GOING BEYOND THE THREE AND FOUR ACT STRUCTURES

Using the Dramatica model of story provides a way to better understand the rich varieties of both the three-act and four-act structures of stories. The act transitions provide a greater sense of a story's flow. The throughlines provide opportunities to explore synchronous and asynchronous throughline development. Examining stories as signposts and journeys gives an author both an understanding of a story's structural organization, and a sense of how an audience may experience the story. But there's still more.

	Witness Example
OS		Z
MC		Z
IC		Z
SS		H

In presenting the examples, several unspoken givens were made:

• Every act is of the same duration.

• Every BUMP transition is jarring while every SLIDE transition is smooth.

• Every throughline begins and ends in unison with the other throughlines.

• Every throughline is given equal emphasis by the author.

The truth is, these are artificial givens which authors frequently ignore while writing. The "bumpiness" or "smoothness" of act transitions relies as much upon an author's storytelling as the content being explored. Act lengths frequently vary within a throughline and between throughlines. Throughlines often begin and end out of unison and are rarely given equal weight by the author. This provides much needed flexibility for an author.

	Witness Example with Unequal Throughlines
OS
MC
IC
SS

If we define "act breaks" as the transition between acts (especially those identified as BUMPS), then the lack of rigid synchronicity between throughlines becomes a powerful tool to bend a story's structure to the needs of a particular form.

	Witness Example with Staggered Throughlines
OS
MC
IC
SS

An author can emphasize a particular act break by having more than one throughline break at the same time. This is frequently used to heighten the last act of a story. It can just as easily be used to downplay or juxtapose throughlines.

There are several other general guidelines to consider while constructing your story:

• Avoid getting your story throughlines too out-of-synch with each other. It can end up confusing an audience.

• Try not to end a throughline long before or long after the other throughlines. There's nothing worse than the sense that the story's over but the throughline isn't.

• Always take into consideration the emphasis you give to a throughline when considering how you want to tinker with its internal rhythm (act lengths and transitions). The more emphasized a throughline is, the better it is for you to be conservative with the throughline's pacing. The less emphasized, the more latitude you have to be playful with its pacing.