The Structure of Mortality

Increasingly, I come across screenwriters who treat the acts in their screenplay as separate things.

Some screenwriters even feel that the acts in their screenplay need to be labelled.

Not only do the acts in your screenplay not need to be labelled, but the acts in your film or episodic screenplay can also be ignored. Ignore acts properly and you will use them well.

Just tell your story as you write your script. You don’t even need to tell your story well or have an amazing story for the act structure in your screenplay to create itself. A story archetype is this:

You, the screenwriter …

1.      Put your heroine in a tree

2.      Throw stones at her

3.      Get her down from the tree

That’s all stories in all times. It’s most stories in most screenplays. If you just tell this story in your screenplay, the three-act structure will appear as you type – not because you are thinking about acts, but because you are telling your story. Now let's add a little water to that basic story thing.

1.      Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water

2.      Jack came down with half a crown

3.      Jill came tumbling after

In this scenario, the plot thickens.

In the first act, Jack and Jill have an objective that is driven by need. They need water, likely because they are thirsty. That could be a drama screenplay. Maybe it’s a war drama – that’s why they are thirsty. That would make it an action-drama – we might call it a war-drama.

If they fetch water to sell to someone, that could also be a drama screenplay, but it may have thriller screenplay elements. It could be set on another planet – sci-fi film or fantasy film genres, or in the far future – also sci-fi film or fantasy film genres – or in the past: a period drama or action-drama.

But what if the person (our bad guy) they sell the water to double crosses them.

The bad guy (nemesis) takes the water but doesn't pay up, or they pay up but attack Jack and Jill in the process, or Jack and Jill have to use force to get paid. And maybe Jack and Jill are thirsty, so time will become short as they get thirstier. So maybe now you get a five-act structure.

However you write it in whatever film genre, your screenplay will have an act structure. It’s not an act structure you need to think about – much less mark up on the page.

It’s an act structure that emerges organically from a story well told. Or just told.

So please use the act structure well by ignoring it. Remarkably, that way your screenplay will have a better-defined structure that will get better as you become a better screenwriter. Screenwriting is storytelling. Storytelling generates plot, and plot generates structure. Your audience will recognise story structure instinctively. It’s the story of their lives. It’s the story of mortality.

And we’re all experts in that genre.

Happy screenwriting.