{"id":1504,"date":"2025-03-07T14:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T14:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2025-03-07T14:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T14:20:10","slug":"why-the-three-act-structure-isnt-good-enough-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/07\/why-the-three-act-structure-isnt-good-enough-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Three Act Structure isn\u2019t good enough-Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this, the final episode of a writing structure series, I will describe how I progress<\/strong> from having 15 story beats<\/strong> and around 40 planned chapters<\/strong>, to a completed, published book. I like to do things in an efficient way, which means planning and sticking to a process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that I\u2019m swimming against the \u2018creative tide\u2019<\/em> here. The conventional wisdom (or perceived or received wisdom, if you prefer) is that anything which improves the efficient process of creating a completed and published story is anathema to creative writing. I sometimes have enough trouble trying to convince other writers that having a basic plan as an underpinning structure for a story is a good idea. To have a well thought-out, tried and tested process<\/em> which sees me move from story idea through to completed book in as speedy and simple as way as possible causes many writers to react in horror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So… why<\/strong>? Why streamline the process? It all started at a crime writing weekend, put on by the National Centre for Writing in Norwich<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ https:\/\/nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk\/<\/a> ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had lots of interesting workshops and talks, all centred on crime stories. In one session, a large group of us listened to a successful crime author – for the life of me, I can\u2019t remember who it was now. One member of the audience asked: \u201cHow many rewrites do you make from finishing the final manuscript?\u201d At the time, I had struggled to finish even one novel. I was expecting an answer around three or four. \u201cAt least… ten to eleven times, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT????<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a rewrite for this, a rewrite for that, a rewrite after a beta reader, a rewrite after the first reading from an editor, a rewrite on subsequent critiques, a rewrite once the publisher had seen it… and so on, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blimey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can anyone spend so much time rewriting and rewriting and rewriting the same story? What was wrong with it in the first place? I turned this over and over in my head. What a waste of time! Why not get the story pretty near perfect as early as possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, lots of thinking and reading and analysing later, I came up with my process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Develop scene-by-scene plan for story.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use three (four) acts, seven plot points, fifteen story beats, forty scenes (see previous posts), breaking down the story from a simple premise until I have a full story plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Write each scene in turn.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not edit-as-I-go (although I will fix typos, because they\u2019re just annoying); any plot holes I discover get highlighted, and I move on – the same with questions that come to light regarding plot or characters, or I recognise the need for further research or an edit to a previous scene. The core idea is: keep crafting the manuscript until the first draft is complete.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. First rough edit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

At the end of the first draft, immediately<\/em> go back and fix the problems indicated by the highlighted text. This I call the Hammer and Chisel<\/em> edit. It\u2019s fixing the big problems so at least I have a coherent telling of the story I\u2019ve created. I don\u2019t do anything else – just fix the big, highlighted problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. I let the manuscript settle for a while.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like you let pastry settle in the fridge before you shape it into a pie (or whatever), the manuscript needs to be put away for a while to give me, the author, some distance from the words I\u2019ve just typed. This is important.<\/em> As a writer, you can become word blind<\/em>, unable to see the actual<\/em> words in the manuscript and instead see the words you have in your head – those that you actually wrote compared to the words you think<\/em> you wrote. My usual settling time is 2-4 weeks, which I spend designing the cover or writing non-fiction or something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. First run-through edit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I edit my own work. I don\u2019t need to perform a structural or developmental edit. The structure of the story is sound, because it was designed that way from the start. I\u2019m not saying that the overall story never<\/em> needs work. Occasionally, it\u2019s only when reading the story from start to finish that a major problem raises its head, but it is rare. So I read from start to finish, dealing with issues as they occur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. First proof read.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before sharing the work (see item 7, below), I need to make sure the manuscript is in good condition.<\/em> The beta reading process is intended to tell me, the author, if the story works as a completed novel, and I don\u2019t want any high-level analysis of the completed work to be peppered with irritating minor errors. I use Pro Writing Aid to help me. A couple of points here – there are a number of writing analysis tools on the market. I just happen to get on with PWA better, especially since it has some integration with Scrivener, my writing software. The second, and important, point is that it helps me<\/em>. It\u2019s good at finding things in the writing it doesn\u2019t understand, but sometimes so-called flaws are deliberate elements of my writing style (e.g. short sentences or irregularly-formed sentences). And sometimes it trips up over something which is perfectly all right, but the error actually resides earlier in the sentence or paragraph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Beta read.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A beta reader is someone who will read my manuscript and tell me if it works as a story. Hopefully, they won\u2019t find any typos, but they can give me clues about the pacing, the characters, the viability of the story. Will someone who buys this book enjoy reading it? And you must choose your beta readers carefully. They must be someone who reads a lot, preferably in your genre. They must understand what their job is – not to analyse sentence-by-sentence, but to go with the flow, read the story, and tell me if it works. It must be someone who you trust. It must be someone who can read the story relatively quickly, and has time to finish it. There\u2019s no point if you have to wait for a year to get feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Post-beta edits.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, once the beta reader has finished, I will have a few pages of notes. Perhaps some questions, where elements of the plot aren\u2019t clear, or the characters are quite plausible enough. I use my partner <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ http:\/\/www.anitabelli.com\/<\/a> ] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

as my beta reader, and I think I address about 80% of her issues with the story. It is my choice how much, or how little, to edit the story after the beta read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Second proof read.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

After making any edits to the manuscript, it\u2019s important to check for any typos which may have crept in during the previous edit process. No matter how carefully you make the changes, there are always one or two small errors that can creep in, especially when you\u2019re making a small change into an existing paragraph of text. It\u2019s well worth performing a final proof read, before…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. PUBLISH!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publishing a book is a great moment. If you\u2019re going to try to engage a publisher or agent, this is probably the point at which you send off emails and, hopefully, copies of manuscript files. The agent\/publisher is your first customer. Yes, they may see ways in which the manuscript can be improved, or the story changed slightly based on their understanding of the market, but they will want a clean draft with zero errors, so they\u2019re not being tripped up by typos and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of, if you are a self-publisher, like me, it\u2019s the point at which you begin engaging with online publishers and real-life printers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that is my process for creating a manuscript and preparing it to be published. My time spent preparing the story before writing the manuscript pays off with fewer edits at this early stage, and a cleaner manuscript for the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed this insight into my writing process. I\u2019d better get off and finish off my latest book!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this, the final episode of a writing structure series, I will describe how I progress from having 15 story beats and around 40 planned chapters, to a completed, published book. I like to do things in an efficient way, which means planning and sticking to a process. I know that I\u2019m swimming against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,68,6,8,41,16,17],"tags":[126,70,118,46,124,55,78,127,54,125,25],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-efficient-novelist","category-inspiration","category-my-writing","category-novel","category-writing","category-writing-on-writing","tag-3-act-structure","tag-advice","tag-author","tag-creativity","tag-novel","tag-novels","tag-planning","tag-plotting","tag-success","tag-three-act-structure","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/linked-processes.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5y3CH-og","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}