Good morning and happy Friday to you all.
I've reached something of an obstacle in my WIP and I'm really unsure how to pass it. I finished planning the first act this week, but found that it all happens over too short a period of time. The first half of the 2nd act needs to cover at least 9 months, as it ends with the birth of the protagonist's son, whose conception is only revealed at the beginning of act two, so the first act needs to follow a broadly similar period of time in order to keep the book feeling consistent and maintain the tempo throughout. Reading back through it, it isn't clear that this is the case and I don't think it works well enough.
What I'm trying to ask is how do I maintain pace while ensuring each act takes places over a reasonably long period of time? Each scene will focus on a specific series of events, so there needs to be a gap between them in order to allow time to pass.
Does anyone have a good examples of books that do this well? I recently read Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis (not his best book, but quite funny), which used a device that broke up each act with a brief overview of events that happened in between, which kind of worked, but felt a little bit contrived.
I don't want to write a full on saga, but the story will take place over a period of 2 to 3 years.
Thanks for your help... if any of this makes sense!
Mark.
I took some time this morning to remember the first image this idea placed in my brain. I had a wander about the small, muddy streets that run through the little village where the story begins, and I remembered why I'd been inspired to write it in the first place.
That it has already changed and grown so much from that initial idea only reassures me that nothing I write should be considered definitive until the final draft is complete. This is only a temporary lapse in confidence; the idea is strong and the story is worth writing, I just have to keep remembering that!
Thanks.
Don't lose faith in it - give it a good talking to and see if it fights back!
Morning all,
Thanks for all the feedback and advice; this site is proving to be more beneficial that I had ever hoped.
Lucy, I've done my best not to ponder on it too much. It's good advice and I've found it has worked with other problems in the past. Not always easy to follow, but I'm trying!
Lorraine, it's true that I don't need to cover the full 9 months. Act two begins with the pregnant character revealing her pregnancy to the protagonist, who is the child's father. The mid point is the birth of the child, so that much time has to pass from the start of act two until the mid point, but it doesn't need a blow by blow account.. it wouldn't be faithful to the protagonist if it was covered in such detail.
I think the key thing is that I don't need to have perfectly balanced acts, with equal time passing throughout each. So long a reasonable amount of time passes during the first half of act two, the rest of the story can take place as it needs to.
Thanks for your input; I will carry on quite happily thanks to this reassurance. It's amazing just how much the writing process can make me lose faith in an idea that seemed infallible when it first started bouncing about in my head.
Mark.