AS A NOVELIST, you must handle elemental fictional elements – character, plot and setting – with artistry and polish. Your prose style must be engaging, your scenes energizing, your writing vivid. None of that can work without structure, however. Peter Behrens, author of Carry Me, puts it this way: “Be aware that novels tend to be composed of, first, scenes, and, second, summary. The point is to try to find the balance.”
Balance must be achieved at all levels of your work, with crucially placed drama points that provide emphasis and effective pacing.
Let’s begin with overall structure: the skeletal framework of a novel.
The five-stage story
You might choose the classic five-stage plot structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. You might also choose the three-act structure…
