“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:
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The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. I complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.
[00:00:00] last week, we talked about act two with writing structure. And today we are going to wrap it up with act three on writing in the tiny house. Hello. Hello. Hello, and welcome to the show. Welcome to writing in the tiny house. I am your host Devin D. And I am the guy in a tiny house in Northern Utah, who is here to show you the tips and tricks on how to get that work of fiction in your brain and put it on paper, which sounds really gross.
[00:00:57] But I think we all know what I'm talking about. So today we are discussing act three. We are discussing the three act structure of most plot lines the way that we structure our stories, most stories, especially nowadays follow a three act structure. And if you look back on the big mythology stories of ancient times, especially like Greek and Roman mythology and stuff, all of those allegories or stories or tales, or even fairytales.
[00:01:34] From all cultures, a lot of them follow a three act structure and next week we're actually going to delve into a thing another writing structure or a pattern or a guideline or whatever called the hero's journey that. So many of those classic old fictional things follow just the formula for all of those things.
[00:02:01] We'll delve into that next week. But right now we need to talk about act three. And a lot of us think that acts three is where the climax happens. And so a lot of us are right. A lot of us are also not right. The thing is with act two, act two is the rising action of the book. It is where the stakes and the tension and the stakes and the tension build on each other until there is a certain breaking point.
[00:02:31] And then you get the climax of the story that ends with the resolution. All of that is act three, but let's discuss what actually makes the climax just because sometimes the climax has specific parts and some of those parts fall in act two, and the rest of them are the beginning of act three.
[00:02:53] So act three starts at the highest energetic point of your book and then the energy tapers off from there. But let's talk about what. Plays into the climax. So with act two, it is where we start breaking our main characters legs. We provide them with obstacles. We provide them with, mind games, moments for them to grow and learn and discover things about themselves and about the world around them.
[00:03:25] And it is usually obstacle after obstacle after obstacle, but then at the end of act two, it usually goes obstacle disaster and then crisis. And at the crisis, there comes a point of no return the point of no return is what wraps up act two. And that is where we jump in to act three.
[00:03:54] So everything comes to this big head. And then all of that needs to resolve in a big way. So sometimes it's big violence. Sometimes it's a war. Sometimes it's fireworks. Sometimes it is a final competition. It can show up in a matter of different things, but all of this energy has built up and now all of that energy needs to dissipate.
[00:04:17] So. Act three begins with the other side of the climax, when the climax itself ends and then things start to resolve. So thinking of the resolution. Sometimes that resolution is super straight forward because you have a hero who is fighting a bad guy, and then the bad guy dies and the bad guy's plan is foiled.
[00:04:46] And then. The story ends and we all understand that maybe the bad guy had a plan to take over the tri-state area. And now because he's dead or arrested and thrown in jail, he can no longer take over the tri-state area. And everybody is safe. Once again, sometimes it can take a different approach, not always in a work of fiction. Not always, is it one person battling another person or a group of people against another group of people? Sometimes it can be a person in a way battling themselves, especially if they're dealing with an illness and sometimes the stakes can get so high and whatever.
[00:05:32] And at the end with the climax, they can either be cured or they can reach a pivotal moment where they are terminal. And we still experience a feeling of relief. that is a way that things can be resolved. Sometimes that is unexpected. Sometimes it's tragic. Sometimes it is celebrated some time. I mean, it can, it can be colored a number of different ways, but that resolution is what happens in act three.
[00:06:01] That's what act three is all about. depending on what you are doing, Resolution can actually look a number of ways. If you are writing a trilogy, or if you are writing a series act three of your book still needs to keep your reader interested in reading the next book. So you can either end with a cliffhanger.
[00:06:28] If you have read six of crows by Les BARR, Dugo by Lee bar. Dugo you know that the ending of six of crows ends on. The worst cliffhanger in the whole world. And the sequel to that crooked kingdom starts like a week later and just jumps right in. And that is the biggest hook to get somebody to move immediately into the next book.
[00:06:58] And to be perfectly honest, when I read those two books, I read them back to back For me, if I didn't have the second book already, if I didn't have it already loaded onto my device, I would have been super bent out of shape about it. Just because the cliffhanger in book one was so big, there was such a lack of resolution for me that I simply had to start the next book immediately.
[00:07:28] That's something that you get to pay attention to. If you end your book with a monster cliffhanger and absolutely no resolution in any way, because it is meant to spring the reader immediately into the next book. But you're not releasing the next book for another two years. It's something to think about It is worth it to think about the relationship you have with your readers. And if you're just going to be jerking them around, or if you're going to make them mad, or if you're going to make them excited, or maybe you can just pay attention to how all of that will play out and have booked two. More ready so that you can release book too, a little bit more closely to book one.
[00:08:15] Maybe you can release book one in the spring and then release book two in the fall. And then people won't be so mad. I mean, the thing is when a person is reading your book, they are quite literally spending hours. One-on-one with you. And that is a very special relationship. They are 100% in your head or at least in your world.
[00:08:42] And you are 100% in their head., that is a very special relationship that you get to consider when you are releasing things. And when you are formulating your act three, However, there are some other books where it was simply in the formulation of the story itself, where not everything would be resolved.
[00:09:04] There is no next book and that's the whole point. The biggest book that I can think of right now, that was a big example of that was the book little fires everywhere by Celeste Inga. with that, the whole story was a really big head scratcher. At least for me, it was a very introspective, it was simply meant to showcase different struggles that people have in life without being preachy about any of them and to showcase both sides of the matter.
[00:09:40] And to simply. Bring a very rounded and a very holistic approach to some really big social issues or some fundamental arguments related to some of these topics that eating presents in her book, little fires everywhere. that's what the whole book does. And in my mind it did a great however, at the end As far as every little thing being wrapped up and delivered with a bow and buttoned up completely that isn't what happened.
[00:10:18] That wasn't the style of the book. Anyway. So even though there was a sense of the book ending, there were so many things in the book that were left. Untied that were left unresolved. So there was a big thing that happened with a family between a family and a lady and her daughter who were renting from the family and is simply N.
[00:10:44] With the family, kind of losing everything, losing some of the relationships in the family and with this other lady and her daughter leaving. And so it was not necessarily a happy ending. It was not a cheesy ending. It was a very heartfelt, meaningful. Moment of teaching, which was perfect, but there was no promise of a second book and there was no promise of answers.
[00:11:15] So the thing about act three is it is the answers to all of the promises that you have made in act one and act two all throughout the book, you have set up your reader to expect certain things and. Act three is largely the time where you deliver on all of those things and you can deliver in an unexpected way, but you need to deliver, if you set up your reader to think or feel specific things all throughout the book, and then don't address them in act three.
[00:11:49] And then the book stops, you're going to have some dissatisfied readers. Even if your book ends with a cliffhanger, because another book is coming out there still gets to be a feeling of this chunk of the overall story is complete. It's ready. Like all the ingredients have been mixed in act two, those things have been baked and now that thing is ready for the next big part.
[00:12:18] Of the series. And so even if things are left unresolved, that chunk of the story still has a feeling of being complete. So even if there is a big cliffhanger at the end, a lot of times it is okay to review the stakes and review some of the obstacles. I mean, if you choose to, this is really big in suspense, thrillers, where you get to kind of sit back and the author through some device or another.
[00:12:52] Just goes through and shows you all of the little steps of the mystery and how they all happened and how like the detective reviewing the case made a mistakes or missed things. And the killer was like one step ahead. That can be really satisfying. That can make a thing more enjoyable, especially if your audience is not a very meticulous.
[00:13:19] Group of readers. So that can be a good thing. It can show a certain amount of responsibility that you have in your storytelling, and it can wrap up the things in a satisfactory way for your reader. So with all of that, there is one thing that absolutely matters, and that is the energy level.
[00:13:45] And I hope that it is okay if I use that terminology, the energy level with act one, the energy is very introductory. It starts out slow. There aren't any stakes yet. There isn't any conflict yet to probably, or very little. And we go through all this builds. Huge climax. Nice resolution, but we need to understand that when act three is over the energy levels still needs to be higher than it was when the book began.
[00:14:20] So if you have a conflict and then the energy level, absolutely tanks back to how things were in, act one, you didn't do it. Right. So. If everything is 100% back to normal, if everything is exactly as it was before any of the story happened, I mean, it's, it's that really big cop out where the main character wakes up and the whole story was a dream.
[00:14:48] So none of it happened. And now our energy levels suddenly just dropped and dive bombed back down to the energy level of. So, what I'm saying is you need to end the story on a higher note than you started it. And that is one of the good things of a successful act three.
[00:15:13]
[00:15:13] And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time.
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