If you’re like me, you’re wary of any kind of advice on story structure that sounds like formula. The 3-act structure is one of those. Outside the theater and screenplays, which are bound by time and commercial considerations, 3-act structure seems limiting. In a new post, C.S. Lakin says the 3-act structure works sometimes, but isn’t the right solution for every manuscript. “You may find that your novel just doesn’t break down well into three acts, or two major plot points and pinch points,” she says. “So, the better way to look at a story, when you are creating one, is not to succumb to an arbitrary dividing into acts but to examine just what story you are telling and what might be the best way to break that story apart into chunks.”
Breaking up your story is helpful because it helps you identify the major plot points you’re building towards, as well as the key purpose of each section. Lakin uses a six-act structure, and shares examples from her own novels on how it works. “The breaks serve many purposes: they allow for a big moment before the end of a section, to set up tension and excitement for the next section to come, to hint at something coming, to give a breather for the reader to process what just happened (similar to a chapter ending, we tend to pause and prepare to move onward in the story),” Lakin writes.
