A Metaphor in Story Structure

Have you ever considered that Wednesdays as the middle day of the week are like the mild build or second act of the week? The middle of the story can be challenging to achieve. First, you have to keep the reader’s attention and use it to propel a story forward. Wednesday also begins the sagging interest in productivity if you’re like me. Especially when keeping an apartment clean seems almost like a second job.

Monday’s always set the tone for the week, just like the beginning hook or first chapter in a novel. When my Monday’s completely frazzled, so is the rest of my week. Similarly, when I focus more on fantasy elements instead of science fiction, the introduction to my story. Or it’s too happy for the dark twists and turns the story will take without any hints.

Then Friday, the climax of the week. Sometimes it’s on Saturday if the week really drags on, but still, it’s thrilling and exciting. Whether it’s movie night plans, margarita night, or simply reading in a chair for the evening. Although lately, an everyday workweek appears to be the norm. (side note I’m big into life-work balance, but I know there are many things out there that don’t balance it well, and it’s difficult to do).

Whether your work weak varies, or you have different hours, the “weekend” you have is your week’s resolution. Traditionally, theoretically, it’s Sunday (at least in the United States). However, it could be Saturday or Monday, or Tuesday. Some weekends it spread over Saturday and Sunday. Although a story’s resolution usually is one or two scenes. A brief moment in the third act of the story.

Wow, that was a wandering metaphor. But you get the picture, right? As humans, we have structured time, days, life to fulfill particular needs. It’s a small part of a timeline of life. On a bigger scope, story structure could be an analog to life. The beginning is childhood, the middle is teenage years to late adulthood, and the ending is late-adulthood to death. Maybe that’s why it’s crucial to have a beginning, middle, and end in a story.

Okay, I’m done with the metaphors… maybe.

We know that a story requires a first, second, and third act. A beginning, middle, and end. But what does that really mean? That’s the question I’m trying to answer in my writing this week.

In my first book in the world of Paracosm, I know I want a negative story arc, a fall from grace. It’s a book not for the faint-hearted. The story is grim and dark but not necessarily a thriller. Peregrina start’s off with a hero’s choice, and she makes the choice any heroine can make. But it enforces the lie that leads to her fall from a heroine to a villain.

But how to describe it in a way that builds up Peregrina’s career as an agent while building the criminal underworld of the galaxy and the little details for the future. But now I have a direction and the large picture story arc like the birth to death arc. Next week we’ll look at in-depth parts of the beginning.