During the first act – the Setup – your story’s major characters are introduced. Here, you’ll display your setting and make the primary rules of your universe apparent – and you’ll kick it all off with a bang, some kind of sequence that catches the audience’s full attention within the first 10 minutes.
This is also where your Inciting Incident will take place. This is an incident that catches your protagonist off guard – something that interrupts their usual routine and sends them down the road you’ve paved for them.
Shortly after this comes your first plot point – a major change in the story that forms the bridge to…
Act II: The Confrontation. Taking up the lion’s share of your screenplay, Act II is where most of the action takes place. This is the meat of your story, with all the sub-plots, nefarious villains, secondary characters, globetrotting, investigation into mysteries, and smaller twists and turns.
During this act, the stakes get ever higher… until you reach your second plot point. Again, this major twist changes the game and signals an upcoming Act transition – and in the case of Act II, also provides a moment of crisis for your hero. In a dramatic sense, this is where all hope feels lost – where it seems your hero cannot possibly prevail against the stronger forces rallied against them.
Yet despite the odds, they carry on to Act III – the Resolution. The final confrontation takes place; the action and drama reach a climactic crescendo… and then (in what is known as “falling action”) the story tapers off.
Things calm down again; the battle is over and we’re given time to appreciate how both the world and your hero have been irrevocably changed by what has happened.
THE END.
This is also where your Inciting Incident will take place. This is an incident that catches your protagonist off guard – something that interrupts their usual routine and sends them down the road you’ve paved for them.
Shortly after this comes your first plot point – a major change in the story that forms the bridge to…
Act II: The Confrontation. Taking up the lion’s share of your screenplay, Act II is where most of the action takes place. This is the meat of your story, with all the sub-plots, nefarious villains, secondary characters, globetrotting, investigation into mysteries, and smaller twists and turns.
During this act, the stakes get ever higher… until you reach your second plot point. Again, this major twist changes the game and signals an upcoming Act transition – and in the case of Act II, also provides a moment of crisis for your hero. In a dramatic sense, this is where all hope feels lost – where it seems your hero cannot possibly prevail against the stronger forces rallied against them.
Yet despite the odds, they carry on to Act III – the Resolution. The final confrontation takes place; the action and drama reach a climactic crescendo… and then (in what is known as “falling action”) the story tapers off.
Things calm down again; the battle is over and we’re given time to appreciate how both the world and your hero have been irrevocably changed by what has happened.
THE END.
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