FITTING THE CRIME SKELETON OUTLINE INTO THE FOUR ACT STRUCTURE:
For anyone who is new here, I use a Four Act Structure as opposed to the more-popular three-act structure. I find that middle section in the three-act structure too confusing. Over the writing of 12 novels, I gravitated to a four-part structure as it is more symmetrical and makes more sense to me. I also believe, for whatever it's worth to anyone, that this three-act structure is responsible for the 'lagging' that often occurs in the middle of a story.
If you are following my A Peek Behind the Novel Series, you have learned about creating the crime or mystery skeleton outline in past blog posts and videos. I won't go over those again here.
This is the point where you will break the crime/mystery skeleton into the four parts. I'll enumerate below the items that should be in each part. I hope this is helpful to newbies. I'm not an expert on any of this, by the way, but my purpose here is to provide help that I wish I had when I was first starting out.
Part One:
The inciting incident. In a murder, crime or police procedural story, this will be the crime itself and how the detectives show up in it. When the detectives are pushed into going on a quest to solve it, that's the inciting incident. This begins the journey of the story.
Also in Section 1, I drop some information about where my characters arcs will begin. Because I write in series, the question I ask myself is: What do my characters want at this time of their lives? What do they want to happen right now? I determine in this initial phase where the character arcs will begin, and where they will end.
Now, in the creative process, the character arcs get deeper and more elaborate, so don't worry if you don't have a clear idea of exactly how they will change. I make sure Part 1 contains information about where their arc begins.
Also in Part 1 will be a slow drip of background information. When I was new, I tended to do these big info drops in the beginning, but thankfully, editors and advance readers were good enough to point this out to me. The readers don't need to know everything about the background of the main characters within the first five pages. This information is best 'slowly dripped', just like the clues.
PART TWO:
Part Two is where I introduce all the suspects and their possible motivations -- as the detectives are quite often guessing at this early stage of an investigation. The motivation of each of the suspects will be uncovered in some way later in Part two or even in Part 3.
Part Two is about following clues and uncovering suspects, evidence and motivation. The readers are collecting information and they are doing their own thinking and speculating too. This is where their enjoyment comes from, hearing about the clues and trying to out think the detectives and the suspects -- and even the author!
Section two is also where the subplots begin to move forward. Whether the subplot is a specific conflict that gets worse or a general stubbornness that is exhibited, I begin to move the subplots along in part two.
The end of Part Two usually marks the midpoint of the book. I like to end this section with a .big reveal of some kind. Or maybe a clue that turns the investigation into another direction. There could even be a new murder, or the surfacing of an unusual suspect, or someone gets caught in a big lie that changes the direction of the investigation.
If you are using time or some other way to apply pressure to solve the crime, you also want to take it up one or two notches in Part 2.
Part Three:
Now the investigation gets a little stressful. The detectives may not agree on who the guilty party is, or maybe they know who it is but can't find the legal evidence to prove it. Maybe they are operating only on gut feeling and speculation at this point. They are rushing against the clock or against other forces working against them to solve it, catch the guilty party or find compelling and irrefutable evidence.
Part 3 is where the suspects' lies and half-truths are exposed and this all sheds light on the actual crime or mystery. The title of "most likely suspect" may also go back and forth between one or two of the suspects in Part 3.
The subplots need to also move along into their stage 3. They may need to be set up for a final resolution of the subplot, which is often very different than the main story.
Part Four:
Part four is broken down into two parts. In the first half of Section 4, the crime or mystery is solved. There will be whatever drama you want to add about the solving of this crime. Whether your detectives are battling physically with someone, bullets are being fired back and forth, or entrapping the guilty party, or just uncovering that last piece of evidence that will legally prove guilt, this is where this is revealed.
I personally also like to do a very quick sum up of the entire theory of the mystery. In my opinion, readers are very busy and sometimes they are reading carefully, but other times, they are reading with one eye open right before they fall asleep for the night. So I like to do a quick sum up just in case they missed anything. But I do it very quickly because there are the avid readers who never miss anything and you don't want to bore them!
The second half of Part 4 is the 'wrap up'. This is where you will show the new normal, everyone's life 'in resolution'. This is where you will also explain the full growth of your characters. Many author's don't do this, but I don't like to read books where things end where the reader is left to decide what it all means. I may have my own opinions, but I like to know what the author meant by the story. So I make sure I explain, again very quickly, how things are ending in a narrator voice.
If You Are Writing in a Series:
If you are writing a series, it's important to also let the reader know the back story continues. I always include a link to a signup list for readers to be notified of any new books that I am releasing.
Check Out My Video Below:
I have a video on this crime mystery technique below. For your convenience, I have the timestamps below if you want to jump to a specific section:
00:15 - Snapshot from a Crime Scene Clues List from another storyline
00:45 - Part 1 - Elements needed
01:29 - Part 1 - Dripping background information
01:45 - Part 2 - Adding additional suspects and motivations
02:24 - Part 2 - The Midpoint of the Story
03:00 - Part 3 - The Plot thickens - Secrets and revelations
03:30 - Part 3 - The Dark Night of the Soul
03:52 - Part 4 - First section is the big reveal
04:23 - Part 4 - Second half - Wrap up of the crime or mystery, show the growth of the characters and the new normal.
04:53 - Part 4 - Series clue that the story continues with a new adventure