Where did the subtitle “A Novel in Five Acts” come from?

Q: The subtitle of Blue Mountain Rose is “A Novel in Five Acts.” Where did that come from, and when in your process did you select it?

A: In January 2023, I began looking for an idea I could develop into a book. Ideas flew into my mind, stayed there for a day or three, and then lost steam. But in mid-March, my writer’s log says, I started working more intentionally with an idea then called “The Summit Theatre.”

Writer’s log 3/12: Wrote intro to a scene for Summit Theater. 51 min

Throughout March, I worked on this idea with growing excitement. The setting was a venerable outdoor theatre, falling apart at the seams but filled with charm. I built what I call a Seed document, where I captured all sorts of ideas and information about theaters and acting and the characters I was creating. Then the characters started talking with each other.

As I wrote scenes, I felt elated amid the frenzy of creation. Eventually, I also felt a bit lost in all the thousands of words I was pouring into myriad documents.

Writer’s log 4/4: I think I need to create a solid list of scenes, taking all the characters through all their arcs, before I start writing. Is that realistic?

On April 7, I stepped back from the writing desk. I knew from past experience that when I head into a novel without plotting it out ahead of time, I can write myself off a cliff. This book felt filled with potential, and I didn’t want it to meet the same fate. But I didn’t know how people went about plotting their books.

So I gave myself a crash course in Novel Plotting 101, watching YouTube videos and reading useful websites about novel-writing.

Writer’s log 4/16: Building a full plot in which things happen in reasonable order is complicated!

I found a helpful video called “How to Outline: 3 act 9 block chapter example,” by a person called Katytastic. It came at just the right time. I had documents full of ideas, scenes, and character sketches. This video helped me organize all those words, first in my mind and then in a very long central document I called “Working version of full BMR plot.” (There never was a final version. The plot remained a work in progress until the last draft of the book itself.)

Katytastic’s video is what gave me the idea for my subtitle. Other novelists can do quite well in a three-act structure. But Shakespeare is my muse. If Shakespeare could pull off all those plays in five acts, surely I could write one novel that way!

I can’t explain what the five acts are here in this post, because that would spoil things for readers who haven’t yet experienced Blue Mountain Rose. But I can say that once I wrote down the five-act structure, I stuck to it. Sturdy and sound, it gave me confidence throughout the writing process.

After a few weeks, I had a plot outline that could carry me all the way from the prologue I’d already written for Kate to an ending that encompassed every character’s story arc. Finally, I could write this:

Writer’s log 4/22: STARTED WRITING AGAIN.

Excerpt from “Working version of full BMR plot”

I:10 Scene in late March, maybe in the car on the way home from piano: Beth asks Kate who her father is. Kate, protective of their happy life together, does not want this drama. Beth is an only child of a single mom and believes her mom would do anything for her because she always has, so this refusal shocks her. She is a dramatic kid.