Yep, no getting around it. We’re all
familiar with the traditional three-act structure. Beginning, middle, ending.
Any writer will tell you that’s how to set up a story, play, or movie. The
beginning holds the inciting incident. It’s where you and the reader meet the
characters, the problem, and the story world. In a good story, this part is a
slam bang. An in and an out. Think of it as the man in the bowler hat who
danced across the vaudeville stage. Enter stage right, exit stage left. Nope, I
don’t remember it either, but it’s an appealing image! When done well, this
section is no more than a quarter of the book/story/play. Sort of like birth
through college in human years.
Some say the beginning should have its
own arc and the arc should complete within the first quarter of the book. I
respectfully disagree. The beginning should introduce a character arc that
should arch across the entire book and not conclude until the very end of the
book. After all, the beginning is about making us care about the character and
the story. And, in mysteries, the victim. Don’t forget the victim. Without him,
there wouldn’t be a story! So, in the beginning, there is—a beginning.
And that brings us to the middle. It
encompasses approximately the next 50% of your book. Figure college graduation
to retirement. It’s the meat of the story, and it has its own arc. This one is
complete in the pages. It’s all about trial, success, failure, and renewal. The
character makes a choice. Again, using mysteries as a genre, the choice is usually
to take up the investigation. Something has to happen that forces your
character to leave her comfy ordinary world behind and earnestly pursue an end
goal. It’s time to leave the nest and venture beyond the known. The choice is
also a big reason why the beginning has to be short. It’s hard to keep a
reader’s interest once they have a handle on what the problem is. The reader
craves action, and the middle supplies it. The middle also brings the book and
the reader to the twists and turns of the plot. Two steps forward, one step
backward, trial and error, red herrings and solutions to the red herrings. The middle
needs two plotlines, one that shows progression toward the ultimate goal, and
one that shows the forces of evil pulling the rug out from under that nice neat
progression. Just like life.
The middle arc has an ending. In
life it’s retirement and the new start we’ve worked so hard to attain. In
plotting, it’s a disaster with the seeds of solution. The middle climaxes with the
big twist. It traditionally takes place three quarters of the way into the book
and it leads to the end.
The overarching character arc of the
middle is also ongoing. There’s more work to be done to reach a satisfying end.
The last quarter of the book also
has an arc. This one ties it all up. The protagonist builds on the knowledge
gained in the twist and hatches a new plan. This part of the book moves
swiftly, but deliberately to the climax. It can never feel rushed. There’s
usually one more twist here. The protagonist has solved the main story problem,
but there’s different problem, something personal to the character, that ups
the stakes. A personal investment is at risk. And it‘s the solution to the personal
investment that brings the character arc begun in the beginning of the book to
a close.
The last bit of the ending is
wrapping it all up. That’s not to say it’s a rehash of the story and how the
protagonist got there, the reader already knows. The wrap up gives the reader a
sense of closure and ties up most, but often not all, of the loose ends. It’s
the sigh of a life well lived, of goals attained, dreams discovered, and moving
on.
Life imitates art, a story in three
acts.
What about you? Do you recognize a
three-act structure in the stories you love? Do you see a three-act structure
in your life?
I like how you use a “typical” life to illustrate the 25/50/25 proportions of the 3-act story. With a series character, such as my Seamus McCree, the arc of the story is foreshortened. Each novel or short story has its own arc, but they fit in the larger arc you described.
ReplyDelete~ Jim
Within one lifetime I think there can be a series of 3-arc stories, the structure works well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Warren. My life has been a succession of three act stories with the best to come.
ReplyDeleteInteresting way to look at life! How wonderful if things could follow such a structured pattern.
ReplyDeleteJim, that's interesting, and I know what you mean, with a series, you have to have a series arc and a book arc. It keeps the reader interested too. Those arcs are harder to plot though unless you have a firm idea of how many books the series will be. Perhaps that's the reason that most contracts are three books, then if the series continues on, the character needs to undergo a life changing event so the overall arc can begin anew with a new set of challenges.
ReplyDeleteWarren, and Margaret, Yes, definitely more than one three arc stories. But I think they are more in the nature of subplots than the overall arc. I know I've been through a number of "lifetimes" in my lifetime, but each is a single book in the series.
Kathleen, ain't that the truth! But look at how much excitement we'd miss out on.
Kait, I tend to think of my life in chapters with more chapters to come. :-) But yes there are the three acts, too, and although I hate to admit it, I'm in the last act which hopefully will be a long act.
ReplyDelete