What If Your Biggest Disaster Could Be Your Greatest Opportunity?
Randy sez: I don’t see any problem with starting a novel with trouble. I’m not sure what you have in mind here for your huge disaster, but I recall that The DaVinci Code had a museum curator being shot and killed in the first scene, and that book did all right. Getting killed is a disaster, especially if you’re the person catching the bullet.
But let’s review the notion of “three disasters” first to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Many novelists work from a Three-Act Structure. Act 1 covers roughly 25% of the book, and ends on a disaster that commits the lead character to the story. Act 2 covers roughly 50% of the book. Right about the midpoint of Act 2, there’s a second disaster that causes the lead character to reevaluate his approach to the story. At the end of Act 2, there’s a third disaster that causes the lead character to commit to some final confrontation. Act 3 then works up to that final confrontation, which ends in either victory or defeat for the lead character (or possible a bittersweet ending where the lead character has both victory and defeat mixed together).
