"Chaoserver was last seen: Mar 14, 2012" It would have been an interesting answer. Maybe a PM will still reach him.
I thought your post was fine, I had no issue with you reviving the thread. But I've done it myself, accidentally replying to an old post, so it made sense for Cog to point it out as well.
I watch a lot of the internets, in particular watching movie reviews. The one thing that becomes glaringly obvious when reviewing a BAD film was the lack of a 3 act structure. This got me thinking......Does writing also need the 3 act structure? I wondered that because it is a totally different medium does it has its own set of rules (I know about the Monomyth- Hero's journey). Ie. does the 3 act work better at movies because it allows a story to be entertaining and seemingly deep for such a short time span (1hr 30mins). Where as a novel, due to the readers time spread out more allows for a a longer act structure. I mean would the act structure be the chapters?? So many questions.
It is all the same. Every movie has a script after all. Good writing will have a beginning where the settings and characters are introduced, the middle where the rising action leading to the climax takes place, and the end that contains the resolution. The three parts of a story does not have to be guided by chapters. Chapters just break the long story into organized chunks.
It is basically the same thing but the acts have to be a bit longer and in a series of books one book can be just a portion of one of the acts, depending upon how many books there are, but when i write i find it better to view it as a flowing story than a bunch of acts
The equivalent in literature would be dramatic structure. Traditionally, you have exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Though this idea was first put forth to describe plays, it works pretty well for novels and stories as well. That being said, there are certainly pieces of fiction that don't follow this structure, but this fact alone doesn't necessarily make them bad. One example I can think of is Joyce's "Araby." The story ends with the main character having an epiphany. This, for me, is the climax of the story, so there's no falling action or resolution to speak of. The same applies to some of his other stories as well.
Hello beautiful writers/readers! Good to see this forum very active and lively. I have a rather irritating question about structure which I'm admittedly very stubborn about changing in my WIP. I have a very vivid and certain vision of my WIP and I just cannot see it any other way. I have tried fixing it into chapters and that works very well but just not with this one. I am 110,000 words into it and plan to have it organized this way. Prologue Part 1 Part II Part III Epilogue Yes, I'm very aware of the strong dislike for prologues but this story would not be complete without that part of the structure; it'll be sloppy. I have so much editing to do still and I've even considered adding chapters within the 'parts' but that's just too much in my opinion. I also plan on seeking traditional publishing with this novel and even if it's not what big publishers are looking for, I'm sure one of the smaller ones might take a liking to it. What are your thoughts on this?
So there would be no subdivisions other than these? It's going to be more than 110K words and divided into only five parts? I wouldn't like it as a reader. You say you know the arguments against prologues and epilogues, so I won't go into those, but what's your objection to chapter breaks?
I would consider the idea of putting something of a subdivision such as 'titles' of parts that consist of 5-15 pages in the place of chapters but I don't like the idea of having parts within parts so I'll be sacrificing one or the other.
As the title suggests, I am concerned that the repetitive structure of the red, bolded segment below may ruin the paragraphs rhythm. I would be interested in your opinion. ___________________ The seafloor exploded into a mass of writhing coils and billowing silt. Pale flesh seethed through the sediment cloud, bumping and squirming until a white head slammed into his faceplate and latched on with pink, suction-cup lips. Milky, egg-sac eyes goggled, and tiny teeth rasped, screeching against the plastic like ten thousand fingernails across a chalkboard. __________________________ Thanks for your help.
idk man, that's a pretty artistic choice. I might remove the colors. Suction-cup lips and egg-sac eyes are pretty descriptive.
How about making two sentences: "Milky, egg-sac eyes googled. Tiny teeth screeched against the plastic like a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard. "
You don't need commas between colors and the things they describe. Maybe you'd like the flow a bit better without them? I do think that 'pink suction-cup' sounds better sans comma, and that mixes up the repetition somewhat if you keep the one after 'milky'. Though I like it all right as is - it's evocative.
I've been having this problem a lot lately; I'll write a short scene or something and when I read it back, I realise that it feels awkward. I really like the ideas and sentences I have used but none of it flows. Does anyone else get this? How do you fix it? note: this is a piece of work where i stopped quite a few times, considered language use and then kept going. i find that free-writing (sans stopping) makes my work a little less awkward but also less interesting.
I feel like this shouldn't be in Writing Prompts, but I also find structure problems easier to deal with at least after the first draft is done. Editing is your friend.
I voted for doesn't really happen cause I'm not too worried about it. It happens maybe more than I think but for a first draft I'm just trying to get stuff out. I've got a lot of multilevel, layered scenes and I know shooting for perfect structure for a first draft is impossible. Maybe even for the second draft. It might take me five or six drafts to get it right. For instance my MC avoids the second mc - a boy - for a month only to discover, accidently, that his celebrity status has skyrocketed. It's one of the books turning points (like a Part Two game-changer.) This news, a hint of the boys disgust of it, the MC's anger and jealousy, the world's take on it through articles has to be balanced within about five pages, two scenes and some exposition. I have been working on this passage for days. It's one of the biggest hang-ups in my rewrite so far but I know I'll get it right. I have never found a rewrite less interesting. Is it that you're working away from you're initial point and losing sight of it?
