Faithless in Death by J D Robb
Macmillan Audio
Narrated by Susan Eriksen
Published February 9, 2021
The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wineglasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body―but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?
As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within―and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.
I recently read Write Your Novel From the Middle. I had seen this years ago, but laughed at it. I actually laughed. Here I am now wishing I hadn’t, and instead picked it up when I first saw it. Even though the process for outlining a story has changed for me, there are some good points in here and key structure points which would have helped me even then.
He makes very good points, with very good examples backing up and helping solidify the points in your mind. I especially like the example of a suspension bridge with two pillars. Those two pillars are moments in your story, and they are high emotion points.
The structure Mr. Bell talks about in here is also not as involved as the Save the Cat Beat Sheet. I attempted to use this beat sheet for the November 2020 NaNoWriMo and couldn’t fill all the spaces in a cohesive manner. The structure in here I feel is just enough for me to get a cohesive outline together. (Here’s hoping because Camp Nano has started and I’m not done with my outline yet! 😨)
This structure seems more doable for me, and will allow the freedom I think my head needs right now when putting together the structure of the story I’m attempting to put together. If you want more specifics of his structure, check out Write Your Novel From the Middle.