Behind the Scenes: Chapter 5 to 8
This post explores the storytelling techniques and structure of chapters 5 to 8 of The Other Side of the Ocean
Behind the Scenes posts are designed to provide insights into the storytelling techniques, strategies and structures that came together behind the scenes to shape the story The Other Side of the Ocean (which you’re welcome to read and participate in shaping, too!).
This post explores the storytelling structure behind chapters 5-8 of The Other Side of the Ocean. You can also learn more about chapters 1-4 and chapters 9-12.
Dear readers and writers,
Welcome to another edition of Behind the Scenes of The Other Side of the Ocean!
In Behind the Scenes, we study storytelling techniques and structure by exploring the story structure for The Other Side of the Ocean. When I created the outline for this story, I knew we were publishing chapters live with feedback from readers and in about 12 relatively short chapters, so I really wanted to make sure that there was enough room in the writing for the characters to learn and to grow.
Experience has shown me that creating characters who want something, pursue that something and learn something new in the process may be the most important ingredient in a compelling story. The story outline I put together has been majorly helpful in guiding me as I write The Other Side of the Ocean in a way that clearly—and, hopefully, compellingly—presents the characters’ desires, the actions they’re taking to pursue them, and the lessons the characters learn along the way.
In this post, we’re going to pull back the curtain on the structure and story goals behind chapters 5 to 8 of The Other Side of the Ocean.
Table of Contents
Overview
Chapters 1 to 4: Establish What the Protagonist Wants and Obstacles to Achieving it (Act 1)
Transition from Chapters 4 to 5: The Protagonist Explores a New World
Chapters 5 to 8: The Stakes Are Raised (Act 2)
The Story Structure of The Other Side of the Ocean: Chapters 5-8
Summary: Chapters 5-8
Overview of Acts 1 and 2
Sections 1 to 4: Establish What the Protagonist Wants and Obstacles to Achieving it (Act 1)
In sections 1 to 4, we see Hailey in her world and what her days are typically like. We learn that:
Hailey wants something: to cure her anxiety, hypochondria and heart-racing episodes
and she’s taking action to pursue what she wants: she’s visiting her school guidance counsellor and she did some tests with her family doctor
but she is facing obstacles: asking her parents about her father’s family history would disrupt Hailey’s comforting home life and, worse, potentially hurt two of the people she cares about most. Also, Hailey wants to confide in Almira but is struggling to open up.
In sections 1 to 4, we’ve established what our protagonist wants, that she’s taking action to pursue it, and that she’s facing obstacles along the way.
We also learn about some of the secondary characters. We learn that
Hailey’s dad seems excited to edit a book about travel,
Almira seems to want Hailey to attend the Future is Bright Party, and
Sandra seems to like to know everyone’s secrets.
Transition from Section 4 to 5: The Protagonist Explores a New World
In may ways, at the end of section 4: Everything gets flipped upside down, Hailey and we, the readers, are catapulted into a “new world”.
This world isn’t “new” in the physical sense like when Alice falls down the rabbit hole or Anne arrives at Green Gables or Frodo leaves the Shire, but it is a “new world” in the sense that Hailey starts looking through her parents’ things—something she doesn’t normally do, and something that affects her usual relationship with them—and finds new information that changes her perspective and her understanding of her world.
According to Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel—which is the inspiration behind the structural approach I took for The Other Side of the Ocean—this “new world” is called “break into two,” and it’s the fifth of the 15 beats that Brody argues appear in most of the famous stories we know and love.
In the next section, we look at what sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 accomplish for the story—specifically, what they do to help Hailey and other characters get closer to achieving what they want, overcoming obstacles and learning something new about what they really want.
Sections 5 to 8: The Stakes Are Raised (Act 2)
Recall that in a three-act structure, generally:
Act one sets up the story.
Act two develops the story and raises the stakes.
Act three provides the story resolution.
In sections 5 to 8 of The Other Side of the Ocean, the action and the protagonist’s internal journey intensify.
For the first time, Hailey looks through her parents’ private things to learn more about her family history, and learns something that completely changes her world as she knows it.
For the first time, Hailey opens up to Almira about her struggles, and Almira opens up to Hailey about hers.
Hailey has ben avoiding thinking about what she’ll do after high school, but she accepts Almira’s invitation to attend the Future is Bright party, where her big secret is broadcast to her entire grade.
Talk about raising stakes!
The Story Structure of The Other Side of the Ocean: Sections 5 to 8
If you’re writing your own story, want to write a story, would like to learn about storytelling techniques or are just curious about the planning behind The Other Side of the Ocean, then this section is for you! This is where we’ll share with you the structure and story goals behind the events that take place in section 5 to 8 of The Other Side of the Ocean.
**Please note: there are The Other Side of the Ocean spoilers below!**
To help create a story structure/outline that supports the telling of a compelling story, I followed elements from Jessica Brody’s fantastic book Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. That book outlines 15 events (“beats”) that take place in most of the stories we know and love.
Sections 5-8 align with beats #6-11: Break into 2; B Story; Fun and Games; Midpoint; Bad Guys Close In and All Is Lost.
Note: For a more detailed understanding of the purpose of each of the four beats below, read Jessica Brody’s descriptions of the “beats” (each of the four beats below is hyperlinked to lead you to the beat description) before reviewing the corresponding The Other Side of the Ocean scene summary.
Beat #6: Break into 2 (section 5): When Hailey looks through her parents’ things and reads about how they met, we see Hailey taking action to follow her doctor’s advice to learn more about her family health history (even though she doesn’t get those answers yet) to help her resolve the issue of the heart-racing episodes.
Beats #7 and #8: B Story and Fun and Games (section 6): When Almira accidentally catches Hailey in the act of searching through her parents’ room, Hailey takes the opportunity to open up to her—which is one of the things she really wanted since before the beginning of the story.
In this scene, Almira, too, takes a step to achieve something she wants, which is to become closer friends with Hailey too—by opening up about her problems. Both friends share what they’re struggling with and, despite the anxiety-inducing circumstances, Hailey feels better thanks to following her instinct to trust Almira.
Beats #9 and #10: Midpoint and Bad Guys Close In (section 7): One of my university professors shared a theory that something major happens (like a turning point) at the halfway point in a novel. Section 7 is the story’s midpoint, and Hailey realizes two major things here.
One: Hailey realizes that she’s been so focused on the mystery of her family’s history that she hasn’t had a heart-racing episode in a while! But when she starts to feel stressed thinking about the Future is Bright party and how she doesn’t know what she’s going to do after high school, she experiences another heart-racing episode—her first that she handles well on her own. This shows that Hailey is growing and making progress in managing her anxiety. This also hints at the possibility of her heart-racing episodes being related to thoughts of what she’s going to do after high school.
The other major thing that Hailey realizes is something that creates a multitude of questions about her family history and throws what she knows about her history completely upside down: when her dad met her mom, her mom was already pregnant with her.
Beat #11: All Is Lost (section 8): This is when the stakes are even higher and the pressure is on. Hailey knows her love for her dad hasn’t changed at all, but now she has questions—and she’s starting to feel a need to disrupt her comfortable home life and take a risk in two of her most important relationships to find answers.
The stakes are also rising in her school life. The pressure is on to make a decision about her future before the deadline that night.
As if that’s not enough, two classmates talk about seeing Hailey visit the school counsellor, busting open her secret loud enough for the entire grade to hear.
Summary: Chapters 5-8
In summary, in chapters 5 to 8, we see Hailey:
take action to pursue what she wants
progress and grow along the way
face more obstacles when the stakes are raised even higher as she moves towards what she wants to accomplish while protecting what—and who—is important to her
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at structuring The Other Side of the Ocean. If you have any particular questions about storytelling and story structures, you’re welcome to share them in the comments below!
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