Dramatica Act Structures
by Chris Huntley

Based on materials developed by
Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley

To navigate through this document, use either the table of contents below or the Next Page and Previous Page links located at the top and bottom of each page.

Table of Contents

• TEMPORAL SEQUENCE RELATIONSHIPS IN A QUAD
• FOUR-ACT STRUCTURE
• THREE-ACT STRUCTURE
• THREE AND FOUR-ACT STRUCTURES SIDE-BY-SIDE
• DRAMATICA SIGNPOSTS AND JOURNEYS
• SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN A QUAD
• ACT TRANSITIONS
  • BUMP AND SLIDE
• ACT PATTERNS
  • Z—PATTERNS: BUMP-SLIDE-BUMP
  • HAIRPIN PATTERNS: SLIDE-BUMP-SLIDE
  • U-TURN PATTERNS: BUMP-BUMP-BUMP
• ACT PATTERNS AND THE DRAMATICA THROUGHLINES
  • Examples
• PUTTING THE THROUGHLINE ACT TRANSITION INTO TIMELINE FORM
• ADDING "CONTENT" TO THE ACT TRANSITIONS TIMELINE—GRAYSCALE VERSION
  • IDENTIFYING SOME FAMILIAR PATTERNS
  • THREE-ACT STRUCTURE-VARIATION II
  • OTHER NOTABLE ACT PATTERNS
• ADDING "CONTENT" TO THE ACT TRANSITIONS TIMELINE—COLOR VERSION
  • IDENTIFYING SOME FAMILIAR PATTERNS
  • THREE-ACT STRUCTURE-VARIATION II
  • OTHER NOTABLE ACT PATTERNS
• GOING BEYOND THE THREE AND FOUR ACT STRUCTURES