The Acts of a Story, Part 2

The act is a way of thinking about life.

We write stories to dramatize life. And when you are writing about a hero who grows from their experience, you may wonder, “Hey, are all these writing tools too artificial? Am I separating myself from life? Is crafting a logline a false way to think about life? Is dividing my story into acts just killing the life of my art?”

No.

These tools are the tools of a writer. They are ways of thinking about life and therefore help you as a writer dramatize life.

Stories come from life. Acts come from life. We storytellers work from life.

Acts don’t divide life artificially. Acts are an expression of how we actually experience life.

Here is another way to think about the progression of the acts in a story. 

(And recall that I refer to four acts instead of three. The three acts in three-act story structure are customarily referred to as 1, 2a, 2b, and 3. I just call them 1, 2, 3, and 4, mainly because when I was teaching this to students in middle and high school, they just needed the simplicity of 1–4. We’d work through the acts in stories as old as Gilgamesh and The Odyssey to those as contemporary as The Hobbit and The Dark Knight, and they’d ask me, “Why is there 2a and 2b but not 1a and 1b or 3a and 3b? You divided the board into four columns, not three, so why are there four sections in three-act structure?” All good questions. Each act of the four acts refers to a different and distinct stage of the hero’s transformation. So 1–4 it is.)

Acts represent how human beings learn stuff and grow.

Act 1: I don’t know what I need, but I want to try this new thing.

Act 2: I do something a little crazy, but it’s fun. I’m learning.

Act 3: Uh-oh, I messed up. I was a little cocky. I didn’t pay attention. I was kidding myself. Maybe I should quit. I never should’ve tried this. I’m an idiot.

Act 4: Screw that. I’m going to figure out a way. What else am I going to do? I’m going to suck it up, forget my ego, and get the job done.

Or . . .

Act 1: I don’t know how.

Act 2: I’m learning how.

Act 3: I want to quit.

Act 4: I’m not going to quit.

Or . . .

Act 1: Wanting

Act 2: Working

Act 3: Failing

Act 4: Learning

Or . . .

Act 1: This is who I am today.

Act 2: Here I am trying new things.

Act 3: It’s night, and I’m worried about death.

Act 4: I’m still alive and kicking.

Or . . .

Act 1: The Shock of Birth and the Innocence of Childhood

Act 2: The Riot of Adolescence and the Romance of Adulthood

Act 3: The Success of Maturity and the Glimpse of Mortality

Act 4: The Rebirth of Self and the Wisdom of Old Age

You get the idea. You can make your own expressions of this process of how we humans learn from experience. 

Notice we start with desire, we dare to try, we face failure, and we don’t quit. That’s how we grow and transform and become new personalities, every day, month, year, and decade.

Acts are really ways of expressing what’s natural and true about your experience as a human being on Earth.

We feel stuck sometimes. We want to try something new. We make some progress. Then things don’t go as planned. Maybe we even want to quit. We wonder what the point of all our effort is. Who cares? Then we remember those we care about. We remember what we value. We remember ourselves. And so we carry on. We keep on living. And maybe we’ve gained wisdom from our experience.

Act 1: We feel stuck sometimes. We want to try something new. 

Act 2: We make some progress. 

Act 3: Then things don’t go as planned. Maybe we even want to quit. We wonder what the point of all our effort is. Who cares? Then we remember those we care about. We remember what we value. We remember ourselves. 

Act 4: And so we carry on. We keep on living. And maybe we’ve gained wisdom from our experience.

That’s what acts can do.

Acts can shape our experience into a form in which others can identify with our experience.

The reader gets to share the hero’s experience step by step, stage by stage, and celebrate the fortitude of the hero and the wisdom gained from fighting through to the end.

And that’s also you, the writer!

Act 1: You are the hero who is on this journey.

Act 2: You will begin to write a new story. You will make progress.

Act 3: You will hit a dead end and want to quit. But you won’t.

Act 4: You will step back and reimagine the world of your story. You will find a way to write yourself into the final act. And you will learn something from the experience of writing your story.

You will become a stronger personality.

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PHOTO: A photo of my outline for Idol Wish