So here we are at another week, where you send in your questions and scripts (at the Mogulville writeHow thread) and I answer them. I want to try to make this as easy as possible so we're going to be moving ahead slowly, starting with the simplest topics first, and then progressing into more and more complex subjects. Last week we covered some advice on how to get started writing, and keeping your ideas around, but what about structure? How does a story actually work? This week I am going to cover the basics, 3-Act structure. 

 

 

3-Act structure is less of a "formula" to follow (you should generally avoid them), and more useful as an anaylsis tool, to understand how a story works. It helps simplify a story down to it's most basic turning points, allowing you to understand how the story works. Once you understand how storys work on a very basic level, it really helps you understand some things about pacing, and plot points, and keeping the story moving forward, instead of moving in circles (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we'll get to that later). 

 

Before we delve more into the usefulness of the 3-Act structure, or it's purpose, lets talk about what it's actually composed of...

 

Most every story is composed of three basic components, the Beginning, the Middle, and The End.

 

1. The beginning which can also be called the introduction or setup, is where you introduce the audience to your story, and what they are to expect from it.

2. Then there is the inciting incident, the thing that kicks off the story, and then that leads into the confrontation, which is the main  "meat" of the story, where all the challenges that the characters must deal with are introduced and dealt with.

3. Then there is the final confrontation, the climax of the story, and then finally, the decline in action, and the resolution. It's all about "rising action" throughout the story, which leads to the confrontation, and eventually the resolution. For instance let's plug something really well known like The Wizard of Oz into the film... 

 

1. You're introduced to Dorthy on the family farm in Kansas, she is a dreamer and is bored with her life there. 

2. She is met with an inciting incident, the mean teacher accuses her dog of being a troublemaker and wants it put down. 

3. She runs away to protect her dog, and meets a traveling magician who gives her some advice. 

4. A twister happens and throws her to Oz. When she gets there she goes on a quest to return home, and is face with conflict on the way.

5. She is ordered to kill the Witch, and has a final confrontation with her where Dorthy and friends are victorious. 

6. The resolution is that she is returned home, i.e. by discovering it was all a dream. She returns wiser and better prepared to deal with the problem from the beginning of the story. 

 

In here, 1-2 deals with the introduction, the first act. 3-4 are the "meat" of the story, where she meets her companions, and travels through Oz. 5-6 are the Climax and Resolution where the story is brought to a close, and the problems solved. 

 

You can see this basic pattern in most every traditionally structured film, there is a character you're introduced to, they have a problem, they are thrown into a conflict, they go through the conflict, which leads them to the final climax, and eventually the resolution.  That's the basic pattern of many, many stories. Notice I said PATTERN, and not FORMULA. 

 

The thing is to many people take the 3-Act structure as something that cannot be deviated from or modified, and they try to hammer their story into it, instead of moving naturally. You should progress your story naturally, if you're making a traditional story, you should internalize how stories work and move forward from there. Part of internalizing the beats of story, and structure, is that you don't need formula after you've studied structure enough. Structure gives you an understanding of how stories work, but it doesn't tell you how your story SHOULD work, and it doesn't save you from bad writing, or bad dialogue, or bad characters that no one likes. You can have the best structured story in the world, and if everything else doesn't work, people still won't like it. 

 

3-Act structure is something that is very useful in helping you breakdown stories, and understand them, but it is not something that should be slavishly followed, doing so you'll undermine your own story, and yourself. The 3-Act structure is a tool, not a rule, and that should be remembered, it's NOT something that you're controlled by. There are plenty of other structures that can work just as well, there are 1-Act plays, there are 2-Act stories, Roman plays often had 5-Acts, this isn't the only structure to follow, and is very much a tool to help you break down the story and understand how to construct your story further. 

 

See you next week! If you have more questions or discussion you'd like to undertake about 3-Act structure, do it here in Mogulville.