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Jenny_Foreigner

British-American author and educator. Transgender lesbian. Historical reenactor and fencer.

171 points

0% overlap
Cozy Fantasy
Level 2
My Taste
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1)
The Night Circus
The Three Musketeers
Bone China
Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines, #1)
Reading...
Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles, #1)The Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles, #1)The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science FictionSteering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

Post from the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell forum

16h
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
    Understanding English Magic
    spoilers

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    5w
    Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles, #1)

    Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles, #1)

    Robin Hobb

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  • Agatha H and the Airship City (Girl Genius, #1)
    Jenny_Foreigner
    Jun 29, 2025
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 3.0Characters: 3.0Plot: 3.0
    😮
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  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel
    Jenny_Foreigner
    Jun 28, 2025
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.0Characters: Plot:
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    I am of two minds about this book. First it is a sound scaffold for authors struggling to structure their plot. It's a comprehensive and actionable system for composing a traditional novel, with good guidelines for understanding how characters work and how the rest of the work emanates from them. However it is not, as the author constantly claims, the secret code that underlies all writing. There is very little in here that is as universal as the text suggests. Rather the author is making a value judgment then applying that backwards as a lens to interpret other works. You can absolutely write books, even good books, that do not fit this system. The author even knows some of them because she cites them as examples (Robinson Crusoe, a book whose motions absolutely do not fit the mould she claims it does, comes first to mind). But whether or not a story is good does not determine if it is, in fact, a story. This creates a hard limit on what the system presented can create. This system can't write The Three Musketeers, or the Bible, or your favourite graphic novel, or most cozy fantasy I've read. If a writer accepts this book as gospel, they will one day find this system limiting as it does not permit the chance of stories outside its own boundaries. This book is useful because it systematises composition in the anglophone tradition of the three act structure (this one is actually four, but I think we're all agreeing to pretend) but it will not tell you the secret of all stories forever. Joseph Campbell couldn't do it and neither can Brody. What Brody can do is teach you a foundation to make your stories stronger and I wish that was enough for her.

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  • Post from the Save the Cat! Writes a Novel forum

    8w
  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel
    Thoughts from 9% (page 28)

    Really struggling with some of the basic philosophy at play here. Brody presents this system as a universal constant, but it just isn't. The beats are actually just three act structure with more steps, and each one is, on its own, far too broad be much use. Two beats are just "this act starts now", and one beat (of fifteen) covers 30% of the plot and is just "the good stuff". So far, deeply unimpressed. Apparently we've learned nothing since Joseph Campbell.

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