Appendix B — Symptom Index

Readers report symptoms, not causes. They say that a book drags in the middle, that they could not tell the sisters apart, that the twist was obvious or the ending a cheat, and they are usually right about what they felt and often wrong about where it came from. This index starts from the report. Each row gives a symptom as a reader or a writer might put it, the failure pattern that most often produces it, the diagnostic test that finds the pattern in a draft, and the place to look first before repairing it. The patterns and tests are those of the eighteen chapters, each linked to the chapter’s Failure Patterns and Diagnostic Tests parts, where the mechanism, the remedy and a published exception are given.

The index is arranged by where a symptom is felt, using the five rungs of the revision ladder set out in The Structural Edit (Chapter 18): the promise (what kind of book this is and what question it asks), allocation and arrangement (whose book it is, how many stories it tells, in what order of time), the shape (the middle, the arc, the reveals, the ending), the joins (transitions, chapter breaks, cutaways, the opening pages) and the scene and its materials (scenes, sequels, dialogue, detail). It begins at the bottom, with the scene, because that is where most reports are made. A last section lists the symptoms of a revision that is going wrong.

The column Look first applies The Structural Edit’s rung-up rule (Chapter 18): a symptom felt on one rung is often caused on a higher one, so before repairing a scene, check whether the decision above it is settled. The entry is a first guess, not a verdict. Where it says Local, the cause usually lies on the rung where the symptom is felt, and the instrument named is the one to use. A report that fits no row closely can be matched by its rung: find the rung where it was felt, and read that section’s rows for the nearest pattern.

Felt in a scene

These are the reports a reader makes about a single scene, exchange or passage of description: that nothing happens, that the talk is flat, that the description tells her nothing. The table draws on The Purposes of a Scene (Chapter 1), Scene and Sequel (Chapter 2), The Dialogue Exchange (Chapter 3) and The Descriptive Detail (Chapter 4).

Most of these symptoms point upward. A scene in which nothing changes is often a scene the shape does not need, and characters who all sound alike often signal that the book has granted more minds than it can distinguish, so the higher rung should be checked before the scene is rewritten.

Felt at a join

These are the reports a reader makes about the movement between units: that she was lost after a break, that the book is relentless or slow when no scene is at fault, that she skimmed the flashbacks or put the book down in its first chapter. The table draws on The Transition (Chapter 5), The Chapter Break (Chapter 6), Backstory and Flashback (Chapter 7) and The Opening Pages (Chapter 9).

A join is the place where a reader notices the arrangement, so its failures are often failures of rung 2 seen from the page: a flashback skimmed may be a strand that has no question, and a reader lost after a break may be a reader who was never told the book has two times.

Felt in the shape of the whole

These are the classic reports on a full draft: the middle drags, the protagonist does not change, the twist was guessed or felt like a cheat, the ending fell flat or was too tidy. The table draws on The Middle (Chapter 11), Arc and Theme (Chapter 12), The Reveal (Chapter 15) and The Ending (Chapter 16).

The shape depends sideways on itself, so a symptom here can lie in a neighbouring decision on the same rung: an ending that falls flat is often a middle that did not narrow, and a twist that is shrugged at is often a reveal that answers a question the book never made urgent. The Structural Edit (Chapter 18) orders the checks on this rung as middle, arc, reveal and ending.

Felt in the arrangement

These are the reports about whose book it is and how it is laid out: that the viewpoints were indistinct, that one timeline was skimmed, that the subplot was the better story, that the prologue promised another book. The table draws on Non-linear and Multi-timeline Architecture (Chapter 8), The Prologue (Chapter 10), The Viewpoint Shift (Chapter 13) and The Subplot (Chapter 14).

Arrangement is decided once for the whole book, so a repair here moves whole stretches of text and reopens the joins and scenes inside them. That is the reason to check the promise first: an arrangement can be faultless and still serve a question the book is not asking.

Felt in the promise

These are the reports that a book was not what it promised, or that a series did not keep faith with its volumes. They are made late, often at the ending, and they are the hardest to place, because the reader feels them at the last page and their cause lies before the first. The table draws on Series and Genre (Chapter 17).

The promise is the top rung, so a symptom here is decided rather than diagnosed. The writer chooses what the book is and what it declines, and then declares the choice early enough for a reader to stake on it. The one exception in the table is the recap at the door, whose decision is made at the top and whose repair is made in the opening pages of the later volume.

Symptoms of the revision itself

These are the reports a writer makes about her own revision: that each pass makes the book longer, or produces new contradictions, or answers the same note again. They are failures of the order of the edit, not of the book, and they are treated in The Structural Edit (Chapter 18).

A writer who recognises one of these should stop revising scenes and build the book map, since every one of them comes from making repairs in an order the book’s decisions do not support.

The Craft Behind the Story — Appendix B, Symptom Index. Introduction · Glossary