Read Write Great Fiction--Plot & Structure for Free Online

Department squad car pull to the curb in front of the house.
    Now that’s a disturbance, something small to begin with, but a disturbance nonetheless. We don’t usually feel complacent about a police car pulling up to our home.
    The number of possible disturbances is endless. Here are some examples:
A phone call in the middle of the night
A letter with some intriguing news
The boss calling the character into his office
A child being taken to the hospital
The car breaking down in a desert town
The Lead winning the lottery
The Lead witnessing an accident — or a murder
A note from the Lead’s wife (or husband), who is leaving
    From a structural standpoint, the initial disturbance creates reader interest. It is an implicit promise of an interesting story yet to come. But it is not yet the main plot because there is no confrontation. The opponent and Lead are not yet locked in an unavoidable battle.
    In Mario Puzo’s
The Godfather
, young Michael Corleone is determined to go straight, avoiding his father’s way of life. But when the Don is shot and nearly killed, Michael’s world is rocked.
    Yet Michael is not yet thrust into any confrontation. He can leave New York and start a new life elsewhere. The confrontation doesn’t happen, the story doesn’t take off, until the Lead passes through the first doorway.
    In the George Lucas film
Star Wars
, there is an action prologue. Darth Vader and his troops chase and capture Princess Leia, but not before she dispatches a pod with R2-D2 and C-3PO in it. The droids land on the planet Tatooine and get captured by the Jawas, the junk merchants.
    We meet our Lead character, Luke Skywalker, at work in his normal world on Tatooine, where he lives with his aunt and uncle. His uncle buys the two droids. Within five minutes of this, we have a disturbance to Luke’s world — the distress hologram from Princess Leia asking for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s help.
    Eventually, Luke connects with Obi-Wan, who views the hologram and asks Luke to help him answer the call for help. Luke “refuses the call” (in mythic terms) by telling Obi-Wan he can’t leave his aunt and uncle.
    This is still not the doorway into Act II because Luke can go on with his normal life. But when the Empire forces destroy Luke’s home and kill his aunt and uncle, Luke is thrust into the Rebellion. He leaves his planet with Obi-Wan, and his adventure begins.
Doorways
    How you get from beginning to middle (Act I to Act II), and from middle to end (Act II to Act III), is a matter of
transitioning
. Rather than calling these
plot points
, I find it helpful to think of these two transitions as “doorways of no return.”
    That explains the feeling you want to create. A thrusting of the character forward. A sense of inevitability. We are creatures of habit; we search for security. Our characters are the same. So unless there is something to push the Lead into Act II, he will be quite content to stay in Act I! He desires to remain in his ordinary world.
    You need to find a way to get him out of the ordinary and into the confrontation. You need something that kicks him through the doorway; otherwise, he’ll just keep sitting around the house.
    Once through the doorway, the confrontation can take place. The fight goes on throughout Act II, the middle. But you’re going to have to end the story sometime. Thus, the second doorway of no return must send the Lead hurtling toward the knockout ending.
    These two doorways hold your three acts together, like pins in adjoining railroad cars. If they are weak or nonexistent, your train won’t run.
Through Door Number 1
    In order to get from beginning to middle — the first doorway — you must create a scene where your Lead is thrust into the main conflict
in a way that keeps him there.
    In a suspense novel, the first doorway might be that point where the Lead happens upon a secret that the opposition wants to keep