The 2026 Novel Writing Challenge: Task #17

Happy Monday everyone. We made it through the weekend, which this weekend seems like a lot. Are you ready for your next task? It’s a fun one. You will need the three act break out list we created towards the end of last week. And you will need your list of plot elements we created before we started pulling together the Acts. Before we start the task for today, take a minute and read through them. Both lists. The first list is a lot of brainstorming of ideas. These are things that your initial sparked in your brain. Sometimes they are great ideas that stay with you as you develop the three act break out while other times they morph into something else. Occasionally you will decide you are trying to cram too many thoughts into one story and that some of your things to add to this idea and eventual manuscript, need their own space to breathe.

And sometimes you need to just remember some of the details you wanted to include moving forward. A lot of this seems a bit repetitive in the initial planning phase because what we are doing is turning our idea around and around so that we can study it. Think of it like a kaleidoscope. All the bits are different colored glass and we are turning the dial to find exactly which pattern suits us the best.

So before you begin writing today take the time to read through both of those lists. We will wait. And today’s hold music will be You Shook Me by ACDC. Primarily because when I look out of my window I can see my neighbor shaking his tree. I believe he is trying to get some of the dead limbs to fall because they have called for high winds this afternoon, but as I only know him enough to wave to him when I see him in the yard, I don’t really know. That seems logical though, right? Still music while we wait.

So has everyone read through things? Excellent. Now for today’s task. We are going to take our act one and under each of our one through six points we are going to put three to five bullet points. We are back to plot so we are concentrating on the physical things that happen, not the emotions. These bullet points are going to be things that happen as a part of that point in our plot. Things we want to mention. This is why we have both of our lists out. We are going to be migrating a lot of those plot points we came up with after our initial idea and start to organize them under the three act structure. Remember that Act 1 is only a quarter of your plot (relatively speaking) so try to limit yourself to three to five bullet points under each. These can be actions of things you want to remember to mention.

And we are only working with Act 1 today. For our example, we are going back to Bob. We will start by listing the six points of Act one and then we will go through and add our bullet points.

Act 1 as it stands now…

Act 1

1: The start of the Story. Bob is working for his Father-in-law as he had a heart attack and there was no one else available to keep the family business afloat. (trapped)

2:The issue with the everyday world: Bob went to school to be a Marine Biologist but even though he takes small jobs in his field when he can, he feels that more and more of his life is becoming about the Lumber Yard. (lost, trapped, sad, exhausted)

3: Inciting Incident: Bob had to change systems and processes when he started taking over because the business was heading for bankruptcy and now that they are in the black Henry insists on going back to the way things were and making things more miserable (actively miserable) for Bob at work. (determined and miserable))

4:Chocies: His FiL hints (in several unsubtle ways) that he should quit giving him the opportunity of walking away. (annoyed, underappreciated)

5: Second thoughts: Bob realizes that if he leaves everything will go back to being run the way it was and the business will fail in a year or two. (responsible, determined)

6:Decision:Bob decides he will train some of the others so they will understand the system and then once they can manage things competently he will pull himself out of the company so it doesn’t just collapse. (pleased with himself, hopeful for an exit strategy)

And now we add the bullet points

Act 1

1: The start of the Story. Bob is working for his Father-in-law as he had a heart attack and there was no one else available to keep the family business afloat. (trapped)

The business is a lumber yard.
Bob is running the lumber yard, show a little day to day before things get crazy.
Bob is very good at organizing things and following a plan while Henry (FiL) flies by the seat of his pants calling his loose and disorganized stacks of things the traditional method that worked for him despite things going missing and the system clearly not working.

After work Bob goes home and we see his man cave/lab where he works on small projects, primarily data analyzation.
His wife Sarah is out with friends so he makes a sandwich and eats while he works.
At breakfast they don’t have much to say to each other. Show the repetitive circle.
Add in comments about family, He wants her to talk to her father, she doesn’t want to get involved but defends the family not Bob. He then goes back to work to start a day much like the last.

Henry who is back for a limited number of hours each day tries to input something into the system and it won’t let him do it the old way because it is a new system. He is yelling at the computer when Bob arrives.
Bob explains it again and Henry points to out of date charts. Henry wants to go back to his scribbled notes and post it notations and Bob says they can’t because of the number of people accessing, Henry says he is the one who needs to know and everyone can just ask him.
Bob tries hard to avoid pointing out that Henry’s system was running them into bankruptcy. Specifically avoids mentioning money so as not to start that argument.

4:Chocies: His FiL hints (in several unsubtle ways) that he should quit giving him the opportunity of walking away. (annoyed, underappreciated)

Henry says that now he is better they should get back to his system since Bob isn’t going to be there forever. Also says things along the line of getting rid of him and the new system at the same time.
Mention of how Chuck is now old enough to take on more responsibility and how he should be in charge because he is family.
Small digs in general to undermine Bob in the eyes of the family.
Show those not family appreciate Bob being there.
Bob knows they are currently in the black and thinks about leaving.

5: Second thoughts: Bob realizes that if he leaves everything will go back to being run the way it was and the business will fail in a year or two. (responsible, determined)

Bob knows that the inventory and sales system with trackers will be shut off by Henry as soon as he walks out the door.
He also knows Henry’s system can’t keep track of things. It was fine when they were a small operation, but they are much larger and Henry’s system didn’t work before the Heart attack. Five years later dropping the system everyone else is using will cause major problems and spiral things back towards bankruptcy.
Bob knows if he leaves and they fail he will be blamed even if he isn’t there.
Bob also knows if it does start to go down, Henry could have another attack and he will be called back to fix the mess he already cleared up once before.

Bob realizes he can’t stay. It is killing him.
He also knows he doesn’t want to come back when the ship goes down again.
Bob looks at the family members trying to figure out who can keep things running or keep Henry from destroying the system so it won’t collapse and he can escape.

And there we have our list. You will notice that a lot of this is stuff we want to remember in those particular sections. This is not a chapter break out. We will be getting there, but for now, we are still organizing our plans. And with that, I leave you until tomorrow and our next task.

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