Eight Sequences

 Last week, I posted a blog post about the four quarters, now I’m making good on my promise to also let you have a look at the eight sequences. Again, all of this comes from two books by Paul Tomlinson, “Plot Basics” and “Mystery — How to Write Traditional & Cosy Whodunits”. This is my take on the principle and how and why I found it useful.

A short recap first — the four quarters are important to understand the eight sequences, so I want to go over them again for a moment. The four quarters split the three-act structure into four, adding a split in the middle of the second act. The first quarter is the introduction, ending with the ‘call to adventure,’ the second quarter represents the first try to solve the conflict, ending with the midpoint twist, the third quarter represents the second try to solve the conflict, ending with the dark moment, and the fourth quarter includes the climax and a wind-down to reach ‘normal’ again (or a new ‘normal’).
This is what the eight sequences build up on.

The eight sequences split the four quarters up again, each quarter is split into two sequences, giving you a few more twist moments to include.
The first and second sequence make up the beginning of the story. The first sequence introduces the setting and the main characters. It may also feature a suggestion of the conflict and the hero’s flaw (if there will be an internal plot arc). Those are on the forefront for the second sequence when the conflict is fully introduced and the hero usually must be forced to face it (some heroes, especially serialized ones, don’t need that push, they will happily go forth and be heroic).
The third sequence is about the hero gearing up to face the conflict — this is when they might seek out a mentor or try to find another easy solution to their problem. The third sequence ends when the hero thinks they’re on the right path (hint: they never are). The fourth sequence is all about the hero implementing the solution they have found — to find in the midpoint twist that they were wrong and are back in square one (perhaps it’s more square two — they now know that one solution won’t work).
The fifth sequence is the hero analysing what went wrong with their first solution to figure out what the real one could be. The sixth sequence is then them implementing that second solution — only to be plunged into the dark moment where all seems lost.
In the fourth or sixth sequence, the character flaw should be the reason why the solution fails if you have a character flaw for the hero which needs to be overcome.
The seventh sequence is where the climax takes place — the hero overcomes their flaw (if it plays a role) and implements the final solution, either winning or losing for good. The eighth sequence is then a return to normal, a way to tie up a few lose ends and bring the hero back home or to a new normal for them, depending on the story. If you want to implement a plot hook for a sequel, this would be where to do it.

As mentioned with the four quarters already, the content of the eight sequences varies between genres. In a classic crime mystery, you will have the murder either before the end of sequence two or at the end of sequence four or beginning of sequence five, depending whether you want to start with a murder (and have a second one or something similarly severe at the midpoint) or whether you want a midpoint murder. In an espionage story, sequence three and four are usually the hero getting in place, following the villain, trying to get to the MacGuffin, before they’re captured at midpoint, changing their focus to escape in sequence five and return to the focus on the MacGuffin in sequence six (or withstanding torture in sequence five and escaping in sequence six) before they’re recaptured or scheduled for execution in the dark moment. If you write a genre you’re familiar with, though, you should have no problem knowing what happens at which point of the story. If you write a genre you’re not familiar with, you should ask yourself why you’re trying, read a good stack of books from that genre, and try again.
As also mentioned with the four quarters, the sequences are not mathematical. You don’t divide your word-goal into eight and only write that number of words per sequence (or split your scenes or chapters up equally). The sequences help you to keep balance, not going overboard with your introduction, for instance (sequence one, two, seven, and eight can be a bit on the shorter side, compared to three, four, five, and six). If one of the sequences is much longer than the others, it pays to look into it and ask yourself whether there’s stuff which belongs elsewhere in the story or whether you’ve gone off on a tangent or whether you’ve put in too much of the back story of your characters (wish Austin Grossman had done that in “Soon I Will Be Invincible”).

The eight sequences allow you to split up your story even more when you’re plotting or pre-plotting (as I usually am). You can see what belongs where, you can cut out excess or move scenes before you sit down and write the whole thing.
I recently plotted my own version of the Dark Universe, a project called “Creatures United”, and I used the eight sequences for the full story (seven short stories which come together) and then the four quarters in every story to plot the story as a such. For a short story, I usually don’t use the sequences, but only the quarters. For a novel or novella, however, the eight sequences are very useful, because they allow for you to pre-plot what will happen in more detail, so you can see if some part is lacking earlier, too.
Another use of the eight sequences is to look into a manuscript or plotted outline which feels off and see whether you have made one of the sequences very long or very short. Then you can look into that sequence and see where the problem is, what needs to be moved, cut, or added.

As the four quarters, the eight sequences can be a helpful tool for plotting a story. If you’re a plotter, you might want to look into them and see if you can work with them — or use them as a tool when something about your manuscript or outline feels off to you. I know I’ve been making good use of them and it’s made my plotting easier than it was before.