Ready? Strap in and take a look at the video below to see the foundational art of the three-act structure acted out to perfection!
This charming little story features almost all of the important tenets of a story arc:
Story Structure Must-Haves for Your First Act
1. Begin with the main character (MC). Readers should immediately know whom this story is about.
2. Show the MC’s Normal World. This is the life he has chosen to live, the life in which he’s reasonably comfortable and has no good reason to abandon.
3. Show the MC in a characteristic moment. Of course, a mouse wants cheese. What could be more characteristic than that?
4. Start with movement. From the first moment we see the mouse, he’s in action. No sitting around staring at the scenery for this critter.
5. Include only necessary information. No extra characters, backstory, or props clutter the scene. Readers only need to see what they need to know at the moment.
6. Give readers a reason to care about the MC. Seriously, who’s not going to love a mouse who winks at us?
7. Start with the MC wanting something. From the very beginning the mouse has a desire and a goal: the cheese.
8. End with the the First Plot Point. The mouse’s status quo is changed forever with the sickening crunch of the mousetrap.
Story Structure Must-Haves for Your Second Act
9. Trap your MC in a spiral of events outside of his control. The line of dominoes should now be in motion. The mouse is stuck in the mousetrap, and anything he does from that point is affected as a result.
10. Force your MC’s original goal out of his reach. The cheese is still there. The mouse can still see it and probably still wants it on some level, but he can’t reach it.
11. Give your MC new goals. The cheese is no longer the mouse’s main goal. He still wants it, in the long run, but for now his primary desire is just to escape the mousetrap.
12. At the Midpoint, cause the MC to make a decision that shifts him from reacting to the antagonist into full-blown attack mode. He’s tired of just sitting there and taking it. Now he’s got a plan and he’s ready to fight back.
Story Structure Must-Haves for Your Third Act
13. Bring your MC to a new understanding of himself (particularly the Lie He Believes) and how he needs to become someone better to defeat his antagonist. The most powerful stories are those in which the MC can’t obtain physical victory without also obtaining a mental and moral victory within himself.
14. Stretch your MC’s resolve (physically, mentally, and morally) to the breaking point. Battles should never be easily won. Keep readers in doubt of the hero’s ability to triumph.
15. Revive the MC at the last moment. At the most dramatic moment possible, just as readers think the MC is about to cave under the pressure, he bounces back.
16. Transform the MC into a hero. He not only survives, he digs down deep inside, finds a spark of extraordinariness, and rises to the challenge.
17. Force your MC to respond in a unique way. Admit it: “Eye of the Tiger” wasn’t exactly what you were expecting.
18. Allow your MC not only to survive, but to triumph. You may have expected the mouse to escape with his life, but when he started bench-pressing his defiance, that’s when he rose to become heroic.
19. Show your MC defeating his opponent. The mousetrap—and, by extension, those who set it—have been vanquished!
20. Let the MC reach his goals. The mouse reaches both his secondary and primary goals: he escapes and he gets the cheese.
21. End with a memorable line. It’s the ending readers will remember, so make it unforgettable!
Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! What stage of your story structure on you working on right now? Tell me in the comments!
Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music).
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