STRUCTURING A NOVEL

I recently decided that the first part of my novel would be stronger if I reordered some of the material. I believe the changes I've made achieved this aim. However, I also needed to consider the structure.

I wrote this story using a four part structure. Part 1 introduces the character in their ordinary world and includes the Inciting Incident which occurs within the first 30 pages. At the end of Part 1, something happens which launches the MC into Part 2. In this part the MC responds to events and this leads to the halfway point where a decision has to be made. This is sometimes referred to as the Recommitment. When the MC enters Part 3 they stop reacting to events and actively go on the attack. This culminates with the Crises, which is the darkest moment for the MC. In Part 4 the tension drops slightly as the MC goes through the scenes which lead to the Climax. After this point the story is essentially over and enters the dénouement phase.

Whilst the changes I made didn’t alter the structure, I was left with a slight imbalance in terms of word and page count for each part. I looked again at some of the material I’d taken out and looked for places where some of it could be put back in. This led to a little more restructuring and actually produced a better balance than I'd had.

Another way to plot the events in a novel is to use a 3 Act Structure. Some time ago I came across a 27 chapter outline for this, which I also use. I’ll write more about that in another post.