Structure – otherwise known as Can of Worms.
People – both authors and lecturers in creative writing –
attach a lot of importance to structure for the reason that the framework of
your novel is vital to its ebb and flow. In other words, without the structure,
your story, like a house must have sound foundations and a strong set of
scaffolding to prevent it from crumbling into the dust mid-build. There are
several types of formal structure. Here are four of the more formal.
The Three-Act Structure.
This is the structure most often used, for the excellent
reason that it keeps the author on track with the readers standing at your character’s
shoulder watching the action unfold.
At its most basic, Act One involves the introduction of
your characters and setting, the progression of your plot (the events in your
story) through your characters to what is called the point of no return.
Which means your detective makes the irrevocable decision to carry on because
there is too much evidence of wrong-doing to not carry on.
Act Two is where the majority of the action takes place,
where you lead the reader up as many garden paths as you can logically fit in,
send them in circles and get to the point where your detective has all the
clues – as has the reader – but misreads them and enters what I call the
dark night of the soul. This is where they have a serious crisis of
confidence.
Act Three is where the detective picks themselves up,
brushes themselves down and starts all over again, this time managing to link
the clues properly – which your carefully constructed garden paths have stopped
the reader from doing – and leads on to the thrilling, tense and dangerous
denouement. Followed by a quick come-down scene, which can be presented as an
afterword or epilogue.
The Three-Act structure fits the rhythm of a crime novel
very well, but do not feel that you cannot experiment. I suggest you begin with
this format and branch out when you know the rhythm of your writing and
how you can play with the structure of your books.
As a rough guide, Act 1 is usually around a quarter or
perhaps a little more of the book, Act 2 half of it and Act 3, which should be
fairly fast and frantic, the last quarter.
The Mirror Structure
This is where you start with the last character or
setting and end with the first and this can take the form of a prologue or a
chapter or just a couple of pages. The writing must be very clever because the
author has a duty to remain true to seeding clues and being fair to the reader.
However, the great advantage of this method is that you can write partial
sections with no resolution, which reflects life. Not every end will be tied
up. BUT the main questions must be answered.
If your story starts as the mystery ends, then you must
still have enough of a story to answer the posed question – what happened to
X and who committed the crime? – for that not to be answered until the end
of the book.
For example, you could start with either a first person
or third person short prologue about why the unnamed and, if you can,
un-gendered, narrator —usually the perpetrator — rationalises what he or she
did. It is a kind of In my end is my beginning type of book and if you
can pull it off, it will be spectacular.
The Milieu Structure
This relies on the world in which your story occurs. In
other words, setting is key. The story starts when your main character enters
the world and ends when they leave it. It is almost a bystander’s story, a narrator
who cares nothing for the main character or his/her journey arc, only how what the
MC does or does not do affects the bystander’s world. This would lend itself to
crime stories with a supernatural element where the setting is so important as
to almost be a character. And, with this structure, the author can use an omnipotent
point of view. But there are serious traps set for the unwary here, so if you
want to try this format, do your research about which authors use it and read
the books to get a good understanding of the structure.
The Idea and Character Story
This is where the idea starts the ball rolling. Who gets
killed, who killed him/her and how the killer is caught. The character story is
exploring how your main character grows – or doesn’t – through the action of
finding the killer. And please, I beg of you, no washed up cops, who drink too
much and have inner demons. My own opinion is that if you want to read of such
characters and how they cope — or don’t — read literary fiction. A crime story
is about crime. It involves characters and how they see the world and yes, you
probably need to allow the reader into a bit of their private lives, but would
you take all your angst and demons to work with you? Do you think if you did
you would be in that job very long?
In next month’s blog, I will be dealing with character.
