I’m in waiting mode.
Waiting for my story to come back from a beta reader. Waiting to see if my short story made it to the top three in the contest. And it’s a gray Monday morning. Quite bleak and blech looking outside.
So let’s do something fun—spreadsheets!
Although I’m not reworking the chapters of my story, I’m still thinking about it and analyzing it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been studying specific blogs from Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, and KM Wieland to measure how well my story is working.
Not Formulaic writing
In our stories, two forces tug against each other because their goals conflict with one another.
character struggles will be set in a particular time and place.
there will be a series of setbacks and advances
there is a FINAL big victory and defeat.
If there is no tension in the story, why would a reader turn the page?
When I write or revise, it sometimes feels like all I do is fiddle around with words (true!) and I accomplish nothing (not true!). This is where a spreadsheet comes in handy.
Three Act Structure
Stories are divided into three parts: beginning, middle, and end.
How much of a story falls into each category? According to blogs I’ve read, the middle is often the biggest at 50% of the story. The beginning and the end contain 25% each.
But, I’ve also read that some stories shorten their beginnings to twenty percent and add the extra five percent to the middle. This is how I’ve chosen to roll with my story.
Spreadsheet
This is just one of my excel spreadsheets.
Under Act One, I list:
my chapter title
my January 2019 word count
my current word count
The figures in both the January and current word count columns are the same as I’m letting my story lie fallow while my beta reader has it. Some chapter titles have the year listed in front of them as they are my historical braid.
Behind the current word count, you’ll see I’ve bolded the major Plot Points that fall in Act 1: Launch (or Hook) and Inciting Event (or Inciting Incident). The red squares list the antagonist’s actions that I want to make obvious in that chapter.
The chapter titles won’t necessarily be part of the finished book, but the titles help me recall what each chapter is about and, better yet, they make it easier to write the synopsis.
After I write for the day, I enter the figures (from the word count listed on the word doc of that chapter) into this sheet. You’ll notice the bolded figure of 20,047.
That’s a sum function I’ve put in place to track the number of words in Act 1. Up above, you’ll notice the figure, 13,362, which is where the Inciting Incident is. KM Wieland lists 12% (middle of Act 1 because she uses 25% as the amount of the story to be in Act 1) as the ideal place where readers will expect some event or incident to kick the story up another gear.
Revision Experimentation
When I’m revising and having problems with the line-up of my chapters, (I’m currently having problems with my Act III. Again.) I add another excel sheet.
As I write out what my next steps will be to edit and revise my story, I sometimes find myself deadending (pun intended).
I’m quite happy with my very very end, the resolution and the new normal world.
My problem is with the most exciting chapters!? When Act III starts to the resolution, when the climax starts us in the climactic sequence that leads to the climactic moment, the high point of the conflict. You’d think that would be easy.
Act III is complicated because there’s so much to wrap up and wind down to provide a victory and a defeat.
I have important scenes in place. I’m just not happy with their placement. I’m experimenting with where they might go, doing so on a totally new sheet. That way, I don’t risk ruining my primary spreadsheet with all the figures and sums listed.
And with that…it’s time to get back to sorting out Act III.
Do you create your own excel sheets to use to track your progress through your writing?