Dumping the Third Act Breakup

It's a tale as old as time:

boy meets girl > they fall in love > complications arise > they break up > they make up for their happily ever after

Long held as an almost-inviolable law of writing romance, more and more authors are dumping the third-act breakup structure and rewriting the rules when it comes to communication and conflict.

I first came across this alternative structure a couple of years ago while reading Katie Golding's Wreckless, and she even wrote a fantastic blog post about her thoughts and process here.

Since then, it's gained in popularity, both for the reasons she discusses in her article, but also, I believe, because the latest generation of readers are some of the most self-aware in history. Why settle for the typical miscommunication trope when you could talk to your therapist, then have a real conversation like the adults you are?

As this option gains traction in the reading community, there are a few authors who are currently doing it well. 

Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace, was the book that reintroduced me to the concept earlier this year, and I particularly loved the way this author used a breakup with another character to fill that space without forcing the main couple apart. She remained deeply committed to this structure across the entire series. 

Another author doing this well is Julia Connors, whose Boston Rebels series gains tension and conflict through outside influences while leaning into the idea of a Battle Couple trope, where the main couple fights together rather than falling apart. 

Finally, I recently read and loved Elle Kennedy's The Mistake, which uses conflict between the main couple as the tension point but doesn't go so far as to break them up.

Can you tell I'm in my Hockey Romance Era? Okay, real talk, if this isn't your thing, Goodreads has an entire list of No Third Act Break-Up books and it is hundreds of entries long! Check it out here: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/no-3rd-act-break-up.

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So, as a reader, you love the way this common trope is being reimagined in new and creative ways, through alternative breakups (family, friends, or even goals and motivations), strife without splits, or just plain mature adults having mature conversations when they're needed. As an author, though, is this the right choice for you and your book? There are definitely some styles of writing that will work better following this route than others. 

If you're writing commercial, contemporary stories, it's worth considering, especially if your characters are otherwise well-adjusted, seeing a therapist, or extraordinarily self-aware. It's clearly more common in the New Adult range as well, probably as a result of the last several years of mental health awareness and self-improvement largely driven by social media usage in this demographic. 

So, if your characters are in their twenties, chances are it will work for you. If your third-act breakup is a result of miscommunication, particularly miscommunication that leaves your beta readers feeling like, "If they'd just had a conversation, this could have been avoided," it might be a good time to take a look at your conflict and ask if there's another way to bring tension to the story. Perhaps an epic fight could accomplish the same purpose without a breakup.

Finally, if your main character is already in major conflict with another character - a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or even their own perspective of themselves - maybe a third-act breakup is unnecessary.

By the way, while this may work best for commercial contemporary fiction, that doesn't mean it can't work in any romance-adjacent genre. 

Romantasy? Gotta love that Battle Couple Trope! 

HorRomance? Dump that poltergeist instead of the guy! 

ThrillMance? He's got your back, girl! Maybe trust him in that.

What do you think? What's your favorite recent read that hasn't featured a third-act breakup or how do you think dumping the third-act breakup might change the dynamic of your story in new and exciting ways? 

Let us know in the comments!

Rebecca Minelga is an author and speaker who uses the power of words to navigate the liminal spaces between who we are and who we are becoming. She raises Guide Dog Puppies and two sons - in that order - with her husband just north of Seattle.

She has been previously published in "The Mark Literary Review", "Crêpe and Penn", "The Hooghly Review", and "Roi Fainéant". When not writing, she can be found open water swimming in her local lake, exploring the National Parks with her family, or traveling the world on an adventure!