Michael Neff Contributes to Author Salon, The Project Development Site
Michael Neff, the director of WebdelSol.Com, Writers Helping Others, and Algonkian Writer Conferences joins the staff of Author Salon that includes former Random House senior editor Caitlin Alexander, Cary Tennis of Salon.Com, bestselling author Barbara Kyle, editor Carla Jablonski, Pulitzer-winning author Jane Smiley, and many more.
His contributions to the site include articles and studies regarding the art of fiction–much of it created for Algonkian Writer Conferences, while other articles were conceived at Author Salon.
We particularly like his piece on the Six Act Two-Goal novel:
Author Salon has developed the Six Act Two-Goal novel structure for writers of book-length fiction and nonfiction. The point here is to understand and utilize a tightly plotted act structure, similar to that used by screenplay writers, to effectively brainstorm and outline a very competitive and suspenseful plot for the genre novel, i.e., fantasy, SF, YA/MG, mystery, and so forth. Upmarket or literary fiction with a strong plot also benefits.
We combine Siegal’s “nine act structure – two goal” screenplay (very much like the Syd Field three act except that the “reversal” from Field’s structure becomes the “Act 5″ in Siegal’s version) with the Field classic three act. The Two-Goal Structure, Siegal maintains, creates more dynamic plot tension due to the insertion of PLOT REVERSAL later in the story, and we concur with this.
For more on this article at Author Salon, follow this link.
We already have! We just wish MFA programs had something like this. Seriously.
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