What Happens in the First Act of Your Novel

Yesterday we talked about the three-act structure and Aristotle’s Incline. These two theories serve as the basis for most great works of fiction. Today we will talk about Act I of the novel, what should
happen in this first 25% or so of your story.

The reader needs to meet the hero and they need to care about him. They should get an idea of who he is, an insight into his philosophies and what makes him tick, and perhaps a glimpse at his weaknesses. The hero should appear early, and his appearance should be definitive. Watch the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. When you meet Robert Redford the camera holds on him for almost a minute, an eternity in film parlance. That’s because the movie makers want the viewer to understand that this fellow is important.

The reader also needs to meet the villain. They learn about the character of the villain, a little of their history, what makes them tick. There are some folks who think the villain should appear within the first two or three pages. My opinion is that the appearance of the villain depends on the genre, the plot, and a lot of other things, but the sooner the better.

Act I is also a time of foreshadowing of what is to come. The reader should get an idea very early on that things will never be the same. I like the example of The Godfather. The turning point at the end of the first act is when Vito Corleone is shot by would-be assassins. It sets the stage for the real conflict of the book (which is not the war between the families, but rather it is Michael Corleone getting sucked into the family business). The first intimation of that conflict is at the wedding scene at the beginning of the movie when Michael is dropping hints to Kay about the nature of his family. She expresses some concern and Michael answers, “That’s my family. It’s not me.”

By the end of the movie, and the book, it is him.

Look at the first act of your novel. Is the hero introduced early? What about the villain? Is the conflict clear? If you have not accomplished these things, then you might have a problem.

But as you are doing this set-up, you also need to keep the ongoing conflict at a high level. The stakes should be high. You want the reader to turn the pages and not be able to stop.

See ya’ later.

WhatIfYouCouldNotFail.com by Tim Sunderland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Comments

TIm--Excellent advice. Your posts are packed with practical, immediately-applicable advice. The important part of this post is the idea of getting your main characters on stage as soon as possible and establishing the problem, or conflict. Of course, the big challenge is sustaining that tension.

Posted by: Tom Rizzo | 03/25/2013 at 06:35 PM