Today we have author Christopher Kokoski sharing his 5 patterns of a bestselling novel and how he used them in his recent paranormal thriller Dark Halo.
5 Patterns of Bestselling Novels
Consider a reader opening the first page of your story and, often without knowing it, picking up on subtle signals in your writing that prompt them to think:
I recognize this structure
I like this structure
I’ve read stories like this from bestselling authors
What could it do for your writing career, if every reader encountered those kinds of thoughts? Again, this probably happens all outside of the reader’s awareness. On the surface, the reader might simply say to themselves, “This book is for me.” However, under the radar, your story hooks them from page one and never lets go.
Ready for the 5 patterns? Here you go.
Pattern #1: The Story Pattern – While there are exceptions, virtually every story follows an established pattern. Break the pattern at your own risk. It’s possible to break it and succeed, but your safest bet is to stick with the pattern that has served storytellers well for centuries. The Story Pattern, put simply, is:
Something Interesting Happens (Usually something bad that turns characters’ lives upside down) Ã More bad things happen to characters (increasingly difficult and life-altering complications and challenges) Ã Things get so bad it seems all is lost for the main character (this is sometimes called the climax) Ã The protagonist/main character/hero/heroine wins.
Again, there are many ways to adapt this structure to your specific story. For example, for my novel, Dark Halo, my story kicks off with a violent storm at the beginning, followed quickly by ghosts, a demon-possessed boyfriend and an unexpected visit from an angelic being. Events continually get worse as my main characters experience monsters, kidnappings, deaths, possessions and more as they plunge into the middle of an ancient war between angels and demons. You get the picture. Follow the story pattern, and you set your story up to engage the reader from page one.
Pattern #2: The Architecture Pattern – This is the overarching pattern of your novel that gives structure to your story. Use this structure to guide the story from start to finish. Use it to set the parameters of your story. This is the essential foundation of your story upon which all other patterns stand. Although within this pattern there are numerous sub-patterns (the revenge pattern, the romance pattern, the mystery pattern, the thriller pattern, the heist pattern, the western pattern, the fantasy pattern, etc), choose the one that fits best into your story idea. You can even combine patterns. In my novel, Dark Halo, I chose to blend the thriller, suspense and paranormal/fantasy patterns.
Pattern #3: The Emotional Pattern – This is the underlying, emotional pattern running through your story. Most of the time, this pattern is more “felt” than recognized by readers, except for perhaps a statement such as, “The story was full of action”, or “That story was so romantic/funny/thrilling,”, etc. One strategy for inserting this pattern into your story is to ask yourself, “What is the major emotion I want my readers to feel?” or “What one feeling do I want to elicit in this story?” In my novel, Dark Halo, I want readers to feel “thrilling suspense” most of all. On every page, I asked myself, “Does this create suspense? Is this thrilling? How can I make it more thrilling?” By testing each page, each scene and the overall story with these types of questions, my goal was to embed the emotional pattern into my story. You can do the same with your stories.
Pattern #4: The Mini-Story Pattern – Each scene has its own pattern, and different kinds of scenes can have different patterns. This pattern is called the Mini-Story Pattern because most effective scenes contain all the elements of a story (i.e., characters, setting, plot, conflict, etc). Scenes consist of beginnings, middles and ends where motivated characters fight to achieve personal goals. Use the Mini-Story Pattern in each scene to pump structure into all parts of your work. In this way, your story unfolds in the most engaging, captivating manner that readers can’t resist. Once again, the Mini-Story Pattern follows the Story Pattern:
Interesting event à Challenge/Struggle/Things get worse à Problem reaches a climax where things seem as bad as they can get à The scene ends, sometimes with the problem resolved, but often with another, usually worse, problem.
In Dark Halo, the opening scene shows an angel falling out of the sky like a fireball. The angel struggles to stop his decent, and the scene ends with the angel in a heap of burning, black smoke. It’s the Mini-Story Pattern, and I repeat this pattern over and over again with different characters in different settings and circumstances, right up to the end of the novel.
Pattern #5: The Struggle Pattern – Finally, the fifth pattern is a character-specific pattern that plays out in multiple scenes in the overall arc of the story. Bestselling authors use The Struggle Pattern when they dramatize a character’s efforts to achieve a personal goal. Usually, the protagonist and antagonist (the hero and villain) have the most pressing goals. In other words, they are usually the most motivated characters, but minor characters also tend to have their own goals. Sometimes, these goals align with the main characters, sometimes they don’t. Most bestselling novels include a mix of characters, each with their own goals. As a rule of thumb, The Struggle Pattern typically includes a character making at least three attempts to achieve the goal before succeeding or failing. The main characters (protagonist/hero/heroine) usually make many more than three attempts. In Dark Halo, for example, the main character, Landon Paddock, fights to save his family in a town besieged by shadowy, demonic forces. While there are other characters with other objectives, Landon’s goal focuses the story from start to finish.
In summary, here are the five patterns again:
The Story Pattern – Inciting Event à Rising Problems à Climax à Resolution
The Architecture Pattern – What genre is the story?
The Emotional Pattern – What one feeling do you want to elicit?
The Mini-Story Pattern – Each scene follows the Story Pattern above
The Struggle Pattern – Character goal à 3 attempts à Succeed or fail
If you want to see how all five patterns integrate into a fully formed novel, consider checking out my standalone story, Dark Halo. All five patterns are there, so you could even call them the “Dark Halo” patterns.
Thanks for reading this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed
Pattern #4: The Mini-Story Pattern – Each scene has its own pattern, and different kinds of scenes can have different patterns. This pattern is called the Mini-Story Pattern because most effective scenes contain all the elements of a story (i.e., characters, setting, plot, conflict, etc). Scenes consist of beginnings, middles and ends where motivated characters fight to achieve personal goals. Use the Mini-Story Pattern in each scene to pump structure into all parts of your work. In this way, your story unfolds in the most engaging, captivating manner that readers can’t resist. Once again, the Mini-Story Pattern follows the Story Pattern:
Interesting event à Challenge/Struggle/Things get worse à Problem reaches a climax where things seem as bad as they can get à The scene ends, sometimes with the problem resolved, but often with another, usually worse, problem.
In Dark Halo, the opening scene shows an angel falling out of the sky like a fireball. The angel struggles to stop his decent, and the scene ends with the angel in a heap of burning, black smoke. It’s the Mini-Story Pattern, and I repeat this pattern over and over again with different characters in different settings and circumstances, right up to the end of the novel.
Pattern #5: The Struggle Pattern – Finally, the fifth pattern is a character-specific pattern that plays out in multiple scenes in the overall arc of the story. Bestselling authors use The Struggle Pattern when they dramatize a character’s efforts to achieve a personal goal. Usually, the protagonist and antagonist (the hero and villain) have the most pressing goals. In other words, they are usually the most motivated characters, but minor characters also tend to have their own goals. Sometimes, these goals align with the main characters, sometimes they don’t. Most bestselling novels include a mix of characters, each with their own goals. As a rule of thumb, The Struggle Pattern typically includes a character making at least three attempts to achieve the goal before succeeding or failing. The main characters (protagonist/hero/heroine) usually make many more than three attempts. In Dark Halo, for example, the main character, Landon Paddock, fights to save his family in a town besieged by shadowy, demonic forces. While there are other characters with other objectives, Landon’s goal focuses the story from start to finish.
In summary, here are the five patterns again:
The Story Pattern – Inciting Event à Rising Problems à Climax à Resolution
The Architecture Pattern – What genre is the story?
The Emotional Pattern – What one feeling do you want to elicit?
The Mini-Story Pattern – Each scene follows the Story Pattern above
The Struggle Pattern – Character goal à 3 attempts à Succeed or fail
If you want to see how all five patterns integrate into a fully formed novel, consider checking out my standalone story, Dark Halo. All five patterns are there, so you could even call them the “Dark Halo” patterns.
Thanks for reading this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed
Dark Halo by Christopher Kokoski
genre: paranormal thriller
334 pages
In a town besieged by shadowy, demonic forces, a father races against time to save his family.
Thirty-five-year old Landon Paddock has deserted his wife and daughter, abandoned his business, and secluded himself in his late parent’s southern Indiana ranch. But he’s barely lapsed into a drunken coma when a mysterious, winged stranger appears during a violent lightning storm, chasing him out into the maddening night with his estranged 15-year old daughter.
As layer after layer of reality is dissolved by a series of violent encounters, the only way to survive might be for Landon to band together with the family he destroyed to make one last stand against a sinister army of unthinkable magnitude.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
334 pages
In a town besieged by shadowy, demonic forces, a father races against time to save his family.
Thirty-five-year old Landon Paddock has deserted his wife and daughter, abandoned his business, and secluded himself in his late parent’s southern Indiana ranch. But he’s barely lapsed into a drunken coma when a mysterious, winged stranger appears during a violent lightning storm, chasing him out into the maddening night with his estranged 15-year old daughter.
As layer after layer of reality is dissolved by a series of violent encounters, the only way to survive might be for Landon to band together with the family he destroyed to make one last stand against a sinister army of unthinkable magnitude.
About the Author:
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Christopher was born in Kansas, the son of an Army Ranger and Black Hawk pilot. He grew up in Kentucky and Germany, and graduated from Murray State University in 2002 with a degree in Organizational Communication. He spent the next three years laboring over his first book, Past Lives, while getting married to his college sweetheart, having a beautiful daughter, and more or less finding his stride in life.
He currently lives in Southern Indiana and works in Louisville, Kentucky as a national trainer. He has presented at local and national conferences on a wide spectrum of topics including communication, body language, cultural sensitivity and influence. Other notable activities include writing articles, short stories, novels and training materials for national and international audiences.
Christopher continues his passion and dedication to writing by working on additional novels, including a sequel to the Past Lives series. His most recent book is the standalone paranormal thriller, Dark Halo.
Christopher was born in Kansas, the son of an Army Ranger and Black Hawk pilot. He grew up in Kentucky and Germany, and graduated from Murray State University in 2002 with a degree in Organizational Communication. He spent the next three years laboring over his first book, Past Lives, while getting married to his college sweetheart, having a beautiful daughter, and more or less finding his stride in life.
He currently lives in Southern Indiana and works in Louisville, Kentucky as a national trainer. He has presented at local and national conferences on a wide spectrum of topics including communication, body language, cultural sensitivity and influence. Other notable activities include writing articles, short stories, novels and training materials for national and international audiences.
Christopher continues his passion and dedication to writing by working on additional novels, including a sequel to the Past Lives series. His most recent book is the standalone paranormal thriller, Dark Halo.
Dark Halo Tour page URL: http://www.firstrulepublicity.com/dark-halo/
for a list of all blogs on tour
GIVEAWAY
The Story Pattern is the most important to me as a reader. In books there's always a beginning, the problem, working through the problem and the resolution to the problem. I think we like it to be worked that way.
ReplyDeleteLove that cover by the way.
Mary, thanks for your comments and kind words about the cover of my novel.
ReplyDeleteI like the cover and the title. Dark Halo, how intriguing is that. Made me curious and had to check it out. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteSherry, my pleasure. Thanks for your feedback.
ReplyDeleteI love the patterns. To me I think the emotions is the most important. Dark Halo does look like an intriguing read.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Denny, I appreciate your comments about the blog. I worked hard on it and hope it is helpfull to other writers.
ReplyDeleteThe mini story pattern. Love the cover, Dark Halo sounds great.
ReplyDeleteblinkysthebest at aol dot com
Lona, I'm glad you "stopped by" for the tour. Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteI'd say #3.
ReplyDeleteI love this post myself! Thanks for letting Christopher visit with the Flock! :)
ReplyDeleteStory pattern. I like to lose myself in the book and be swept up into the climax at the end.
ReplyDeleteSome of this makes sense:)
ReplyDeletestruggle maybe..:)
ReplyDeletethe story pattern, what good is a book without a story? I have a great dislike for books that don't end, just stop leaving you hanging without a conclusion of the conflicts or goals - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteI think the story pattern, but if it's well written I will read just about anything!
ReplyDelete