| Search Store | About Us | Price Beating | Shipping Info | Return Policy | Contact Us |
|
|
|
3 Act Structure By
Melanie Anne Phillips The concept of a 3
act structure traces its roots back to Aristotle in his groundbreaking
book about dramatics called Poetics.
Like most Greeks from his time, Aristotle enjoyed the work of
popular playwrights, both tragedies and comedies.
And, being of a structured sort of mind, Aristotle believed there
must be form to art. Hence,
his exploration into the mechanisms of story. Aristotle proposed
that, when it comes to stories, they all have a beginning and an end and
must, therefore, also have a middle.
Simple as it seems, no one had ever really defined that concept
before. Not surprisingly,
the notion caught on and evolved over the centuries to the understanding
“that everyone knows” that stories work best when divided into three
acts. Alas, nothing
could be farther from the truth. In this article,
I’m going to present a larger picture of the real mechanics behind act
structure – one that, while it does not wholly invalidate the 3 act
concept, expands our view of acts, sequences, scenes, events and even beats
as wheels within wheels, rather than milestones along a road. To begin with,
let’s start with those milestones and then work outward toward our
broader perspective. Imagine
Aristotle’s beginning, middle
and end as points along a road.
The beginning is the point of departure.
The end is the destination.
Everything else – the entire road between the two points – is
the middle. While this may be
logically true, it is pretty darn useless as a means of structuring a
story. Imagine – the only
guidance this provides for a linear plot is that there must be an
opening scene and a concluding scene.
Everything between the opening and closing curtains, between the
teaser and the denouement, is act 2.
No wonder so many authors ask the question, “What happens in
Act 2?” In a 3 act
structure the answer is “Who knows?” Now a lot of story
gurus have tried to sidestep this problem by devising steps or template
or even the famous “hero’s journey” as a series of key points
along the way that must be touch upon, usually in a particular order, if
the struggle of the main character is to ring true to some unclear
mystical ideal. Hogwash. Here’s the real
scoop. Let’s go back to
Aristotle’s road. Imagine
now that we stand on a hill looking down on the whole path.
At one end we agree with the philosopher and see a beginning.
At the other end we also observe the end.
But in the middle we note two milestones along the way.
They divide the road into three parts.
The first part is the journey from the beginning to the first
milestone. The second part
is the journey from the first milestone to the second milestone.
The exact center of the road is smack dab in the middle of that
second journey. The third
and final part is from the second milestone to the end. Now what have we
got? We have three journeys
with a beginning on one side and an end on the other.
We also have two milestones along the way.
In fact, the beginning is just a milestone that marks the point
of departure. And the end
is another milestone that marks the destination.
So in truth we have three journeys bracketed by four milestones. So what good is
this? Let me jump ahead a
bit to show you the value of this take on act structure and then I’ll
drop back to pick up our exploration where we left off…. What happens in
Act 2? Using this new
approach, imagine that we name the four milestones.
In Dramatica, in fact, that is exactly what we do.
There are many families of four milestones that completely cover
different kinds of conceptual terrain.
For example, one group consists of Learning, Understanding, Doing
and Obtaining. Imagine now that
we are writing a story that deals with these four issues.
The story begins with our characters Learning something.
They learn more and more until they finally arrive at an
Understanding. Their
Understanding grows until they are able to start Doing, and they
continue Doing until they are finally able to Obtain. Learning is the
first milestone. It is the
beginning – the point of departure.
The characters begin with Learning and then take that journey
from Learning until they arrive at the second milestone, Understanding.
This describes the first journey and is the real
structure of what makes up Act 1. From Understanding
(the second milestone) a second journey is taken that leads to the third
milestone, Doing. And,
during this second “act” we cross the mid-way point of the story.
And finally, departing from Doing we make for the final
milestone, the conclusion of our story, Understanding.
And this movement
constitutes the third and final act. So, the answer to
“What happens in act 2” in this case is, “In act 2 the characters
(armed with a new understanding) grow in their understanding until they
are finally able to begin doing something about their problems.
Now, what those problems are we don’t know specifically – the
specifics are part of the storytelling: the particular subject matter
the author wants to explore. But,
the fact that act two begins with understanding and ends with beginning
to do something is the structural part of the story. This makes the
structure different from another story in which, for example, act 2
would be around Doing something until one is able to Understand.
This second structure might be a story like “The Karate Kid”
in which a young martial arts student is forced by his mentor to perform
a long series of menial tasks until the boy finally understands that the
physical movements of the tasks develop the skills he will need to
compete against others. Start to see the
pattern? It is not just the
group of four items that define the story, but the order in which they
are explored as well. And,
there are many other groups of four.
For example, another story might have a second act about Being a
certain way until one is able to actually Become that way, or about
uncovering the Past until one is able to chart a course for the Future. That is but one
way to use this new view of act structure.
But, before we continue any further into the practical, let’s
return as promised to complete our description of these milestones and
journeys. In fact, let’s
drop the term “milestones”. Dramatica
calls them “Signposts”, but they are exactly the same thing.
Signposts is just a little more accurate a name because each one
is an indicator of where you are and where you will be going, not just a
marker of how far you’ve come. So,
the concepts of four markers and three spans in Dramatica is called
“Signposts & Journeys.” Now I’m going to
delve into some story theory here.
It’s not too heady, but geared more to understanding how and
why it works rather than how to use it.
So if you lean to the hands-on approach you might want to jump
ahead a bit to where I get back to explaining how to apply these
concepts in the construction of real stories. Think of a story
as a picture on a television screen.
When all is said and done you can see the image and what it
means. But that image is
built of many individual scanning lines over time, just as a story is
built of many individual scenes and acts played out over time. As the story
unfolds, it feels linear – just like music.
But when it is over we see how all the pieces fit together to
create a greater meaning. This
meaning is more like a painting or a mosaic. Heavy theory:
stories are about the relationship between time and space.
In other words, when it comes down like this,
it will end up looking like that.
This is why stories are important to us in the first place.
In real life, we can’t see the future.
We can only see how things are unfolding in front of us.
In stories, authors purport that they have a special knowledge of
the particular kind of problem in question and are sharing their
experience with us so when we run into this kind of series of events we
may want to fly in the face of what seems the expedient thing to do at
the moment because the Big Strategy may be a lot different than it
appears to the soldiers on the field. This is why acts,
sequences, scenes, events and beats are like wheels within wheels, as I
promised earlier I would explain. Each
of these things is a different sized dramatic unit or, for the
theory-minded, each is of a different magnitude. To make the point,
Beats are the smallest
elements of dramatic meaning in the linear progression of a story.
They are like notes in a symphony.
They can be used to create scenes,
which are like chords. Scenes
can combine into sequences,
not unlike movements
in a symphony. Sequences
combine into acts and acts
comprise the story. So, in one sense
the story unfolds over time, but in the other it stands as a collective
meaning in space, when seen all at once. Now this article
isn’t really about all of these wheels within wheels.
I only bring it up to show how acts can be understood both as
being signposts or journeys, depending on whether you are looking at the
road that must be traveled or the experience traversing it. Okay.
Enough theory already. If
you want more, just visit Storymind.com
and read some of the articles or view some of the streaming video
writing classes until your head spins. Again, as
promised, I’m now going to return to the practical side of the fence
and show you some more ways in which the Signposts & Journeys
approach is extremely useful in structuring your story. First of all,
there are several ways to focus on signposts and journeys in your
storytelling. Some authors
like to concentrate on the signposts so that the story appears to have
four areas of exploration with three quick journeys in between.
In such stories the reader/audience experience is like exploring
four rooms in succession and being swiftly ushered from one to the next.
By the time all four have been examined, the nature of the house
(story) as a whole is understood. This
approach is used for stories in which the connections among things are
of the most interest to the author. The opposite
approach is to minimize the signposts and feature the journeys.
In such a story the reader/audience is caught up in the
experience of the ongoing cascade, and is only brought up for air from
time to time when a signpost is passed.
This method creates a flowing presentation in which the focus is
on the trip rather than the destination. In either method,
all four signposts and all three journeys must be present for the
structure to feel complete. But
one will feel as if there are four spatial
acts (which are the signposts) and the other will feel as if there are
three temporal acts (which
are the journeys). Most presentations
fall between these two extremes. Often
a balance is struck by the author such that the beginning and end are
emphasized as well as the three journeys.
This five-act approach really has all seven (as it must) but the
story feels as if there is a set-up followed by three movements and
capped off by a conclusion. Many
Hollywood-style screenplays are created in this form. Speaking of
screenplays, there is another liberating advantage of the Signpost &
Journey method. Some Though this format
allows for three acts and spaces out the key movements, it misses the
boat by saying that each section must be about the same length.
In truth, it doesn’t matter if a signpost or journey is
belabored or just given the tip of a hat by the author.
As long as it is present in the story in the right place,
structure is served. How
much time the story lingers on any given signpost or journey is
completely up to the whim and interests of the author. So, in a single
screenplay, the first signpost might be examined for two pages, the
first journey for fifteen. Then,
the second signpost would be explored for eleven pages and the second
journey for just three. How
long each is on stage is moot when it comes to structure, but can be of
great concern to an author. Imagine that your
interest in a story is mostly about what is going on in journey three
and you really don’t care much about the subject matter in journey
two. If you listen to the
Hollywood Doctrine you would have to pay them equal attention and give
them equal time. This means
that your second journey, due to your lack of interest, would be likely
to come off as uninventive, uninteresting and ponderous.
Similarly, your beloved third journey would feel truncated,
rushed, and shallow. Break out of those
chains! Give just as much
media real estate as you like to any given signpost or journey.
That way, you will only write at much as you feel inspired to do
and the flow of your story will be appropriately fast or slow but always
filled with your own enthusiasm. It is true,
however, that the total length for a script for Hollywood should be
around 120 pages since filming equates to around one minute per page on
the average and (especially for beginners) studios don’t want to go
over two hours as it cuts into the number of showings per screen per
day. One last practical
tip – more of a teaser for a future article, though something that is
useful right from the get-go…. Stories are not
seen from just one point of view but four.
They are seen from the overview of the Big Picture, through the
eyes of the Main Characters, in terms of the Obstacle (or Influence)
character’s alternative morals or paradigm, and in the personal
skirmish between the These four points
of view each have their own four signposts and three journeys.
Each set of signposts deals with a different kind of subject
matter, but all four points of view collectively create the dramatic
harmonics of the story. It
is these harmonics that hold the meaning of the story as a whole, which
is built up act by act, scene by scene, point of view by point of view. By using signposts
and journeys you can be sure that each of these four essential points of
view is fully developed. And,
since each signpost and each journey can be the basis for a whole scene
of dramatics, with four points of view and seven signposts and journeys
each, you have the makings of 28 “magic” scenes in your story’s
structure based on these alone. In know that’s a
little dense and opens up a whole new can of worms, but it is an
intriguing off-shoot and application of the Signposts & Journeys
concept. And, after all,
I’ll be covering it in more detail in an upcoming article, one of
these days…. Finally, if you
can’t wait to learn more and want a list of all the possible signposts
and all the elements that can make up scenes and sequences, just
download this free chart, The Dramatica Periodic Table of Story Elements
at http://storymind.com/free-downloads/ddomain.pdf You can also
download the entire 450 page book on the Dramatica Theory of Story in
PDF at http://storymind.com/free-downloads/dramatica_book.pdf
but particularly you might want to read the chapter on Signposts &
Journeys which is also available as a web page at http://storymind.com/dramatica/dramatica_theory_book/chapter_18.html. Our Newest Articles, Classes & Downloads
 $179.95 $29.95
*Try either or both for 90 days. Not working for you? Return for a full refund of your purchase price! About Dramatica and StoryWeaver Hi, I'm Melanie Anne Phillips, creator of StoryWeaver, co-creator of Dramatica and owner of Storymind.com. If you have a moment, I'd like to tell you about these two story development tools - what each is designed to do, how each works alone on a different part of story development and how they can be used together to cover the entire process from concept to completion of your novel or screenplay. What They Do Dramatica is a tool to help you build a perfect story structure. StoryWeaver is a tool to help you build your story's world. Dramatica focuses on the underlying logic of your story, making sure there are no holes or inconsistencies. StoryWeaver focuses on the creative process, boosting your inspiration and guiding it to add depth, detail and passion to your story. How They Do It Dramatica has the world's only patented interactive Story Engine™ which cross-references your answers to questions about your dramatic intent, then finds any weaknesses in your structure and even suggests the best ways to strengthen them. StoryWeaver uses a revolutionary new creative format as you follow more than 200 Story Cards™ step by step through the story development process. You'll design the people who'll inhabit your story's world, what happens to them, and what it all means. How They Work Together By itself Dramatic appeals to structural writers who like to work out all the details of their stories logically before they write a word. By itself, StoryWeaver appeals to intuitive writers who like to follow their Muse and develop their stories as they go. But, the finished work of a structural writer can often lack passion, which is where StoryWeaver can help. And the finished work of an intuitive writer can often lack direction, which is where Dramatica can help. So, while each kind of writer will find one program or the other the most initially appealing, both kinds of writers can benefit from both programs. Try Both Programs Risk Free! We have a 90 Day Return Policy here at Storymind. Try either or both of these products and if you aren't completely satisfied we'll cheerfully refund your purchase price.
Our Complete Catalog of Products
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Contact Us - About Us - Lowest Price Guarantee - Shipping - Return Policy - Bonus Package Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips - Owner, Storymind.com, Creator Storyweaver, Co-creator Dramatica |
Brought to you by Storymind * P.O. Box 295 * Burbank * California * 91503
Format:
Windows / Mac CD-ROM
