Morning Everyone,
Hope you are all doing well and getting a chance to enjoy the summer amidst this crisis.
As a few of you might be aware, I am writing an Afghanistan war novel that takes place between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2009 and am almost at the 50% mark. Last year I vacillated between writing this as a 3 act structure or a 5 act structure but after reviewing Save the Cat writes a Novel, Story Grid, and KM Weiland, I resolved to keep the novel as a 3 act structure.
I have a hard outline of each scene and where it falls within each act.
However, the scenes themselves can be grouped into specific time periods.
Act 1 ends in a climax on June 30th, 2008.
Act 2 begins July 4 and and the midpoint of the novel (50%) culminates in a "false victory" for the protagonist on July 21st.
Then the story fasts forward to about 6 scenes totaling 10k words between September 27-30.
Then fast forwards again to December December 21 to December 25 (again about 5 scenes totaling 10k words).
Then we jump to March 3rd to March 30th, and Act 2 ends.
Act 3 begins in May and the climax occurs shortly thereafter.
So....I have the novel in 3 acts but the timeline can be separated into 6 "parts"
Apologies for the long winded opening to a question, but can I separate the acts into "parts?"
Example:
Act 2, part 1=July 4-July 21
Act 2, part 2 = September 27-September 30
etc.,
Can any of you offer any examples of novels where this has been done before successfully?
Any other advice or insights would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
Hope you are all doing well and getting a chance to enjoy the summer amidst this crisis.
As a few of you might be aware, I am writing an Afghanistan war novel that takes place between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2009 and am almost at the 50% mark. Last year I vacillated between writing this as a 3 act structure or a 5 act structure but after reviewing Save the Cat writes a Novel, Story Grid, and KM Weiland, I resolved to keep the novel as a 3 act structure.
I have a hard outline of each scene and where it falls within each act.
However, the scenes themselves can be grouped into specific time periods.
Act 1 ends in a climax on June 30th, 2008.
Act 2 begins July 4 and and the midpoint of the novel (50%) culminates in a "false victory" for the protagonist on July 21st.
Then the story fasts forward to about 6 scenes totaling 10k words between September 27-30.
Then fast forwards again to December December 21 to December 25 (again about 5 scenes totaling 10k words).
Then we jump to March 3rd to March 30th, and Act 2 ends.
Act 3 begins in May and the climax occurs shortly thereafter.
So....I have the novel in 3 acts but the timeline can be separated into 6 "parts"
Apologies for the long winded opening to a question, but can I separate the acts into "parts?"
Example:
Act 2, part 1=July 4-July 21
Act 2, part 2 = September 27-September 30
etc.,
Can any of you offer any examples of novels where this has been done before successfully?
Any other advice or insights would be very much appreciated. Thank you!