Structure is a common issue in fan-fictions and amateur written stories. Most writers often overlook it's importance. I mean, it's structure, it can't be that important right? But the reality is, poor structure can actually make any written piece of work illegible. It's the very reason english teachers are always over-stressing it. Now I agree, structure and writing formats like MLA and APA are so boring to learn about. But if you know the basics, you'll be surprised how simply changing the setup of a book could make it so much better without even changing the content itself.

Most people don't realize it when they're reading, but the way a book is set up plays a huge part in whether or not a person will take interest in it. Let me give you an example, I'm going to write the same scene twice, but I will change the structure for each.

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Example One:
"Hey! How are you doing?" I ask as my best friend walks up.

He sighs as he moves to sit at the table next to me.

"I'm tired. I've been working long hours and I'm exhausted." He replies.

I could tell from the bags under his eyes and the slouch that he had barely slept.

Example Two:

"Hey! How are you doing?" I ask as my best friend walks up. He sighs as he moves to sit at the table next to me. "I'm tired. I've been working long hours and I'm exhausted." He replies. I could tell from the bags under his eyes and the slouch that he had barely slept.

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In the first example, the sentences are all followed by pressing the enter key and moving to the next line. Although this technically isn't incorrect, the odd spacing makes it a little more difficult to read. Your eyes do not flow across the page in the way we are taught how to read as we grow up. There's more of your eyes moving down the page rather than across it. It also makes the page look more empty, since there is so much blank space. However, in example two the same content is simply more bunched together. This makes it look more like a paragraph, and makes the content feel more connected and consecutive with each other.

Another important factor is the wording. A writer needs to take into account how things come off to the reader. Description and scene setting can help to immerse your readers into your stories. You need to remember, as the writer you already know how you want the story to feel, to look, and progress. But your readers however don't have that insight. They can't see the picture you're envisioning unless you create it for them. I'll provide an example of this below.

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Example One:
It was night time, no light anywhere. I was walking home from a friend's house. It was super boring, so I looked at my phone. When I finally got home I took out my keys and opened the front door. I got a text from my crush, seeing her name flash across my screen made me stop for a second. I looked at it, Hey. I felt happy as I read it and walked inside. Closing the door.

Example Two:
I was walking home from my friend's house, feeling chills from the cold breeze of the night. My jacket was zipped, and my hood was covering most of my face, but the cold still somehow found its way onto my skin like piercing knives. As I walked I could hear the sound of the wind blowing through the frost covered branches, as their shadows danced under the light of the full moon. I followed the dark and empty path, only occupied by a car here and there, to my doorstep. I searched my pockets, finally finding my keys and opening my front door.

As I open the door, I hear the sound of my phone go off in my pocket. I stand in the doorway for a split second as I take it out, the bright screen illuminating my face in the dark. I smile as I see the name flash over my screen. "Hey, what's up hot stuff?" The joke alone sent chills up my spine as I text back, shutting the door with my foot. "Just got home, How was your night?"

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Both of these scenes are exactly the same story. The same exact scene, yet both examples created a completely different atmosphere. For the first example, let me start by saying that hurt to write. It was short, had very little detail, and overall was bland. I didn't provide any descriptions, didn't provide any scene setting content. I also didn't add anything about how the characters were feeling. The senses are the most important part to helping the reader put themselves in your characters shoes. The introduction of the love interest was obvious and had zero tension in it whatsoever.

The structure was also very poor. It was spaced awfully, and had almost no punctuation to break it up. You can't well when someone is speaking, when there is actions, and the pauses were incredibly awkward. If you were to read example one out loud, it sounds very odd. This is an important tip I always recommend! Reading your work out loud can help you to see if it flows naturally or not.

As for the second example, this was written the way a book should be written. It took the reader and put them in the scene. It used descriptive words and detail to set the scene of where the character is, as well as build the tension that leads the reader to ask questions. Why is the main character walking at night? It's cold, so is it winter? Who was it that texted him? This is what you want, when your readers are asking these questions, it means they are curious and intrigued. it means they will continue reading to see what happens next. You don't give everything away at the beginning.

The punctuation also allowed for the reader to pick up the tone of the main character, and the lack of words like crush or love interest allowed the girl to be more mysterious and create more of a romantic tension between the two characters. So as you can see, structure and wording plays a much bigger part in writing than most people will believe. Now it is important to mention, you don't have to write in this tone all the time. There are many different types of structures for many different scenes, take this example from one of my books.

This is what I call 'script writing,' because the dialogue between the two characters is not in the paragraphs, but instead they are branched off in their own special paragraphs. They also do not have quotations around them to establish they're people talking. Now normally when writing a book, you want to avoid this. However, there are situations where writing like this helps to differentiate when characters are actually speaking, writing to each other on sketchbooks, texting, etc. So in short, different scenarios require different structure.

It's important to be descriptive. I always emphasize to people who ask me for advice that description can help make the scene come to life. However, there is such a thing as being too descriptive. It's up to the writer to find their balance of not too little, but also not too much. You wanna put your readers into the story, but you also don't want to overwhelm them with so much description that the story feels like too much. You want them to be able to connect with the story so they will not only continue reading, they will put themselves into the shoes of your characters.