{"id":2284,"date":"2025-10-28T14:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/?p=2284"},"modified":"2025-10-31T09:54:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:54:34","slug":"the-three-act-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/?p=2284","title":{"rendered":"The Three-Act Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As I work on my sequel to Something About AI, I am focusing on a more structured approach to my writing. I wrote more than 35,000 words on this sequel last November during the last NaNoWriMo event. As I finished book1, I let book2 sit on the back burner and cook for awhile. Writing with NaNo helped me break the analysis paralysis I&#8217;d get into when writing before NaNo but it also changed me into a pantser;  I write by the seat of my pants. And, don&#8217;t get me wrong, I love that. I love the way the characters led me by the fingertips to places unexpected. But for this sequel I need to be more of a planner. I need a strong ending that book1 didn&#8217;t have. I don&#8217;t want to write a book3 so I have to finish strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decades ago I learned about the Hero&#8217;s Journey and the The Three-Act Structure and other ways to construct a story but now I&#8217;m revisiting it with pure intention to utilize it. I got myself a worksheet and have been taking those 35,000 words and 20something chapters and assessing how they fit, specifically into the 3 Acts format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I asked Chrome Gemini to create a 3 Act Structure graphic for me. Here is what I got:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/kel.zone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Three-Act-Structure.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2285\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the story tension graph the blue line represents the Hero&#8217;s Journey. The orange represents the force of the antagonist. The challenges and pressures it places on the hero (protagonist). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As before mentioned, one of the most important things for me to focus on this time around is the ending. I&#8217;ve spent (and not done yet) many hours contemplating how my story will end. Once I know then I can push my characters that way rather than them pushing me. When they push me, they never want to end. They want to live forever. And when I like them as much as I always do, I don&#8217;t want them to end, either. It&#8217;s a fascinating dynamic. But this time I have to be the one in charge. Not them. The ending I&#8217;m contemplating has two main elements that I have to sort out. The first is the climax. The second is the denouement.  How will I tie up any loose ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an aside, when i think about denouements the one I always remember is the Lord of the Rings. I&#8217;ll never forget how surprised I was when I read that last book and there was soooo much content after the defeat of Sauron. I kinda didn&#8217;t even want to read it (I was young). But these days I think about how important it was to know that Frodo didn&#8217;t just return to the shire and live happily ever after. It&#8217;s something to consider. People love happy endings. Do I owe one? Something I&#8217;d think more about if I had any Constant Readers. ha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I&#8217;ve been going through these two efforts in parallel I&#8217;ve made some dramatic cuts. Today I moved out of play more than 15,000 words, about 9 chapters. I use Scrivener so I created a new folder after Research and called it Old Stuff. I may want to pull pieces back in but for now they&#8217;re out. Scrivener also has this overview feature &#8230; it&#8217;s like having every chapter summarized on 3&#215;5 cards and being able to see key info about each chapter at a glance. Here is what it looks like with the first fifteen chapter cards (before all my rework):<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"597\" height=\"417\" src=\"https:\/\/kel.zone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/b2scrivener.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kel.zone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/b2scrivener.png 597w, https:\/\/kel.zone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/b2scrivener-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Although it is important for me to understand The Three-Act Structure and the percentages (Act 1 = 25%, Act 2= 50%, Act 3 = 25%) that doesn&#8217;t mean those are inflexible. For me they are guideposts. Very helpful guideposts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Going through all this makes me wish I had an editor, a mentor, someone who I could talk to about the manuscript and get their thoughts on hooks, inciting incidents, pinch points. I has been hard for me to see those things clearly. I could try using an AI Assistant but they are so obsequious. Maybe I should try Grok. bahahahahahahaha<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10\/31\/2025 Update:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As my search for knowledge continues I watched the video below last night. I hope you can laugh at me the same way I laughed at myself when I saw his #9 (worst) story structure and sat bolt upright in my seat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Story Structures Ranked from Worst to Best\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GqWHPTDAFSQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In all fairness, the structure I&#8217;m using is more like the Save The Cat structure (read that book last year). But I also weave in some character arc structure from The Hero&#8217;s Journey. Anyway, just had to update this post with this newest development for me in my autodidactic journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not being a pantser this time. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kel.zone\/?p=2284\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Three-Act Structure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452],"tags":[10,506,504,505,498],"class_list":["post-2284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","tag-fiction","tag-pantser-vs-planner","tag-story-structure","tag-the-three-act-structure","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2284"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}