In this Issue:
Introduction
How I wrote Before I Go to Sleep
What is an act?
Narrative Structure
Recommended further reading
Introduction
How did you get on following Issue 11? This whole issue of plotting and structure can feel vast and unmanageable, full of confusing terminology and opposing views. And it can also feel hugely important— after all many books fail because they don’t work structurally, or their plot doesn’t have enough hooks to keep the reader engaged. I hope Issue 11 helped, or at least didn’t make things worse! Let us know how you got on.
In any case, we’ll go into further detail here, and I’ll offer some more tips and/or different ways of approaching things.
But first, by way of reassurance, let me tell you about the writing of my first novel…
How I wrote Before I Go to Sleep
In the years since I wrote my debut, I’ve read almost every book there is about putting together a story1. Many of them are sold as ‘How to write a screenplay’, but the basics are the same, and I recommend some below. But when I sat down to write that first book, I hadn’t done this. I probably had a vague idea that a novel needed three acts, and that at the end of acts one and two there should be a ‘plot point’ or ‘doorway’. But I didn’t sit with a bunch of index cards or open a spreadsheet on my computer and figure out the setup, the catalyst or inciting incident, the mid point, the call to action, or indeed any of the seven (or twenty-two, or thirty-six) fundamental plot points that the books say you need. I just started writing.