ery great novel is built from the ground up—words into sentences, into scenes, into chapters, into a full narrative arc. Each level has its own function, but they’re all part of one organism: the story.

Let’s explore how each layer works, and how writers take very different approaches to achieve the same storytelling goals.

1. Words: Tone, Subtext & Texture

🧠 What the Writer Must Do: Words shape voice and emotional colour. They’re your first line of defence against flat prose. Choose words that evoke, not just describe.

✏️ Example 1 – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel.”
Poetic, internal, haunting. A metaphor that reveals character and mood.

✏️ Example 2 – Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

“I am Joe’s raging bile duct.”
Clinical, weird, irreverent. Language used to defamiliarise emotion and create detached intensity.

💡 Contrast: Plath’s words draw you in with empathy; Palahniuk’s push you back with shock or dissonance—but both serve their narrators’ worldview.

2. Sentences: Rhythm, Clarity & Impact

🧠 What the Writer Must Do: Sentence structure controls flow, pace, and readability. Do you want stillness or momentum? Introspection or chaos?

🪶 Example 1 – Beloved by Toni Morrison

“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.”
Short, lyrical, mythic. Sentence rhythm carries weight beyond the literal.

🪶 Example 2 – American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

“I had a shower and put on a Ralph Lauren shirt, then a pair of gray trousers and a pair of black tassel loafers.”
Flat, itemised, excessive. Sentence structure mirrors the numbing consumerism and sociopathy of the narrator.

💡 Contrast: Morrison uses spare language for mysticism and dread; Ellis uses similar bluntness to deliver soulless detachment. In both, style is substance.

3. Scenes: Conflict, Change & Tension

🧠 What the Writer Must Do: Scenes are where things happen. Something must shift—even if it’s just perspective or tension.

🎭 Example 1 – Normal People by Sally Rooney

A dinner scene filled with awkward silences and subtext. Nothing happens, but power dynamics shift with every glance.

🎭 Example 2 – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The scene where Katniss volunteers is sudden, physical, explosive—a literal turning point in the story.

💡 Contrast: Rooney’s scene is quiet conflict, Collins’s is loud conflict—both scenes change the character’s trajectory in unmistakable ways.

4. Chapters: Pacing, Focus & Reader Momentum

🧠 What the Writer Must Do: Chapters are how you control reader experience. Each one should feel purposeful—and invite the next.

📘 Example 1 – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Short, fragmented chapters. Often poetic or reflective. Each one a puzzle piece building dread.

📘 Example 2 – The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Long, immersive chapters. Digressive and expansive. Each one a world in itself.

💡 Contrast: Atwood’s structure keeps readers tense and breathless; Tartt’s encourages deep absorption and reflection. Both chapter styles match their stories’ emotional needs.

5. The Novel: The Emotional & Thematic Arc

🧠 What the Writer Must Do: A novel should answer the emotional question it poses. The plot resolves, yes—but more importantly, the character transforms.

🪞 Example 1 – The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Sparse, brutal, elegiac. A father’s love carries the story toward inevitability and loss.

🪞 Example 2 – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Lush, romantic, full of nature and yearning. A journey from isolation to identity and belonging.

💡 Contrast: The Road is about survival in spite of hopelessness; Crawdads is about growth in spite of abandonment. Both novels use structure to complete a powerful emotional circle.

🔗 How It All Links Together

Each layer supports the next. Style, structure, and story aren’t separate choices—they’re connected systems.

🧩 If something feels off in your novel, zoom in. Is the sentence rhythm off? Or the chapter pacing? The issue at one level often starts at another.

🎯 Final Thought: Mastery Lives in the Link

A powerful novel is not just well-written—it’s well-structured at every level. The more intentional you are, the more likely you are to create a story that flows, hits, and lingers.