One easy way to organize a story is to break it down with a common formula below. Percentages are at what point in the story things should happen for a cohesive story. So around 10 percent into the story we should know who your main character is and the opportunity they have or the thing they are trying to accomplish. You can break this down by looking at the book and how it’s read through where when you read it it feels like about those points for good flow or you can go as deep as breaking down your novel into pages (ie out of 10,000 word story your opportunity would come at or around the 1,000 word point. At 25% or 2,500 word your complication would be landing and throwing a wrench in the works.)
10% Opportunity of the story. What does your character have to gain.
25% The complication. What’s stopping your protagonist. Is it an evil witch, a storm, a demon, or just bad luck?
50% the turning point of where
75% all hope is lost. It looks like the protagonist is going to be defeated.
100% protagonist finds victory or their end. The Hero wins! The mission is accomplished.
This is a smoothing out of the story process. Obviously there are more points in a story and this a brief generalization coming down the the storyline of desire>conflict>goal>conclusion.
It’s always important to remember if you can remove a part of a book and the book still works then you don’t need that part of the book. Don’t waste your reader’s time with events that don’t contribute to the story and drag out points disrupting the flow.
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