Some writers hate endings.
Some writers have troubles with beginnings.
All of them hate middles.
One of the keys to problems with middles is the description of “I’m typing a million miles an hour on Act 1, but I hit the middle and suddenly I’m a South African Sloth.”
By the way, try to avoid picking up sloths. I know they look like they’d be good to hold and hug, but they’re poisonous to the touch.
Back to the story part.
If you completed the writing objectives I gave you starting on Dec. 1, you’ll have already planned out your story the way we probably all should have in October. You should know exactly WHERE in your novel you came up short.
You’re right now in a better position than most writers, because you know WHERE you need to be, and you KNOW what you need to write – you’ve just got 15,000 words now to add to your story.
It doesn’t really take a math genius to realize that’s really only one scene per chapter. As I’ve mentioned, I structure my novels with 7 chapters in Act 1. You’ve learned enough in the last week to know that whatever chapter amount you have in Act 1, you double that for Act 2.
Except now I’m obsessing about picking up a sloth and hugging him.
Back to the story.
A good way (again) is pen and paper. Take a mostly clean sheet of paper, and simply flowchart the situation you need to connect to.
Let’s see, Vincent is alive and carefree in act 1, but he got a Djinn angry at him. We know Vincent is dead in Act 3. Probably from the Djinn, but possibly also from a sloth bite left untreated.
I think we see what you need to write in Act 2.
Really, all you have to list is “I’m here in Act 1. these things are promised in Act 1, and these things are resolved by Act 3.”
Okay. Good to go. We’re writing those scenes this week and next. You managed a 1667 word count per day during NaNoWriMo – don’t stop. The book’s not done. Nano is done, the book is not.
Every character who drops out of the book must be explained in Act 2.
Every story line that begins in Act 1 must intensify in Act 2.
We’ll cover this part at the end of December, BUT… You cannot start any story lines in Act 3.
No no no no no no no.
All your story lines MUST be in place by the end of Act 1. New story lines can begin in Act 2, but it MUST BE (golden rule of act 2) the result of unintended consequences of finishing something from Act 1.
Got that?
New story lines in Act 2 MUST RESULT from unintended consequences of fixing something or ending a story line from Act 1. And they must intensify.
You steal the sloth from the zoo, and get it saved. But it bites Gary, who now is suffering from toxic shock and tissue necropsy. To really see this done well, watch the original low budget Dawn Of The Dead.
Roger and Steven get the doors blocked off, so now they have a secure habitat (the shopping mall). Roger gets bitten in the leg (unintended consequence). New story line – Roger is dying slowly, and you have an air of depression falling on the group as they realize that very probably they all will die like this.
You’ve got a new storyline in place, as a result of an unintended consequence.
normallly this happens because you had a plot point not strong enough to last long (“Block all the doors”). That’s pretty easy to fix – you just… block all the doors. It doesn’t take eight chapters of planning, searching, observing, having meetings, drawing straws, etc to finish that plot point (except my imagination is going, and now I’m seeing how it could be dramatic, but you get what I’m saying.
Incidentally, thematically, the “roger gets bitten” scene is reprised in World War Z, in the “refuel the plane” plot point. “Just say the word, Captain.” “No boys, I got this one.”
Do you need this kind of plot structure in your novel? no. It’s going to just happen, because I guarantee the 60 point sheet you should have written to plan your novel had at least 10 plot points that were too weak to sustain for long. And if you’ve got enough writing experience, you probably already planned this out.
You’ve got 1667 words a day to write – it’ll take nine days or so to fill up act 2.
go.
