Three-Act Structure in 30 Days
A Cog Special for NaNoWriMo
Hey friends! I’m unable to participate in NaNo this year, but! I thought I could share with you a “prompt list” I developed for myself. One prompt a day, this list might just help you achieve a complete book in 30 days! (Maybe.)
11/01 - Develop what most inspires you. Let your world blossom, your character present themself, or your conflict begin.
11/02 - Introduce your protagonist’s day-to-day routine. Show who they are in their own element before their life spirals out of control.
11/03 - Show readers a conflict that’s been occupying your protagonist’s mind–use this as an opportunity to reveal another dimension of your world and the characters that inhabit it.
11/04 - Delve deeper into the side characters. Explore their superficial relationships with your protagonist.
11/05 - Bring in a new face. This face might belong to a new friend, a love interest, or even the villain.
11/06 - Take a moment to breathe, then destroy your protagonist’s world. Break it in such a way there’s no taping it back together. (And remember! This doesn’t have to be a bad change! Just an irreversible one.)
11/07 - Let your readers wallow in the fallout. Show how your protagonist initially responds and who they reach out to (if anyone).
Congratulations!! You’ve completed Act One! You’re well on your way to a book!! Remember to take a small breather and reward yourself. Look how much you’ve accomplished in as little as a week!
11/08 - Your protagonist is on the precipice; let them jump. Encourage them. This is where the plot truly begins.
11/09 - Show your character the paths they can take. They don’t have to choose one yet, but let them know what their options are.
11/10 - Introduce conflict between your protagonist and one of the characters they thought they trusted.
11/11 - Explain away the conflict. Put your protagonist and that character back on somewhat firm ground–maybe there’s still suspicion, but it won’t break them. Yet.
11/12 - Make your character choose a path. It’s too late in the game to be all wishy-washy about what to do and how to do it.
11/13 - Show them that they’re not yet equipped to handle the primary conflict of your novel.
11/14 - Let them take a step back and re-asses. Let them consult with those that they trust and try to find how to best tackle the conflict.
11/15 - Give them a way to grow the skills they need or learn the information they need to best succeed in the main conflict.
11/16 - Renew their confidence. Little-by-little, help them remember that they can do this.
11/17 - Let your protagonist’s relationship with another character take an unexpected turn. This could be anything from them having helpful knowledge/skills to having a connection with the villain to being romantically interested in the protagonist.
11/18 - After all their hard work is paying off and your protagonist thinks they might just be able to succeed in their goal.
11/19 - The newfound skills/information/etc. your protagonist has gathered are put to the test, and they come out victorious. Delight all around!
Take a moment to think and reflect. Have a nice tea and prepare for everything to go utterly, terribly wrong, because that’s where we’re going with this.
11/20 - Your protagonist’s worst fear is confirmed and all the bravado they’ve gathered comes crashing down around them. (Hint: This is a great place to bring back the 11/10 conflict.)
11/21 - Your protagonist struggles to cope with the last blow they took, but they don’t have much time. They need to compose themself.
11/22 - Time to gear up for the grand finale. There’s no going back now, and everyone knows it. Let your protagonist and their allies gather.
Look at you go!! You’ve written the majority of a book?? You’ve made it through the hardest part and you’re in the home stretch. You can do it!!
11/23 - Shove your protagonist into a room with the conflict that’s been haunting them from the beginning and let them have a moment with it.
11/24 - Bang! Pow! Climax time!
11/25 - Just when your protagonist thinks they’re winning, make it all go wrong. A fundamental piece of the puzzle is missing and we’re in disasterland now, lads.
11/26 - Let a side character prompt the protagonist’s defining moment–let them do something unexpected to prompt an even more unexpected response.
11/27 - Ideally, this will be victory time! Everything we’ve been hoping for since the beginning comes to fruition and all the protagonist’s hard work pays off. Alternatively, you could make this end real bad. It’s up to you.
11/28 - Let the results of the final conflict settle in. These could be good or bad, depending on your story, or even better: both.
11/29 - Go back to the beginning. Rewrite the first scene or develop a prologue. Now that you have a sense of the ending, you’ll have a better idea of where things should’ve started!
11/30 - Show your readers where everyone ended up–did they get a happy ending? A sad ending?
You’ve finished your book!!!!!!! YOU’VE FINISHED YOUR BOOK!!! Heck yeah.
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