Denise Bossarte's "Glamorous" Novel - Story Process Part 2: "Four Acts"

Denise Bossarte's "Glamorous" Novel - Story Process Part 2: "Four Acts"

 Aristotle developed the structure for stories and plays as three Acts:

 

from Peter Gilboy

But in Save the Cat, we learn about how to leverage a four act structure by breaking Act 2 into 2 with a midpoint.

Dave Donovan also pulled in the ideas around archetypes for structuring this book The Gift. Four archetypes aligned with each of the 4 Acts.

The following is taken from Storylink.com

"... in every successful film [story], the main character moves through four of the six archetypes from opening moment to final fade like clockwork. These four archetypes are: orphan, wanderer, warrior, and martyr. 

ORPHAN – 

 
In Act 1, the main character is already an orphan or is about to become one. Sometimes a real orphan; sometimes a figurative one. Luke Skywalker is really an orphan. Forrest Gump's father is long gone, and Forrest is an outcast because of his low I.Q. 
 ...
And then towards the end of Act 1, a crisis happens to your hero that throws his or her life out of balance and sends your hero on a journey to answer the Central Question, ...the question that, once it is answered definitively “yes” or “no,” the film is over...Once the Central Question is clearly known, your hero is no longer an orphan, but must now become a...

WANDERER – 

It’s now...Act [2], and your hero becomes a wanderer in order to answer the Central Question. He or she goes hither and yon looking for clues, meeting helpers, running into opponents, overcoming obstacles. It’s the learning phase where your hero picks up the skills and tools he or she thinks is needed to answer the Central Question.


WARRIOR – 

At the mid-point of the story, page 55 or so, your hero has acquired most of the helpers and all of the skills and items he needs in order to resolve the Central Question in a way favorable to his desire. Or maybe time is just running out. Either way, it’s now time to act. It is time to become a warrior.
...
Until near the end of the Act [3], when everything goes to hell in a handbasket and your hero realizes that something’s been missing from the fight: his or her own willingness to sacrifice all. This is what forces the hero to switch from being a warrior into becoming a...

MARTYR – 

Act [4] is all about the hero’s willingness to lose it all in order to win it all. Only by giving up what the hero thought he or she wanted can the hero be rewarded with what’s needed.

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