Three Act Structure: Act Three

Before finishing up this series, I just wanted to say I'm now in the third act of The Goddess of Vengeance Wore Pink Galoshes.  Only, kinda not really. At around 77k I should be passionately plumetting through those final pages, close to the ending, but I've been not very enthusiastic about writing the end. What I have been feeling quite excited about was the idea of going back and revising, trying to straighten up some problem areas I'd already identified.  I just felt I had to slog through the last bit to the end first.

And then I realized, why? Who's the writer here? So I'm paused at 77k, 5-10k from typing The End on the first draft, to begin revisions. I feel the tweaks along the way might cause some changes to the ending and that I might feel powered up and eager to write the ending once I've worked through everything so far.

Updates to come on whether this ends up being a terrible idea. :p
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The excellent Thanks, But This Isn't For Us by Jessica Page Morrell has fueled my desire for revisions, to be honest. But as well as picking on characters and dialogue, she offers a helpful guide to structure - namely the ever-popular (for many reasons) three act structure.

The third act is where your MC faces his or her biggest challenge. Whatever has been building all this time, your MC has emerged from the Long Dark Night of the Soul ready for the fight - whether that means trying to win back her true love or facing down a serial killer, depending on genre and story.

Morrell's guide to the happenings in act three:

• What was learned in the Dark Night of the Soul is put to the test. (In fact, I'm coming to think of this as where we really see the effect of character evolution throughout the first two acts - at least, that's what I have with Lauren in Pink Galoshes).
• Pace picks up throughout the ending - shorter chapters, action boiling. The end delivers the emotional high (and/or low) point.
• The MC undergoes both external and internal change.
• The ending answers story questions and problems and ties up most or all subplots and loose ends.
• The ending stems from the MC's nature - not something that is forced on him/her.
• The ending delivers maximum drama with minimum words, and then ends - without lingering. This creates a satisfying ending.

The End.

Of course, if needed to explain later events, you can add an epilogue to show what happened next - rather than drag out the decisive ending. Whether it's true or not, I can't say, but I read that the original draft of Gone With the Wind didn't have a decisive ending - it dribbled on rather inconslusively, so Margaret Mitchell just axed everything after Rhett says, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"