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Quit bean-counting. Finish the novel and then go back and worry about whether the first act works. Methods for structuring a story are guides, not laws. The novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:10Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5948 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T02:25:45Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5948 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Quit bean-counting. Finish the novel and _then_ go back and worry about whether the first act works. Methods for structuring a story are guides, not laws. The novel _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_ is 850 pages. I remember vividly that the first six hundred were a complete slog, and then suddenly something _happened_ and the last 200-odd pages went like a shot. That worked for that book. Who knows what will work for yours? Put the entire story together, set it aside, and then go back and look at it with fresh eyes. If your first act is the right length, stop worrying. There will be other things to fix.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2012-06-18T10:00:25Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 11