At this year’s AWP in Seattle, I attended two panels on structuring the realist literary novel. In genre and commercial fiction, the plot is often external. A murder mystery. A fantastic quest. A romantic pursuit. But in realist fiction, oftentimes the plot is internal, driven by the characters’ desires and wants.

Clearly there are no hard and fast rules to structure, but the panels and AWP argued that most successful literary novels follow a 3-part or 4-part guideline, intentionally or not. I’m going to analyze a general 4-part structure, but I’ve added my own take on the points of transition between them. To illustrate, I’m going to use the large story arc of all seven Harry Potter books. (Using a genre fic like HP helps to more clearly point out the differences between the parts.) HP spoilers, duh.

I’m also going to give examples from my novel-in-progress, but only for the first part, since giving the rest of the story away kind of defeats the purpose of trying to get it published at all.

Here’s a quick look at the flow of a general 4-part novel:

 

Inciting Incident

The event that begins the narrative, the start of our links of causality. When I took a workshop with Darin Strauss, he told us to imagine our stories as rocks perched at the edge of a cliff. The inciting incident, then, is a bird that flies by and hits the rock, sending it tumbling down the cliff. It is the moment of change. A stranger comes to town. A character decides to quit smoking. A car crash. The inciting incident is that cusp of change that ripples into the rest of the novel.

Harry Potter Inciting Incident – Harry gets a letter in the mail from Hogwarts.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies Inciting Incident – Lucky gets a call from her mother, asking her to move back to her hometown to take care of her ailing Grandmother.

Part I

The beginning, where characters are introduced and their desires are revealed to the reader. We get acquainted to the world of the story—its internal logic, its heroes, its villains. We are introduced to what’s at stake in the story.

Harry Potter Part I – The entire first 3 books, which invite us into the world. We experience and learn about the wizarding world as Harry does. We learn about Voldemort, about the war, about the inequalities and political struggles within the wizarding world.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies Part I – We are introduced to Lucky’s family, her marriage of convenience, and the tensions between her and her mother. We learn why she keeps her sexuality a secret, and realize the stakes involved.

100-page Problem

I’m calling this such because in a 300-page literary novel, the incident usually comes around the 70-100-page mark. This is the event that kicks off the rest of the novel, the point of transition between the beginning and the middle. So far, we’ve coasted on the effects of the inciting incident, but now we need something else to carry us through the rest of the novel. At this point, causality should increase, and the rest of the scenes have to feel like they’re building toward something. This is usually when the larger story arc kicks in. The 100-page Problem introduces the major obstacle between the protagonist and his or her desires.

Harry Potter 100-page Problem – Wormtail escapes capture at the end of Prizoner of Azkaban, setting in motion the larger story arc of Voldemort’s second rise to power.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies 100-page Problem – While living at home, Lucky rekindles romance with her childhood friend Nisha, but Nisha announces that she’s getting an arranged marriage. This is the major problem that Lucky must now solve. Just because it’s called the 100-page Problem doesn’t mean it needs to come at the end of the first third of the story. Nisha’s marriage is revealed early on in Part I, but it takes a while for the romance to begin, and even longer for Lucky to be truly invested in her relationship with Nisha.

Part II

The “seeking” phase, where the character seeks his or her desires and reacts to the problem posed by the 100-page Problem. A lot of fumbling around the obstacle, but without a clear idea on how to beat it.

Harry Potter Part II – The 4th and 5th books, in which Harry seeks the things he wants, but is still reacting to the world. Things keep happening TO him, and he reacts.

Turning Point

The incident that changes the course of events, or raises the stakes. Usually comes around the middle of the story, and transitions from Part II to Part III. This is the incident that causes the protagonist to start to act.

Harry Potter Turning Point – Sirius’s death. This is the first time in a long time that Harry loses a loved one to the war. It changes the stakes of the narrative, and signal’s Harry’s loss of innocence. After this, he goes after Voldemort and is more invested in defeating him, rather than just living a normal life.

Part III

The character stops seeking and starts acting to fulfill their desires in spite of the obstacle posed.

Harry Potter Part III – The 6th book, where Harry is mature and proactive about fighting Voldemort, even as he struggles to accept his role as the chosen one.

Twist

Transitions from the middle to the end, and reveals the final hurdle—the last obstacle that stands in the way of the character and her desires. This can be an actual plot twist, or just a bend in the road of the narrative that changes the perspective or stake—either way, it’s the last piece of the puzzle, the last bit of new information we need to reach the end.

Harry Potter Twist – Horcruxes. Now, Harry knows what he has to do, even though he doesn’t know how yet. This is the last piece of the puzzle. The mystery of Voldemort’s “immortality” is revealed.

Part IV

The ending, most of which is the build up to the climax. Stakes are high, tension is high, suspense is high. Resolution is imminent.

Harry Potter Part IV – The last book, when the death count keeps rising, fissures start to form between Harry and Ron, and they’re all racing against time to find and destroy the Horcruxes.

Climax

The moment of highest tension in the story. Fight or flight. Life or death. Or something much less dramatic, but where the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. The character comes up against the obstacle for the final time.

Harry Potter Climax – The Battle of Hogwarts.

Dénouement

The falling action. In contemporary literature, the dénouement section keeps getting smaller and smaller. It wraps up the rest of the story, and eases the reader out of the narrative. Or throws the reader out. Whatever works.

Harry Potter Dénouement – Everything after the Battle of Hogwarts and before the Epilogue (though, like most fans, I subscribe to the EWE philosophy—Epilogue? What Epilogue?).

So does this mean structure always wins?

Of course not. But pick up your favorite novel, and try deconstructing it using the 3- or 4-part structure. Not all novels follow it, and there are many novels that don’t. But for the most part, structure is interesting in that it allows us to talk about the progress of the novel, and to plot out the plot. Let’s look at the fancy graphic again.

Does this mean I support outlining? Only after drafting it all out the first time. I’m a fan of wandering, of letting the story tell itself for a while, then going back and figuring out the shapes of these parts and the moments of transition between them.

Does this mean my novel falls into this structure? Not exactly. I wrote without outlining, without a structure in mind, so the story is largely unstructured. But I can point to the general moments of transition between different parts, and an awareness of structure is never bad.