Story Structure

Prologue continued...

Every story, no matter which story structure you study, essentially falls into three basic parts - the beginning, the middle and the end. But you already knew that, right? But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that inside of these parts are tiny little mechanisms that make up these three parts and it's in these tiny sub-parts that successful story telling lives.

Let's talk about screenwriting. A movie consists of 54-56 scenes, each scene is about two pages long (each page is about a minute long). So a screenplay is about 110-112 pages long. This is why you'll notice almost every movie has about the same running time. Besides the budgeting component and all the other production things that the production team has to consider, one of the reasons running time is so consistent is because every screenplay follows the same structure.

For a novel, take the 112 screenplay pages and double them for a 224 page story. A manuscript for a novel usually has about 250 words per page. A good novel length is about 55-60k words. So, a 224 page novel is 56000 words - a great sweet spot for a novel. Now, you can have any number of words in your novel - you'll just need to work out where your key points need to go, based on the word count. Google Jamie Gold - she has a beat sheet calculator on her website that will work everything out for you based on your word count. I will be using 54-56k words because my head hurts if I try to work the key points out using any other word count.

Okay, we're going with 56k words. In our wattpad world, that means about 1000 words (4 pages) per day over 56 days, if you're a daily updater. That means you'll finish a novel in less than 2 months.

Now about those key points, and from now onwards, we'll call them "plot points." I will be using the three act structure (Act 1/2/3) and I will be splitting Act 2 into two parts (I'll explain more when we get to that point).

Quick overview of the acts, each one carrying 25% of the story (so, for a 224 page novel, that's 56 pages per part):

Act ONE: The before world

Opening image -

The theme

Set up

The inciting incident or the "catalyst". This is the thing that causes the problem that the character is later confronted with in the soon-to-come first plot point

The debate (also called "the refusal of the call")

And ends with the first plot point and the cementing of the central conflict

ACT TWO (part one): The response to the "new world"

This is often called the "fun and games" part of the story or the "promise of the premise" - it's the reason we started reading the book. Off course, everything will go to shit soon after this, but this is when we see the character in a new world, exploring it and having some fun. It's when the character responds to what happened at the first plot point. The character doesn't really do much to actually solve the problem that has been presented. Act Two (part one) ends with the midpoint. The midpoint is so important because it takes the story in a new direction and forces the character to use everything she's learned up to now, to start acting with some purpose.

At 37% of the story, somewhere in the first part of Act 2, we have something called a pinch point. While the characters are having fun and we are enjoying their new world with them, the pinch points pulls us back and reminds us that things are not actually as perfect as they seem. We insert a scene or scenes that show us the problem presented in the first plot point and in the catalyst. It could be the ex-girlfriend showing up at the same party that the new girlfriend is at, if the conflict is about a troublesome ex-girlfriend.

The second pinch point will be at 62%, and will accomplish the same goal as the first pinch point.

ACT TWO (part two): The attack

Here, the character has acquainted himself with this new world. They've figure out how is works and now they need to start taking some control of this world. Act two (part two) presents major obstacles and now the character has to act. This is called the "bad guy closes in" part of the story. Act two gets so bad that we think there's no hope. "Bad guy closes in" leads to "All is lost", which leads to "Dark night of the soul", which leads to the second plot point.

ACT THREE: The resolution

In this part of the story, the character has been completely crushed but she's discovered something new to help her try one more time. It's almost always some new information that gives her strength. It's also where she will draw from the theme at the beginning of the story. She'll gather her resources to fix the problem. She has a plan and she sets out to executes it. BUT! it doesn't work. It's another All is Lost moment. She's got to go back to the drawing board and re-strategize. The new plan works. She wins, whatever winning means in your story.

Act three ends with the Final Image and this is usually the opposite of the Opening image - we see how the character has grown and how the journey has changed her. In romance, this is the happily ever after.

If none of this made sense, try reading a few blog posts online first, or go straight to Larry Brook's website. Also, look at Jamie Gold's website and do a few google searches on beatsheets.

Next chapter!