At the moment, I’m tied between two three act structures for the plot of my NaNo project, and I’m not entirely sure which one is objectively better. For context, it’s a thriller and a revenge story about a schoolgirl who becomes a serial killer, but her primary target is her former groomer. The third act is the same, however the structure of the first and second acts are swapped around. Plot One: 1. She kills her former groomer. 2. She kills other people like him. 3. She stops killing people after her friend suffers for it. Plot Two: 1. She kills people like her former groomer. 2. She kills her former groomer. 3. She stops killing people after her friend suffers for it. In Plot Two, I’m not exactly sure what a good catalyst for her to start killing other people, but not her groomer, would be. So far, I’ve come up with the idea that it ties into her best friend continuing to go on compensated dates with questionable men, one of them hurts her, and the authorities don’t do much about it or something. Then the push for the protagonist to get around to killing her former groomer in the second act is her finding out he was involved with her friend. With Plot One, that’s already figured out, with the inciting incident being her being hurt by her groomer one last time, and from there she spirals. The reason I am considering Plot Two is that it’s more in line with the plot structure for a revenge story, with the plot building up to the conclusion of defeating the wrongdoer. Alternatively, should I just consider another plot structure entirely based on the revenge story?
If you can't decide, maybe don't worry too much about structure for a first draft. Nano is all about making that first draft. I've heard from several different sources that a good idea is to just write without any thought of structure, or maybe only a faint idea for it, and after finishing the first draft start to think about structure, character arcs, themes etc. This is because if you try to structure it too much and think about all this stuff too early, you can end up writing a very mechanical story with no real heart and soul to it. That tends to happen better when you write straight-ahead without planning too much. Let things happen how they will. Often the way sentences go down one after the other creates a flow that's important to allow and to respond to as it happens.
I really don't know how valuable it is to think in terms of the three act structure with writing. It's a think in movies because time constraints due to viewer attention span and budget constraints has made it a valued and effective way of story telling in that medium. Writing is not film. I think a better way would be to separate the structure of your story where an irrevocable decision is made.
I think Plot One sounds better. It makes a lot of sense that she would prioritize vengeance against the one that hurt her, and only after he's been dealt with does she start targeting others. Most of the revenge plots I know of that have the protagonist killing others before their primary target, they are killing the minions of the primary target because those minions are standing in the way of their vengeance. Plus this sounds less like a standard revenge plot and more a story about the protagonist's tragic fall from grace and then redemption. Since her getting revenge on the one that personally hurt her is more sympathetic than her pursuing more widespread vigilante justice it makes sense to start there and then have her become less justified and more villainous as she starts targeting others.
I think structure is something you think more concretely about once you write everything. You won't know what structure fits your story best without having all the pieces to redesign it.
Plot 2 has been made to work before, albeit badly, with the catalyst being that the groomer groomed her to. That might be like 1. serial killer (who is a connoisseur in killing other serial killers) grooms apprentice. 2. It turns out his fantasy culminates in being killed by the apprentice. 3. Realises friend is being stalked, leaving her with dilemma over free will. Maybe there is a similar way of folding a Plot 2 structure round on itself to fit the story you want to tell. Having some absurdity in the plot and tone might help sidestep sensitivity issues
I pick plot One because the question of why she goes on killing others despite having killed her former groomer first might be interesting to explore. I personally think that not killing her former groomer but killing people "like" him may also make the plot interesting because that "like" opens up a lot of possibilities. I get the feeling, though, that something is missing and a 3-act might not fit this plot as well as other models. As you write, I would recommend to keep an open mind for a different structure.
Thank you everyone for your insightful answers. I’ll look it over again once I’ve got a decently edited draft, or maybe at draft zero. I personally prefer Plot One as well, as it just makes more sense to me than trying to shoehorn the story into a standard revenge plot. Plus it’s the one I gravitate towards more. I’m curious as to what you think is missing in the storyline so far. Could you elaborate? I’m all ears.
I would say the consequences of killing people--it might be included in part 3, but to me remains unclear. It seems to me you want to talk about how she learns from the pain her friends feel, but she still needs to internalize the consequences of what appeared until then justified, and suddenly no longer is.
