Here's a relevant quote to our novel talk:
"The Beginning is about one quarter of the Story.
The Middle is about one half of the Story.
The End is the last quarter of the Story."
Followed by some number suggestions:
"...writing a 100,000-word novel, we’ll have about 50 scene/chapters in our novel ..."
"Two thousand word scene/chapters is potato chip length."
"12/25/13"
I'll break it down to this as a fair estimate:
- 12 chapters of 2000 words form the beginning
- 25 chapters of 2000 words for the middle
- 13 chapters of 2000 words give you the ending
Now, if it were only so damn easy! Happy writing!
Of all the links that have been posted on this blog, this is by far my favorite for multiple reasons. The first reason is because The Math article. The article broke down a story through mathematics that can make sense to all writers. I love to think of things as they relate to rules especially involving numbers. Thinking of a story as 25% the first beginning of the story, 50% the middle of the story, and the final 25% the ending of the story is a great way to start organizing a story. for me when I think of a story I need to organize it a specific way in order to start writing and the numbers in this article is a great starting point for a writer like me.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason I enjoyed this article is because of how we used it in class. This was the only article we used as a full class activity by arguing whether the math in this article being included in a book makes the book better rather than a book not following the math at all. This was my favorite activity we did in class because everyone really got into it. it also helped us come to the conclusion that the math although not necessary, in making a story good, does help organize a story and because of that many stories use this math. We also learned that their are many examples of great books that do not follow the math so it really depends on how the author wants to write the book.
This article was very helpful for this class in learning a better way of organization. The article will also help me after this class in benefitting my writing. As a screenwriter I am always looking for easier ways to organize my story and this is very similar to the three-act story structure I have learned in various screenwriting classes. This reassures me this is a great way of organizing all stories and that many people use this math to benefit their story's structure.