to get to
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know each other in the case of Lucy in
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the Sky my debut novel my character gets
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to know a young hot Surfer called Nathan
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um in Australia at the same time
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wondering if her boyfriend back home is
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cheating on her ultimately there has to
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be some sort of
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climax this might be the moment that
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your character character realizes that
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he or she is madly in love with the main
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love interest in the case of Lucy in the
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Sky without spoiling too much for you I
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think it's probably the moment where
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Lucy and Nathan kiss for the first time
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after that most books tend to have an
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All Is Lost moment when you really don't
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know if the two main characters are
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going to end up together and then
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finally we drive towards a
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resolution now whether or not you decide
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to make you're ending a happy one or a
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not so happy one that's up to you but I
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will say that if you're writing a
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romance book most people will expect a
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happy ending I write emotional love
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stories and I don't actually call them
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romance because my stories are a little
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bit more Bittersweet there's not always
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a perfectly tied up happy ending I
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really like my books to be as realistic
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as possible but the sort of book that
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you want to write is completely up to
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you and if you want to write a happy
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uplifting ending then I highly recommend
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it because um readers do love
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that in terms of timing and how your
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story follows the structure that I've
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drawn out here and remember this is just
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a loose idea I don't want you to be
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completely bogged down with this but as
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you're thinking of ideas and as you're
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starting to plot out your story just
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kind of keep in mind these quite
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important things that do sort of need to
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happen and it might be that you have
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several climaxes throughout your book
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you know certainly I find that my novels
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do have a few different massive sort of
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key points or moments a few different
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All Is Lost moments even it's just a
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general sort of idea just to sort of
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keep keep you going and keep you
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pressing towards that final
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resolution in terms of the life-changing
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moment one thing that I'd really like
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you to start thinking about is the
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beginning of your novel because this is
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so so important that there's a whole
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lesson dedicated to it later on I would
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like you to be able to have that
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life-changing moment happen within the
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first two pages of your novel it needs
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to be something that's going to
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immediately hook your readers interest
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and in the case of if you're trying to
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get a book deal the person whose
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interest you immediately have to hook is
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a literary agent and then a publisher so
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if you can have that life-changing
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moment something amazing that happens to
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take your character out of their
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ordinary day and really shake things up
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a bit the sooner you can make that
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life-changing moment happen the better
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in terms of the rising action that
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usually takes up quite a big chunk of
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your novel you will find that other
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characters are introduced or they
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certainly should be if you're not
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thinking about that in terms of my debut
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novel when I started writing it I hadn't
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planned out every single thing that
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would happen but I found that the story
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just came to life on its own characters
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started talking to each other they made
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friends you know new characters appeared
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in the novel and that's exactly what you
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want to happen you kind of want your
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story to take on a life of its own and
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there should be some characters that
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provide some light relief if you're
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writing a romantic comedy then you know
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it might be your main characters that
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are making the reader laugh but if you
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write something a little bit more like
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my books which are a bit more of an
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emotional love story then it might be
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the other characters need to be able to
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provide some light relief so you might
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find that there's a friend who's you
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know a bit funny or a family member or
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someone who's a bit quirky or has
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something interesting about them all of
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those characters are usually introduced
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within the rising action so rising
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action is a lot about character
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development as well as heading towards
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that big climactic moment that usually
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will happen in a love story between your
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main love interest and your main
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character and I have to say that the
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climax for me is the most fun part to
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write out of an entire novel really be
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daydreaming a lot about that moment that
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should be the moment where which is
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packed full of chemistry and I want you
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to feel it all don't hold back really
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really go for it when it comes to
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chemistry this should be the moment that
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gives your readers Goosebumps or you
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know makes them gasp out loud like
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whatever it is that takes your fancy
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just make that really really exciting
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because you want your readers to feel it
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all when they think that all is lost
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when they think that nothing's going to
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work out and you know maybe they're just
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going to be thinking right it's
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definitely going to work out because
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this is a love story I'm reading but you
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might surprise them and um and it's good
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to keep them guessing it's good to have
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a little bit of unpredictability in
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there if you can come up with a Twist
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something that nobody is expecting than
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all the better and ultimately there will
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be a resolution when your characters are
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heading towards that ending whether it's
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happy or sad or just a little bit
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Bittersweet when I write my book I tend
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to take quite a lot of time writing the
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rising action I think that's the bit
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that it takes the most story development
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and it's probably the hardest part of
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your book to write but the great thing
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is if you're heading towards that climax
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then it will keep you going so
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definitely definitely Daydream a lot
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about whatever's going to happen in that
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moment CU that will keep you driving
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forward I find that I write the
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beginning of my books really really
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quickly because that's something that I
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think about a lot and then I will write
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the last say 50,000 really really
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quickly because from the climax onwards
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to the All Is Lost that's when I'm
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really excited to sort of write around
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the all these emotions that I want to be
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brought in and then eventually you know
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obviously that ending whether it's happy
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or sad to be honest I don't always plan
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that sometimes I like to just you know
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see what happens as I'm writing and I
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love writing so hopefully you will too I
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really hope that this has been helpful
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in talking to you a little bit about
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structure don't let it hold you back but
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do definitely think about as you're
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coming up with ideas moments that can
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fit into these General structures
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because so many books follow the same
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structure as do movies you can read a
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little bit more about this in a really
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fantastic book called save the cat
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there's one for novel writing there's
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also one for screenwriting because books
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tend to follow a very similar structure
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to movies so if you want to do any more
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reading on that then I really recommend
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it I'll put a link for that in
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additional resources in the next lesson
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I'm going to be talking to you about the
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final project and we're going to really
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start developing your idea
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