Hi all, what would you say is a good amount of beats for the montage and betrayal? Growing up they used to tell us three up and three down is a safe place since they mirror each other, but I just wanted to know what y’all thought.
Thanks.
Hey Alaukwa. It depends on what you mean by “beats,” that idea is used differently within different methods/circles. (It’s not really a concept we employ in the Novel Matrix.)
If you mean scenes, then three up and three down probably won’t be enough. The montage and betrayal make up your entire second act and typically represent 15,000-30,000 words. Unless you’re writing very long scenes, six scenes probably won’t do the trick. For a writer with roughly average scene length you’re probably looking at more like six scenes up, and six scenes down.
But really, how many scenes does it take to effectively tell your story? The structure always serves the story, not the other way around. In order to move your protagonist from their Rock Bottom to their Icarus Moment, what needs to happen? How much do you need to show us? Start by telling the tightest story you can, and then you can feel it out in revisions and expand/contract as necessary.
