ROMANCE NOVELIST'S MASTER CHART
FOR ______________________________________________________________
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ACTION/PLOT
POINT/DESCRIPTION |
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PG.# IN 360-PG |
PG.# IN MSS |
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SETUP: Who is the character, what is the
place, time, mood, size/scope/feeling, point of view? What's the story about?
whose story is it? What does hero want, and what's stopping hero from getting
it? Do we like hero and care if he/she gets what he wants? What happens next? |
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1 - 36 |
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CENTRAL QUESTION POINT: What is the
central question, the theme, the main issue the novel is going to answer? |
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9 |
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NEW OPPORTUNITY: Something that happens
to steer events in a particular direction. |
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36 |
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CHOICE OF PATH: Based on the new
opportunity, the hero begins taking steps toward a general goal. |
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36 - 90 |
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CHANGE OF PLANS/TURNING POINT: What event
throws hero a curve, forces response or reaction, sets the hero's plan/goal,
defines the hero's new pathway for Act II? General goal(s) become specific. |
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90 |
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PROGRESS: Plans to achieve goals are
working. There are conflicts but things are going pretty well. Hero is
changing, circumstances are changing and stakes get higher. |
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90 - 180 |
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MOVING FORWARD METAPHOR: A small scene
with symbolic overtones, showing the character's growth, and giving us a clue
to the resolution. |
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135 |
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POINT OF NO RETURN: Something happens so
that hero, if pushing forward and committing, against all odds, to goal,
cannot return to where he/she was in the setup. Sometimes, here the external
goal has become internal/personal, and pursuing it will change the hero. |
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180 |
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POST-POINT MOMENT: A lighter moment,
which typically follows the POINT OF NO RETURN. Doesn't further action, but
shows how hero is changing, then obstacles start to escalate. |
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180+ |
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COMPLICATIONS AND HIGHER STAKES: The goal
becomes even harder to achieve. It looks like it will take everything to do
this, harder than thought, but hero wants it now more because it's harder. |
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180 - 270 |
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ALL HOPE IS LOST/MAJOR SETBACK/THE BIG
GLOOM/GIVING UP POINT: The greatest setback. It appears that hero may not
achieve goal, hero about to give up, but something happens that changes
everything, an event that gives a chance at a goal hero didn't know he/she
had. |
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270 |
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FINAL PUSH-->ONE SPECIFIC ACTION: Final intensification of the
hero's pursuit of the goal, which usually becomes focused here into achieving
one specific action. An event occurs that educates the hero, and starts the
resolution. Hero may be getting something more from what he/she set out to
get, hero has learned something and is changed by it, a new complications
sets in? |
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270 – 324 |
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CLIMAX: Hero is close, can see goal,
final obstacle, has to give up everything in pursuit of the goal, crisis
point where all is in jeopardy, final moment, all or nothing. Hero achieves
or fails to achieve the goal, and outer motivation is clearly resolved, often
through confrontation with a "nemesis". |
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324 – 342 |
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DENOUEMENT: What is the outcome,
resolution, hero's new life? |
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324-342 |
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