The Third Act begins with another life-changing plot point. More than any preceding it, this plot point sets the protagonist’s feet on the path toward the final conflict in the Climax. From here, your clattering dominoes form a straight line as your protagonist hurtles toward an inevitable confrontation with the antagonistic force. Because the entire […]
September 30, 2024 by 11 Comments Novel EndingsThe Third Plot Point (Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 10 of 12)
September 23, 2024 by 5 Comments Novel EndingsThe Third Act (Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 9 of 12)
The Third Act is what readers, writers, and characters have all been waiting for. This final section of the story is the point. It’s what you’ve been building up to all this time. If the First and Second Acts were engaging and aesthetic labyrinths, the Third Act is where X marks the spot. You’ve found […]
June 13, 2022 by 23 Comments PodcastUnderstanding the Underworld of a Story’s Third Act
A story’s Third Act is unique. We often think of the Third Act in terms of its being climactic—and therefore full of excitement and high stakes. And it often is. But ultimately the Third Act fulfills a much more symbolic function within a story. Simply put, it is the proving ground for all the character […]
October 5, 2020 by 47 Comments PodcastThe Link Between Your Story’s First Plot Point and Third Plot Point
I often talk about cohesion and resonance as being two of the most important qualities of great stories. Many factors are involved in achieving these effects, but one of the subtlest and yet most powerful is found within the structure of story itself. This is the hidden “circle” of story structure, in which all the important […]
July 29, 2015 by 13 Comments Story Settings2 Ways to Make the Most of Your Story’s Climactic Setting
This week’s video points out some little-known considerations about creating an awesome and perfectly planned climactic setting for your story. Video Transcript: If we think of a story as sort of like a funnel, then the climax is the very tip of that funnel. In short, there’s not much room down there. Whatever is going […]
July 22, 2015 by 9 Comments NarrativeThe Key to Writing Good Action Scenes (Hint: It’s Not Just the Action)
This week’s video shows you how you can mimic Jurassic Park in streamlining your narrative and keeping your action scenes tight. Video Transcript: Two admissions to start off with today. First, I admit the title is slightly misleading. The key to writing good action scenes isn’t action? What’s up with that? Because if action is the […]
April 5, 2015 by 42 Comments Structuring Your NovelWant Readers to Adore Your Book? Learn How to Ace Your Climactic Moment
Your story will contain many important moments. Actually, we could say with accuracy that every moment in your story is important, since any misstep could conceivably jar the whole line of dominoes out of sync. But the moment in your story is the Climactic Moment. This moment is the reason your story is even being told in […]
August 8, 2014 by 2 Comments Structuring Your NovelHow to Find Your Character’s Breaking Point
Today, I’m guest posting over on Fiction University, with the post “How to Find Your Character’s Breaking Point.” Here’s an excerpt: What one moment in your story is the single most important? The moment where the hero gets the girl? The moment when he slays the bad guy? The moment when he reaches his long […]
July 27, 2014 by 44 Comments CharactersHow to Write a Negative Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act
In a word, the negative character arc is about failure, and this becomes nowhere more clear than in the Third Act. If the positive change arc is about redeeming self and the flat arc is about saving others, then the negative character arc is about destroying self and probably others as well. The previous two […]
June 22, 2014 by 16 Comments CharactersHow to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act
The Third Act is where we find arguably the greatest similarities between the flat character arc and the positive change arc, since in both types of story the protagonist will have a full grasp on the Truth by this point. The primary difference, of course, is that the protagonist in a flat character arc will […]
