Three act structure

One of the oldest — and most used — form of outlining is the Three Act structure. It dates back as long as humans have been telling stories and is still used today. Why? Because it’s solid and easily recognizable for the viewer/listener.

Think of your story as a circle divided into four equally large sizes. One part takes up the first act of your story, the next two parts are the second act, and lastly, the third act takes up the last fourth.

If you are writing a regular feature-length screenplay of 100 pages, the math is simple. 25 pages for Act I, 50 pages for Act II and 25 pages for Act III.

But, by thinking about the story as a complete circle, you can also clearly see where the mid-point of the story should be — right in the middle of Act II.

The story starts at the top — at noon if you will — and moves forward like a clock returning to 12:00 as it finishes.

Why is it useful to view the story as circular? Because most stories are about journeys where the main characters go out into the world to experience something and return to their own world changed or wiser for the better.

The vast majority of mainstream movies and story are like this.

Going on “The Hero’s Journey”?

“The Hero’s Journey”, or Monomyth as it’s sometimes referred to, is a term coined by mythological historian professor, Joseph Campbell. In his seminal book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” from 1949, Campbell examined the many myths found in tribes and religious groups around the world that they’d used as their cultural and narrative backbone.

Campbell’s work emphasizes that all these stories and myths are, at their fundamental core, simple variations on the same story. It’s the story of a hero that goes on a journey to a special world to solve some peril that has fallen upon himself or his tribe. The hero then returns to his ordinary world with the elixir to heal the tribe or having slain the monster threatening the tribe.

If you take another look at the three act circle above see the Ordinary World in Hero’s Journey is the top half of the circle — the top part, and the Special World is the lower half of the circle.

Many filmmakers, writers and storytellers alike count The Hero’s Journey as one of the core elements in their storytelling tool belt.

It’s the structure that we as the audience know and understand. Even though we might still be surprised by the story itself, the structure is known. We understand the rhythm and the harmony of the structure. This gives us a calm feeling deep down when we’re presented with stories that follow this structure.

The trick is to use the structure to provide scaffolding and pacing for your story. If you can manage this, you will have a story which resonates well with so many people. It can be new and exciting and tell a fantastical story, but at the same time, told in a way we instantly recognize and understand.

Metaphorically speaking, we are tapping our feet to the rhythm of the story, even though we have never seen it before. It’s a muscle memory. Deeply ingrained in our storytelling culture, through thousands of years of storytelling tradition.

The beats

If you are looking for a few more pointers on what could happen in our story — and when something could happen, you can look at what is sometimes referred to as the major beats of the narrative.

Please note: The beats below are structured after a 100 page script. If you plan to write a short script, just take the page number and divide by 100, e.g. the Point of No Return on page 50 is 50% of the script length.