The Southwest Armchair Traveler: A Spooky Tale from the Wild West for #Halloween

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: A Spooky Tale from the Wild West for #Halloween: The Old West is full of true stories of bandits, shootouts, and lost treasures. Many people attempt to divide historical figures into h...

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: #FREE romantic mystery for the #Kindle

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: #FREE romantic mystery for the #Kindle: My romantic suspense novel, What We Found, is currently free on Amazon . Finding a dead body changes a person. 22-year-old Audra Nee...

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Tooling Along Across Tularosa Basin with Loretta H...

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Tooling Along Across Tularosa Basin with Loretta H...: Have you ever felt history? I have, a few times. Special places like Valley Forge, Pearl Harbor, and the Trinity Site affect me more deep...

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Western History Mysteries

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Western History Mysteries: Author Earl Staggs has started a series of articles called “History’s Rich With Mysteries” at Kevin’s Corner (“Book Reviews and More”)...

Guest Post: "Three Act Structure for Novelists" by Chris Eboch/Kris Bock

Back in April Chris Eboch did a guest post about “Suspense Versus Surprise.” This Sunday morning she is back and offering her thoughts on the “Three Act Structure for Novelists.”

Three Act Structure for Novelists

by Chris Eboch

To celebrate the release of my new book, You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers, I’m sharing an excerpt from a chapter on Three Act Structure.

There’s no magic formula for writing a fabulous book. But there are formulas that offer guidelines for constructing a satisfying plot. Scriptwriters have long used the three act structure handed down from theater, with additional “turning points” as guidelines for when high and low moments and surprises should hit. Various resources identify and name turning points differently, but here’s a basic list of the most important ones:

• Act 1 (the first 25%): Introduction of the character and situation.
• The Inciting Incident/Catalyst (in the opening pages): Something that introduces a problem or goal for the main character.
• Plot Point One/Act 1 Break (about 25% of the way in): The point of no return, when the character embarks on the journey (physical, mental, or emotional).
• Act 2 (the middle, from the 25% point to the 75% mark): The character tries to solve the problem but faces escalating obstacles and rising stakes.
• Midpoint (in the middle of Act 2, at about the 50% mark): A moment of seeming success, but it may twist the story in a new direction or raise the stakes.
• Plot Point Two/Act 2 Break (at the 75% mark): The moment when failure seems inevitable.
• Act 3 (the final 25%): Wrapping up the story. Things may continue going downhill, and/or the hero(es) may develop a new plan, leading to the ...
• Climax/Resolution: The big final scene where the character ultimately succeeds or fails.

My brother Doug Eboch, writer of the movie Sweet Home Alabama and a scriptwriting teacher, says, “These ideas date back to Aristotle; they’re not some new Hollywood formula. Three Act Structure is really just a way to talk about literary concepts. So, for example, the first act is the section where we set up the character, their dilemma and the stakes; the second act is where the character faces increasing obstacles to that dilemma; and the third act is where we get the resolution.”

Following this format doesn’t mean the result will be perfect, but, “If you understand the concepts, they can help identify and solve problems in your story, or even prevent problems from occurring in the first place,” Doug says. “Think about acts and turning points as a way to organize your story and make sure you stay on track.”

Many authors find three act structure helpful when writing books, although they may not focus on structure at the beginning of a new project. Some wait until the revision stage and use three act structure to make sure they have a solid, well-paced plot. Personally, I like to thoroughly brainstorm and outline before starting a novel. Matching scenes on the outline to traditional turning points is a way to identify weak spots or to discover when important plot points are happening too late in the story. This allows me to add complications or shift scenes around before I start writing.

Tools, Not Rules

Whether you start with plot structure or consider it only after a couple of drafts, checking your work for turning points can help ensure the story feels well-plotted and satisfying. But that doesn’t mean you have to force a story to fit the “rules” precisely.

“It’s more important to understand the concepts behind the structure than to take a fill-in-the-blank type of approach,” Doug says. “Sometimes people focus on the idea that the act one turning point should happen on page 28 [in a screenplay, which is typically 110 pages]. But the reason we bother identifying an act one turning point at all is that it’s the place where the hero takes on the problem and gets locked into the story. Without that, there’s no tension because the hero could just walk away at any time. It’s far more important that the act one turning point fulfill those requirements than that it fall on a certain page.

As a scriptwriting teacher, Doug has many chances to see what works and what doesn’t. “Many beginning writers get into their story too late. Often, they don’t introduce the problem until the act one turning point and don’t trap their character in the story until the midpoint. Again, this comes from not understanding the purpose of the beats.” Those students are satisfied to find a big event at the appropriate place – even if it’s not the right kind of event.

It’s not enough to have something happen, just because you need a turning point. “Many beginning writers have major events happen at the turning points that are unrelated to each other or even the main character,” Doug notes. “[Turning points] are not simply twists for the sake of having a twist; they serve a bigger structural purpose. All the turning points should be related to your main character and main story line and to each other. And each should be the result of the main character’s actions and choices. So even if the second act turning point involves the villain getting the best of the hero, the villain should be taking that action in response to what the hero’s done before. The turning points should grow out of what the character wants in the story and what obstacles stand in the way of that goal, including internal obstacles.”

This article was adapted from a chapter in my new book You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers. Check out the book for more advice, much of which works for authors writing for an adult audience as well!

Let’s Schmooze is Doug Eboch’s blog on Screenwriting.

Chris Eboch/Kris Bock ©2015

Chris Eboch writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages. Her writing craft books include You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers and Advanced Plotting. Learn more at www.chriseboch.com or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog. Sign up for her workshop newsletter for classes and critique offers.

As Kris Bock, Chris writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark features archaeology and intrigue among ancient Southwest ruins. The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows the hunt for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com, sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter, or visit her Amazon page.

Guest Post: "Suspense Versus Surprise" by Chris Eboch/Kris Bock

It is an honor to welcome another guest poster to the blog as today we have Chris Eboch who also writes under the name Kris Bock for adult romantic suspense. In a fitting topic for today she explains how to build suspense instead of surprise.... 

Suspense Versus Surprise

Chris Eboch/Kris Bock

A few years ago I had the chance to ghost write a novel about a certain famous girl sleuth. Not only was that fun, but I learned something valuable from the editor. She asked me to look again at my chapter endings, and said,

“I would like to see more of a slow build-up toward the intense action. In horror movies, it’s always the ominous music and the main character slowly opening the closet door that scares us the most, not the moment right after she opens the door.”

She’s noting the difference between suspense and surprise. When something happens suddenly and unexpectedly, that’s a surprise. If you are going about your business, perfectly happy, when a car slams into yours, or something hits you in the back of the head, or a phone call reveals bad news, that’s a surprise. But up until that moment, there was no suspense.

This is an important difference to remember when writing, especially when writing thrillers. We know the importance of surprise twists, and we may be tempted to keep secrets and let them out with a bang. But true suspense comes from suspecting that something will happen and worrying about it or anticipating it.

Something Is Coming...

To build up truly dramatic moments, give the reader clues that something bad — or excitingly good

— is going to happen. Here’s an early version of a chapter ending from Haunted: The Ghost on the Stairs, my novel for ages 8 to 12 (written as Chris Eboch). The narrator, Jon, isn’t sure he believes his little sister Tania when she says she can see ghosts, but goes with her to look for one as their stepfather films his ghost hunter TV show.

At the top of the stairs, my stepfather stood in the glare of a spotlight, a few feet away from a camera. I took a step backward and tugged at Tania’s arm. No one had seen us yet, and we could still escape.

Tania turned to me. The look in her eyes made my stomach flip.

The moment isn’t bad for a cliffhanger chapter ending, but it could use some more buildup, more time for Jon to suspect something’s wrong. Here’s how the chapter ended in the published book:

At the top of the stairs, my stepfather stood in the glare of a spotlight, a few feet away from a camera. I took a step backward and tugged at Tania’s arm. No one had seen us yet, and we could still escape.

She didn’t back up. She swayed.

I took a quick step forward and put my arm around her so she wouldn’t fall. I looked down into her face. I’d never seen anyone so white. White as death. Or white as a ghost.

“Tania,” I hissed. I gave her a shake. She took a quick breath and dragged her eyes away from the staircase and to my face. The look in them made my stomach flip.

The revised version is longer. To get the most out of dramatic moments, you actually slow the pace by using more detail. It’s ironic, but you want to write slow moments quickly, maybe summing up a boring afternoon in a sentence or two, while writing a fast moment slowly, drawing out every detail.

Powerful Paragraphing

You can also affect the pace of your story by your sentence and paragraph lengths. Description or introspection can usually be put in longer paragraphs, slowing the pace and lulling the reader into a false sense of security. When you come to a big action scene, though, try breaking it up into short paragraphs.

Short paragraphs actually make the story read faster, because the eye moves more quickly down the page. You can also emphasize an important sentence by starting a new paragraph or even putting that sentence into a paragraph by itself. For example, consider the following two versions of a chapter ending, adapted from my romantic suspense novel, Whispers in the Dark (written under the name Kris Bock). The heroine, Kylie, is being chased by villains. It’s dark, and there’s a cliff nearby.

Example 1:

But he must be right behind me! I couldn’t stop, couldn’t even risk slowing down or looking back. Something sharp caught me across the shin, causing me to yelp and stumble forward as the pain burned like a hot knife. I almost went down on my knees, but I managed to thrust a foot out in front of me. Unfortunately, the foot found no place to land, so I pitched forward with a sickening lurch that left my stomach behind. And then I was hurtling through the darkness, down into the canyon.

Example 2:

But he must be right behind me! I couldn’t stop, couldn’t even risk slowing down or looking back.

Something sharp caught me across the shin. I yelped and stumbled forward as the pain burned like a hot knife. I almost went down on my knees, but I managed to thrust a foot out in front of me.

The foot found no place to land. I pitched forward with a sickening lurch that left my stomach behind.

And then I was hurtling through the darkness, down into the canyon.

These use nearly the same words. The only differences are that in the second version I broke up some long sentences into short ones, and I use four paragraphs instead of one. I think the second version captures more of the breathless panic that the narrator would be feeling. Think about that phrase “my life flashed before my eyes.” Life really does seem to slow down in the most high impact moments. Capture that on paper, and your readers will race through the scene breathlessly, wanting to find out what happens.

Learn More

Of course, not every chapter can end with dramatic physical action. My essay “Hanging by the Fingernails: Cliffhangers” in Advanced Plotting (written as Chris Eboch) also discusses how to use cliffhangers in quieter moments. I covered that on my blog as well – along with 10 other posts on cliffhangers! You can tell I love the subject. See my cliffhanger blog posts here.

See also my brother, screenwriter Doug Eboch’s post on suspense with movie examples: http://letsschmooze.blogspot.com/2009/11/suspense.html

Chris Eboch/Kris Bock ©2015

Learn more about Chris and read excerpts of her work at www.chriseboch.com (for children’s books written under the name Chris Eboch) or www.krisbock.com (for adult romantic suspense written under the name Kris Bock) or see her Amazon page.

Chris Eboch’s book Advanced Plotting is designed for the intermediate and advanced writer. Learn how to get off to a fast start, prop up a sagging middle, build to a climax, improve your pacing, and more. Advanced Plotting is available on in paperback for $9.99, or as an e-book for $4.99 on Amazon or Smashwords. You can also read excerpts from Advanced Plotting and get other writing craft advice on her blog.

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Jason Mosberg: The Desert, Desert Cities, and my Y...

The Southwest Armchair Traveler: Jason Mosberg: The Desert, Desert Cities, and my Y...: Today I welcome my first guest  author, Jason Mosberg. I read an Advanced Reader Copy of his new novel, Grift , and loved it. It's a...

FREE Book Alert---What We Found by Kris Bock

As posted elsewhere....

What We Found is FREE for Kindle today:


Suspense and romance in New Mexico: When Audra stumbles on a murdered woman
in the woods, more than one person isn't happy about her bringing the crime
to light. She’ll have to stand up for herself in order to stand up for the
murder victim. It’s a risk, and so is reaching out to the mysterious young
man who works with deadly birds of prey. But with danger all around, some
risks are worth taking.
http://bookShow.me/B0094V0OD4