Abstract
The Application of Three-act Structure in My Thesis Novel
My thesis is a novel-in-progress about two Chinese girl cousins who grow up together amid one-child policy in Buddhist families in Beijing. Their paths diverge in their teenage years, but they reunite in the U.S. in their early twenties. The protagonist is working toward her degree in cancer research in Houston, while her homestay runs an illegal business of birth tourism by renting rooms to pregnant Chinese women. Among the chaos of her expatriate life, the protagonist receives a text from her cousin, who announces that she will join a Catholic monastery in northern Idaho and cut herself off from the outside world. Convinced that her cousin has joined a cult, the protagonist writes letters after letters to win her cousin back from God. In the letters, she examines their past family traumas and secrets. When she receives no reply, the protagonist decides to go to the monastery and rescue her cousin by herself.