Write Better Novels: Fix Your Story Structure

Your In-house Editor’s Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Novel:

Learn how to fix your story structure without falling into info-dumping. This guide helps writers build pacing and plot that actually works.

⚠️ Warning: This guide may cause sudden novel breakthroughs, emotional catharsis, and an uncontrollable urge to plot multiple WIPs simultaneously.

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Hi, I’m Ann—but my friends call me Pasta.
We’re friends now, right? Cool. Call me that.

I’m one of the editors here at AlònTala , and your local chaos-wrangler when it comes to story structure, emotionally unhinged character arcs, and figuring out why that one line you almost deleted actually slaps.

This guide isn’t just about outlining or fixing your pacing. It’s about how you stand out as a writer. The way you wield tension, restraint, and structure? That’s the difference between “meh, cool lore” and “holy shit, I need this tattooed on my soul.”

So—you’ve got a killer idea for a story.

The world? Lush.

The characters? Deliciously layered.

The culture? So original it scares you a little 👀.

But let’s talk about the dragon in the room. Or more accurately: the flaming, bloated, scene-ruining disaster that is ✨Info-Dumping✨.

Yep. That moment in Chapter One where you unload every single god, kingdom, coin, and cataclysm the world’s ever known. And listen—I get it. You’re proud of your world. You should be. It’s sexy. It’s intricate. It deserves fan art and a wiki.

But if you throw all of it at me in the first five pages? I’m not reading your story. I’m studying for a midterm.

Here’s the cold (but loving) truth:

That world you built? It only matters if I care.

And I won’t care until I care about your character.

So let’s slow our roll. Let me fall into the world through someone’s eyes, not via a lecture. That’s where the real magic is—discovery, curiosity, that “ohhhhhh snap” moment when something clicks three chapters later and I realize what that throwaway line in Chapter 2 really meant.

So how do you sneak in your delicious lore without turning Chapter One into a Wikipedia entry on elf taxes? Easy—

You structure it.

Not the boring kind. Not with rigid rules or soul-killing spreadsheets (unless you’re into that—we listen and we don’t judge).

But with a solid, flexible outline that gives your story shape without strangling your creativity. The kind that gives you room to breathe and slay.

Let me show you how. Whether you’re writing a 30-chapter fantasy epic, a spicy novella, or a 3k flash fiction that punches me in the chest—I got you.

Here’s a fun little treat for your writer brain: Copy and paste this structure for ANY story.

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✨ The Basics: Think Acts, Not Dumps

Every story has a Beginning, Middle, and End. We’re gonna fancy that up into three acts:

• Act I – The Setup
• Act II – The Shift
• Act III – The Showdown

This isn’t about following some sacred template. It’s about giving your brain a map so it can stop spiraling every time you open a blank doc and think “wait what happens now??”

Let’s break it down using a 30-chapter novel as a model. You can stretch or squish it however you want—storytelling isn’t IKEA furniture.

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🌀 ACT I — Introduction / The Spark (Chapters 1–5)

AKA: The Calm Before the Existential Tsunami

This is where you seduce the reader. Not with worldbuilding info-dumps (put that lore down), but with vibe. We’re setting up normal life, before we gleefully set it on fire. Think of this act as the emotional bait—the trap that makes us care just enough to suffer later. 😈

Chapter Breakdown:

1 – Main Character Enters the Chat
Give us their vibe. Do they microwave tea? Name their weapons? Alphabetize trauma? I want to know what “normal” looks like for them so I can sob when it’s gone.

2 – The World Peeks Through
No lectures. Just background lore photobombing the scene. Show me weird local greetings, lizard gods on street murals, or that one annoying neighbor who insists on singing during full moons. Worldbuilding = seasoning. Do NOT salt your story like the sea… yet.

3 – Internal Itch™
Your MC is restless. Maybe they don’t know why. Maybe they do but are in deep denial. Either way, the cracks are showing. We smell change in the air—and it reeks of destiny and poor choices.

4 – Something Hits the Fan
News drops. A letter. A corpse. A prophecy scribbled on the back of a tavern napkin. Stakes just crash-landed in the narrative, and your MC is officially NOT okay.

5 – The Shove
There’s a push—literal, emotional, magical, whatever—that yanks them out of Normalville. They make a choice. Or the choice makes them. Either way, Act I ends with them stepping off the ledge and into Act II – The Plot.

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🔥 ACT II — The Plot / The Journey (Chapters 6–24)

AKA: Everything Gets Worse But In a Sexy Character Development Way

This is the meat suit of the story. Here, your MC’s spine gets forged in the fires of bad decisions and painful growth. This act slaps. It breaks. It betrays. It reveals. And if done right, it’s the act where readers stop thinking, “Cool story” and start saying, “I would die for this character.”

Chapters 6–14: The Rising

Your MC is officially in the narrative quicksand. The old world is dead, and the new one is throwing hands.

Highlights:

• Introduce weird little guys — allies, rivals, morally confusing love interests… a new goldfish? But only if they serve the plot. (Do NOT cook the fish. I repeat: DO NOT COOK THE FISH.)
• Pull back the curtain on the world—more magic, more danger, more drama
• Drop in moral dilemmas like “save the town or save your bestie” (Or the fish you didn’t cook, because — ta-dah! — They hold the cure for cancer)
• Raise the stakes so high the air gets thin

They’re learning. They’re failing. They’re growing in that awful, thrilling way that scars beautifully.

Chapters 15–20: The Midpoint OH NO

This is the narrative slap across the face. Something BIG happens and now everything they thought they knew is lies wrapped in betrayal, seasoned with identity crisis.

Examples:

• “You thought you were the chosen one? Honey, you’re the weapon.”
• “That guy you trusted? He’s been ghostwriting your destiny since Chapter 3.”
• “You thought the quest was to kill the queen? Surprise—she’s your mother. And she’s been waiting for you.”

This is where the story changes shape. The vibes shift. The mission flips. Now it’s personal, and it hurts.

Chapters 21–24: The Spiral

Our hero is battered. They’ve lost something—maybe someone. Maybe themselves. And now they have to keep going, with blood in their boots and fire in their chest.

Deliver:

• Consequences (real ones)
• Doubts. Despair. The “maybe I should just lie down in the mud and give up” moment
• A brutal reminder that choices echo, and not always in nice ways
• A cliffhanger that makes Act III feel inevitable, terrifying, and earned

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⚔️ ACT III — The Resolution & Ending / The Showdown (Chapters 25–30)

AKA: Lore Bombs, Battle Screams, and Emotional Reckonings

We made it. Barely. This is where everything—worldbuilding, emotions, trauma, glittering plot threads—pays off. If Act I is the setup and Act II is the break, this act is the boom.

Chapters 25–27: The Build-Up Before the Punch

25 – Everyone’s limping, grieving, or just plain ✨done✨. Time to regroup.
26 – Final plan. Desperate. Stupid. Probably going to end in tears.
27 – The wheels are turning. Clock’s ticking. We’re locked in. You can hear the theme music rising.

Chapters 28–29: The Climax

28 – THE showdown. Betrayals revealed. Monsters unleashed. Truths slapped onto the table. It’s messy and glorious.
29 – Aftermath. What broke? Who lived? What changed forever?

Chapter 30: The After

Your character has changed. They’re not who they were in Chapter 1—and the world knows it. Maybe they win. Maybe they lose. Maybe they don’t even survive. But either way, they’ve effectively changed the entire story. And hopefully, they’ve changed something in the reader.

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🎁 Final Thoughts: Structure = Creative Freedom (I Swear)

I know the word “outline” can make writers recoil like vampires from sunlight. But hear me out:

Structure doesn’t kill creativity. It gives it somewhere to live.

You can always break the rules. But if you know the rules first? You’ll break them with intention, not just vibes.

This kind of loose scaffolding means you can:

• Layer your worldbuilding exactly where it hits hardest
• Keep your pacing tight without losing the emotional arc
• Stop getting stuck every time you hit “Chapter 12” and forget what stories even are.

So start here. Play with it. Break it later if you want. But don’t leave yourself lost in a fog of maps and lore.

You’ve got the vision. You’ve got the voice.
Now you’ve got the structure to back it up.

Go build something that knocks us flat.

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📚 Want more chaotic wisdom on writing, storytelling, and slaying your WIP?

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Have questions? Suggestions? Profess your undying love and affection for a member of the team? 👀 We listen and we don’t judge. Send us an email at hello@alontala.com

Want to get to know AlonTala? Read “What We’re Really Doing Here,” to learn about our lore origin story.