Our family vacation for 2024 has kicked off with our annual trek to Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Three years ago, during COVID, this same vacation is where “The Art of the Compromise” (available for sale at Amazon, IngramSpark, or Draft2Digital) began as a hobby to unwind in my thoughts the swirling political controversies. That journey led to over 170,000 words that I have whittled down to 55,000 words for this first book. With the beach here again, I’ve decided to sit down and cobble together a follow-on book as my second attempt at the self-publishing hobby.
What will the title of the second book be? I do not yet know. I have found that picking a title too early can pigeonhole my thoughts. I do have a title in mind, but I don’t want to share it yet as I want to keep my thoughts free from public commitments. Somehow sharing a title artificially obligates me to stick with that title. I want to maintain my freedom to change titles as my thoughts evolve with the ebb and flow of the arguments in the book.
So, the journey for book two begins. The challenge is deciding on an overall structure. In the last book, I used the classical “five-act” structure for storytelling. I will likely use this structure again. The structure is a formula that divides a story into five sections. For me, those sections are chapter boundaries. I like the explanation for this structure from the following blog.
Exposition: It’s good to have an inciting incident here that sets the scene for the book. In The Art of the Compromise (i.e. The Art), I used the riots, specifically January 6, as the inciting incident. I also juxtaposed January 6 to the less dramatic fall of the former Soviet Union, where no one even cared to riot. In the first chapter, I tried to answer what sparked me to write the book.
Rising Action: This section attempts to convey a sense of urgency and what’s at stake. In The Art, I focus on our American Soul and the Creed, as expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., that brings us together as a nation—unique in history.
Climax: The third act of the structure is where a solution is proposed and the story reaches its peak. The third chapter of The Art highlights the importance of our two-party political system as the solution—and not the cause—of our political strife. It may seem like an odd solution, but the chapter makes the argument that our two-party system is the essence of our strength as a nation in finding political solutions.
Revelation: This is where a revelation comes in. The intent is to surprise the reader with some new information that changes everything. The surprise in The Art is that compromise is the underlying mechanism that has made America great. This act is the “Luke, I am your father” moment in the storyline.
Resolution: The final act is where the story is resolved. As I wrote The Art, I became a bit lazy at this point in the writing. This chapter suggests several solutions for Congress to follow to regain the environment where compromise is possible.
And so, my new journey now begins. I am looking to harvest most of the writing from the refuge of the 170,000 words that were discarded from the first book. I’m sure I will blog about the adventure so stay tuned…