Three Act Structure Template

What the three acts are

Three act structure divides a story into a beginning, a middle and an end. The idea is old: Aristotle wrote that a story needs all three. Screenwriters have used it as a working tool for decades, and novelists use it too. The acts are not equal. In the usual shape Act One takes about a quarter of the story, Act Two about half and Act Three the last quarter. In an 80,000-word novel that is roughly 20,000 words of setup, 40,000 of confrontation and 20,000 of resolution.

Act One: the setup

Act One shows the hero's world, makes the reader care, and then breaks the world. The inciting incident is the first break, an event that the hero did not ask for. Plot Point One, at the end of the act, is the second: a choice or event after which the hero cannot go back to the way things were. If the hero can still walk away at the end of Act One, the act has not finished its job.

Keep the setup short and specific. Show what the hero wants and what stops them in the first scenes, and let the world come through the action.

Act Two: the confrontation

Act Two is the longest and the one that sags most often. It works best as two halves divided by the midpoint. In the first half the hero tries to reach the goal and learns the rules. At the midpoint something changes: a revelation, a reversal or a false victory that shows the hero what the real fight is. In the second half the opposition gets stronger and the cost of each choice rises, until Plot Point Two. This is the lowest point, where the hero has lost something and has to decide whether to go on.

If your middle feels empty, look at the midpoint. A story with no turn in the centre tends to repeat itself.

Act Three: the climax and after

Act Three begins with the hero's decision after the low point, and it runs to the climax, where the hero faces the opposition using what the story has taught them. The climax should only be possible because of the changes the hero has made. The resolution that follows is short, and it shows the new normal. A good test is to set the first page beside the last: the same hero in a similar place, but changed.

Use the sheet as a check, not a cage. Three acts are a way of seeing where a story is weak, and plenty of good books bend the proportions.