Act II of your novel, otherwise known as the middle of your novel, should make up roughly 50-65% of your novel.

To close the category on how to write the beginning of your novel I am going to outline the structure that each act in a novel should have. The source that I used to gather this information is Joseph Bates’s book The Nighttime Novelist: Finish Your Novel In Your Spare Time. For anyone who is  wishing to write a novel in their dwindling spare time, I would recommend this book. It has been a huge help to me. In this post I will be using the outline structure and elements from Joseph Bate’s book and adding my own blurbs and explanations.

Act II basic elements:

• First Culmination
• Darkest Moment
• Plot Point Two

The first culmination should take place at the midpoint of Act II, it is when the protagonist is within reach of accomplishing his goal but fails. In terms of the positive change character arc this is when the protagonist should almost discover the truth but fall just shy of it. This is a moment of intense internal and external struggle for the protagonist.

The darkest moment is when all hope seems lost and should take place soon after the first culmination. It is when the protagonist gives up. They have had victory within reach and failed to attain it. They think they are failures. They see the truth but there is nothing they can do about it. This should be a very emotional experience for the protagonist and the reader.

Plot point two should take pace right before the third act, this is when the protagonist rises from the ashes and decides to risk it all one more time. This is the turning point in which the character realizes what is true and what he believed before was false and now it is time for him to make a last stand against his internal and external conflict.

In order to not give away the entire plot of The Meer Series Book One, I going to include a link to a good example of these for anyone that is interested:

How to Write a Novel Using The Three Act Structure

Click here for more information on Joseph Bates’s book The Nighttime Novelist:

The Nighttime Novelist