Outlining the Three Act Structure

All stories have a beginning, middle, and end rather it is a novel, movie, comic book, or video game. Because of this the three act structure normally associated with plays and movies works with any story. Each Act is broken up into three parts, the first is the introduction of the act and if it is the intro for the second or third act then it will introduce the result of the previous acts decisions. The second part is support to what happened in the introduction. The third part is the transition to prepare the audience for the next act or a closing to end the story.

Outlining a story helps to make creating the end product easier and quicker by using the three act structure. The format of an outline is usually created in the format of a three act structure or something similar. The first phase of the outline can be as detailed as you want and it doesn’t have to be perfect since it’s just something for your reference.

The outline will also help you start to develop the length of your story. Later on it will help develop the major plot and how your characters will interact.

Act one is where the main protagonist of the story is introduced. By the end of the first act an event should’ve happened that sets up act two of the story. This event is usually something that causes the character to make some sort of a decision that will impact the second act.

Example of Act 1

Act 1:
Pages: 10-13 Descriptive title: Xenos is hired to train two Xybrid fighters from different networks

• Introduction-Airstreme and Aquatronics is having trouble training their Xybrids
• Support-Xenos begins training the two Xybrids Ace and Alex
• Transition-Aquatronics calls Alex back to defend one their sectors being attacked by Lightek

Act two is when the decision made in the first act is played out, because of this it is the longest part of the story. During this part of the story the character is tries to figure out a way to solve their problem based on the decision they made in the first act. By the end of the act the character discover that the decision they made at the end of act one was wrong it will try to fix it in the next act.

Example of Act 2

Act 2:
Pages: 25 Descriptive title: Xenos takes Alex and Ace to defend the sector hub of Aquatronics

• Introduction-Xenos briefs and prepares Ace, Alex, and the Cyver from Aquatronics for the mission
• Support-The cyber fighter from Aquatronics that is fighting alongside them is killed
• Transition –Xenos blames himself for what happens to the cyber fighter

Act three is where a resolution is made for the protagonist by the end of the story based on the new decision made in act two. Getting to this resolution isn’t made easy because this when antagonist makes their appearance if they weren’t introduced earlier. The antagonist can be a new character or it can be someone that was thought to be the good guy earlier. The antagonist will have the role of countering the protagonist and creating their final obstacle. Since this is where the conclusion is met there won’t be any more decisions made instead everything will be resolved by the end. The ending can go in the way of the protagonist if they made the right decision; if it was wrong then it will go in the way of the antagonist.

Example of Act 3

Act 3:
Pages: 10-13 Descriptive title: Xenos and his team defends the hub from the second wave of attacks

• Introduction-Xenos fights Kyshumu in a losing battle
• Support-Kassiea saves Xenos who is almost killed by Kyshumu
• Closing-They discover Kassiea is a part of the Cyvolters when she steals something from Aquatronics

Summary

The outline is like the skeleton of the human body it lays out the framework but doesn’t have all of the features and functionalities of the story. Once all of the major plot points are made for the outline you can then fill in the details (the features). You can start at whatever point of the story you’d like since you know pretty much how it will turn out. These details will be the main features of the story such as character interactions or concepts used.