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 […]
December 6, 2021 by 26 Comments PodcastThe Two Halves of the Third Plot Point
Like all the major structural turning points, the Third Plot Point is made up of two halves—which work together to create a scene arc (even though, technically, the entire arc of the beat might be told over the course of a scene sequence made up of many scenes). The halves that create this arc are […]
October 12, 2020 by 71 Comments PodcastThe Link Between Your Story’s Pinch Points
Of all the paired structural beats in a story, the Pinch Points are perhaps the most obvious. There are only two of them, they have the same name, and they perform essentially the same function in both their first and second iteration. They’re also perhaps the least known and most confusing of all the major […]
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 […]
May 8, 2015 by 42 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Heart of a Story: What Is It, Where Is It, and How Do You Get There?
Scan the Table of Contents in most writing manuals and you’ll see the familiar menu of story mechanics. All good! Setting, characters, plot points and pillars, crisis, climax and resolution—without these ingredients we probably don’t have a fully-cooked story. But one essential is almost always missing—the heart of a story. Where is the heart of […]
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 […]
