[Giovanna Clairval]

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

so I suppose you should take my thoughts on the matter with a whole shaker of salt.

I like your salt. Can I borrow the shaker?

So far, I’ve written five novels (in a series), respecting a five-act structure consisting in ten chapters each, of similar length.

As I am a character-driven writer, and I hear in my head those characters talking, talking, and taking the story where the hell they want, I find it practical to keep them at bay within a structure. This helps me with the plot, as I go on, by giving me the position of the famous turning point, middle and so on. I guess this method would work better with a three-act narrative, but this is how I began, and I like symmetry, poor me.
But there are three different storylines in my novels, and, even if I always write in a linear way, I often move these secondary chapters around, trying to find the best spots for placing them.
I usually complete the principal thread, and write the other two afterwards. The main story is jotted down in a few weeks, and then I spend a lot of time re-writing, of course.

And I always start a story knowing what the ending is. I don’t actually write the final chapter, but I know, more or less exactly, what it will be.