In The Marshall Plan®, a novel consists of “sections.” Sections can be either action sections or reaction sections. In simplest terms, in an action section, things happen. In a reaction section, people react to the things that happened.
In this post I’m going to review the basics of structuring an action section. I’ll cover the reaction section in my next post.
STRUCTURING THE ACTION SECTION
In an action section, one of your novel’s viewpoint characters tries to achieve a short-term goal she thinks will take her closer to her overall story goal. The short-term goal should be a logical outgrowth of what happened to this character in her last section.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a vampire romance in which your lead character, Sidora (a vampire), has the overall story goal of turning Damion, the human man she loves, into a vampire too, so that they’ll be together for eternity. Damion is missing, so the first thing Sidora needs to do is find him. In her last section, she learned that Damion was last seen in the company of a notorious warlock pirate in a bar down by the piers in an especially nasty part of town. So the logical short-term goal is to find out where Damion is from someone at the bar.
Since you always want to start a section as quickly as possible, you can begin with her walking through the door of the bar, or if you like, approaching the bar from outside (more atmosphere this way).
Most action sections also involve a character who somehow gets in the way of the viewpoint character achieving her short-term goal. The resistance Sidora encounters should be the bulk of the section. So maybe you decide that after she’s made a few inquiries and gotten only shrugs, she spots an old woman hurrying out the back. Sidora goes after her. The old woman is wearing Damion’s scarf. The two women argue–the old woman denies having seen Damion, then admits she found him drunk on the street and took his scarf, then finally admits that she and a male companion robbed Damion.
How do you end your action section? In one of three ways:
1. The viewpoint character fails to achieve the section goal.
2. The viewpoint character not only fails to achieve the section goal, but she also learns of a new, even larger problem or obstacle that makes matters even worse.
3. The viewpoint character achieves the section goal but learns of a new, even larger problem or obstacle than the one she has just overcome.
Remember, Sidora’s goal was to find out where Damion is from someone at the bar. I’m going to end the section with option #3. The old woman tells Sidora where Damion is (section goal achieved): on the ship of the slave the old woman and her companion sold Damion to.
Section goal achieved, but now there’s a new, even larger problem/obstacle.
That’s how you would end this section–with this revelation, which is dramatic and also a cliffhanger of sorts.
In my next post I’ll tell you how to structure the section following this one.
