Session 1 - 26/9/12 - Three-Act Structure, Group Three-Act Story writing task

Our first session reintroduced us to the three act structure, a topic that we covered breifly in our first year.

As posed by Syd Field, the Three-Act Structure is said to have three Acts; Setup, Confrontation and Resolution, below is a breakdown of what each of these acts consist of:

Setup (Act One):

·              Exposition:

o   Introduction of Main character and supporting characters

o   Setting

§  Where the story takes place

o   Normal life for said characters

§  A brief glimpse into normal life for the characters

o   Dramatic premise

§  Simply put, it's the story summarised in a short sentence.

o   Dramatic situation

§  The situation driving the action

·              Inciting Incident:

o   An event that sets the story into motion

·              Plot Point 1:

o   Sometimes called a 'Reversal', see's the plot take a new direction

o   Marks the transition in to Act Two

Confrontation (Act Two):

·              Obstacles:

o   The main character faces a series of obstacles that stand between them and achieving their goal

·              First Culmination:

o   The first attempt by the main character to overcome the problem/achieve their goal

o   They fail, leading to the Midpoint

·              Midpoint:

o   Roughly half way through the story

o   The point where the main character seems farthest from achieving their goal

·              Plot Point 2

o   Second reversal

o   Marks the transition to Act Three

Resolution (Act Three):

·              Second Culmination (Climax):

o   The second attempt by the main character to achieve their goal

§  Plot reaches maximum tension

§  Main character again faces their biggest obstacle

·              Denouement:

o   The return to normal, or normality as best it can be after the events of the story

Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Theory

This structure forms the basis of the majority of narratives that have been produced, however Tzvetan Todorov suggested a similar yet slightly different 'Five Point' Structure, which can still be applied to most narratives:

1. A state of equilibrium at the outset

2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action

3. A recognition that there has been a disruption

4. An attempt to repair the disruption

5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

These structures fit for most narratives but it is not uncommon for the linearity of said structures to be broken to provide new and interesting ways to present a story, for example some stories begin with a presentation of the Resolution, or Climax first before showing how the situation came about.



After recapping we were asked to get into groups and write a short story that utilised the Three-Act structure, we decided to go with greek mythology and follow a young mans journey home that takes an unexpected turn for the worst. Although we couldn't write the whole thing out in the time we had, we managed to get a list of bullet points written out to cover the rest of the story. These points have been arranged into their respective position within the Three-Act structure.

Setting: Ancient Greece

Genre: Classical Mythology.

Characters: Yu Romanus

Act One:

Exposition:

It was a warm summers evening in ancient Greece. A young, innocent man stared at the sky as he made his way along the cobblestone road, his luxurious blonde hair and toga flapping in the cool breeze. After a day enjoying the sights and attractions of the city, Yu Romanus was heading home for the night. As he strolled, thinking longingly of the warm meat buns his mother would have prepared, a strange sensation came over him.

Inciting Incident:
A dizzy, sleepy nauseousness was creeping in alarmingly fast, and as Yu’s mind raced to think what could have caused it, he began to fall, and the world around him went dark.

-          Wakes up, appears to be morning
-          Town appears to have been destroyed, smoke rises from the crumbling buildings
-          He runs to the town, upon reaching the town square and seeing no one, he hears noises. Barking, heavy footsteps and an odd dragging sounds

Plot Point 1:
-          He suddenly fears for his family and heads for home, not wanting to find out what the noises are being made by
-          As he reaches the outer limits of the town the sounds stay with him, getting louder as he tries to run away from them.
-          He can see his home in the distance, a thick pillar of smoke rises from the roof as the footsteps shake the floor beneath him
-          Just as Yu breaks into a run, panic setting in. A huge, mangled club crashes in front of him

Act Two:

-          Yu is knocked to the floor and upon looking up sees Cerberus and the Cyclops towering before him
-          Before he can react Yu is lifted into the air by his ankle, Cyclops has him held over Cerberus many snapping jaws.
-          A towering woman who would be beautiful if her hair were not made of snakes appeared in front of him, Medusa. Luckily while he was staring at her in wonder, her eyes were closed.
-          Staring at the floor medusa begins to speak
-          Yu is forced to look into medusas eyes, he is instantly turned to stone

Midpoint:
-      Yu feels a great sadness and depression sweep over him as he realises he can do nothing for his family
-          But as he sits there, he begins to wonder why he is still aware, why he is not dead, even though he cannot move

Plot Point 2:
-      He begins to question whether he is in a dream
-          He imagines himself breaking free from his stone prison, and just like that it begins to happen

Act Three:

Climax:
-          Yu begins to use his new found imagination powers to take down the mythical creatures that surround him
-          Just as Medusa falls, everything around him collapses into darkness once more

Denouement:
-          Yu wakes from where he fell, the sky is darker but not much time has passed it seems, he heads home to find his dinner waiting and happy times insue

As you can see the story is not entirely serious and the writing may be a little more... "frivolous" than was necessary but i believe we successfully created an (admittedly rather condensed) example of a story that follows the Three-Act structure.

On a side note: Bloggers formatting makes me very angry.