What Is The Three Act Structure?

By Patrick Dent Dent Publishing Independent Writers – Independent Fiction

As the craft of writing has evolved, it has naturally formed the plot structure most pleasant to the human mind. This is the Three Act Structure, and it applies to short stories, novels and screenplays alike. What follows is the general flow of the Three Act Structure.

ACT ONE – The Setup

In Act One the protagonist meets all of the characters in the story. We also learn the main problem of the story. Everybody can usually plot Act One because we have to know the problem to have the idea. The trick in Act One is to keep it interesting. Don’t just start rolling out story points. Start at the most interesting point, where there is conflict and excitement, and help the audience sort it out. Act One is a preparation act for the viewer or reader. This is where they learn about the central character – whether they like him, whether they care about him, and whether they care about his dilemma. The protagonist may be the hero or the villain, depending on whose story is more interesting, whose story drives the plot forward. You should open Act One with a bang. Don’t start at “Once upon a time.” Open with a hook. By the end of Act One you should also have introduced the protagonist, the antagonist and set up all of the secondary character relationships.

Here are some general guidelines for the objectives of Act One. 1.Establish the status quo for the protagonist. 2.Present the initial impetus for a move or change by the protagonist. 3.Ask the central question of the book. Summarize your book in 25 words or less and you will find the central question of your book. 4.Define the wants of the major characters and their reasons for desiring these things. 5.Lay the groundwork and establish the stakes for the chase to occur in Act 2.

ACT TWO – The Chase

This is the most important act in the drama because you have the two most important structural moves in the story. 1.It complicates the initial problem. 2.It defeats the protagonist at its end.

The complication usually comes at the top of Act Two. The problem that we already set up in Act One, now has to become much more dangerous and difficult. A good way to design the complication is to let it be a piece of the back-story that has remained hidden until Act Two. The protagonist must then start to try to solve this bigger, more complicated problem, while the adversaries make moves to defeat them. Your adversaries must be in motion. Adversaries should not be standing around, waiting to be caught. The end of Act Two marks the destruction of the protagonist’s plan. At the end of Act Two the protagonist should be almost destroyed, and at the lowest point in the drama, either physically and/or emotionally. He (or she) is flat on his back and it looks like there is no way he can succeed.

Here are some general guidelines for the objectives of Act Two. 1.The protagonist behaves differently, more assertive 2.The protagonist tries to do the right thing, but is foiled by the antagonist three times. These are called reversals. Think of any story and spot the reversals. The overall conflict has three reversals and one conclusion. 3.Use the information presented in Act One. This is the groundwork we discussed during Act One. Objects and facts that appeared in the background of Act One now take on new meanings significant to the plot. 4.Make the chase unpredictable, stimulating, engaging and unique. 5.Rely heavily on physical action. 6.Put the characters in interesting situations and locations, ensuring those situations and locations relate to the hero’s intent.

ACT THREE

This is simply the resolution of the problem. From the rubble laying around him/her, the protagonist picks up a piece of string and follows it to the eventual conclusion of the story. Some stories have downbeat endings, where the protagonist learns a lesson, but dies or is defeated. Of course, there is no precise formula for success. It is always possible to alter this Three Act Structure, but remember, if you break these plot rules, you should at least know why you are doing it.

Here are some general guidelines for the objectives of Act Three. 1.Answer the central question of the book. 2.Fulfill all the promises made in Acts One and Two. 3.Answer all questions asked in Acts One and Two – no loose ends. 4.The protagonist must undergo a change to conquer a larger version of something that conquered him during Act 1.

For more information on writing and selling fiction, please visit www.dent-publishing.com and go to For Authors, where we have a free, 8-segment tutorial on the craft of writing and a five segment series on internet marketing – both free.

Patrick Dent Dent Publishing Independent Writers – Independent Fiction Featuring our new, covert ops thriller, Execution of Justice www.dent-publishing.com Bookstore@dent-publishing.com

A link can be understood as a recommendation from one web site to another, but you have to be recommended by pertinent web sites, to be sure you will get the expected results after implementing a wise linking program.

As a football player cannot give the best advice recommending an auto-parts provider in Singapore, a web site that sells discounted plasma TV’s won’t get any advantage by being linked from a lawyers’ firm site.

The first question we need to ask ourselves when thinking about creating a links program is “why do we need to do it?” and the answer is simple as “the more relevant and quality links pointing to your web site, the faster it will be ranked on better positions”.

Then there are several questions that pop up in our minds spontaneously like “to whom may I link to”, “and who should link to me?”, “how many links can I have?” and others. To solve those inquiries I’ve written the following linking basics:

1. We always have to search for themed links. As said at the introduction, there’s no chance to succeed with links coming from non-related web sites or links farms, moreover, your site can be banned if it’s related or work as a links farm.
2. Having more links than our competitors is not an indication of success. Search Engines qualify links by their quality and not by weight.
3. Reciprocal Links vs. One Way Links.

   A reciprocal link is easier to get as you exchange links with other (themed) sites to acquire better popularity, which is a good deal for both parties… a good but weak deal. Each time Search Engines algorithms give lower importance to swapped links.
   Quality one way links (inbound links) are recognized as more valuable by Search Engines and give higher relevancy if you have links pointing to your site instead of exchanged links.

4. Themed and Authority Links

   Themed links are those from business related sites and are the most suitable to link to you or vice versa. A good example of a themed link is a vacation review site with a link to the web site of a resort in Aruba.

   Authority sites are those with a very high raking (Google Page Rank 8-10) and because of its importance can send a link to a web site even if there is no match helping the linked site, as for example a news site linking to an online MP3 players store.

5. Find the correct web sites

   We want to focus our efforts on relevant incoming links, so to do that while earning time, you can search for those web sites that are linking to your top positioned competitors for your main keywords, then study how relevant they really are to your web site, and depending on what kind of site they are (informative, directory, business review, newspaper, etc), you can either submit your information for free or pay a monthly/yearly fee to get a one way link to your web site into their pages, depending on their policies.

6. Being consequent with your optimization process, you should create a good copy for each link to be implemented, including the desired landing page and the linked text. Directories allow you to add descriptions but if you are buying a link from a themed web site you may not be able to describe your site and simply add the optimized linked text and destiny URL.
7. While selecting a site to place a link (more important if you are buying it) you have to take into consideration the quality of the web site, their ranking at the Search Engines (At Google look the Page Rank parameter) as well as their content, to be sure it is appropriate for your business.

   Other factor that you have to look at is their own inbound links quantity and quality, identically as previously researched on your competitors’ sites.

8. When acquiring (exchanging or buying links) a deal known as a “links package”, even if they are quality and themed ones, make sure their IP’s are different to maximize the results.

   If they have the same IP, Search Engines can count them as a single source.

9. The less outbound links the site that links to you have, the most efficiently your site will get improved. When buying, you can ask how many links are being sold from that specific web site/page.

Search Engines algorithms won’t stop changing their parameters, but one thing that is clear is that receiving optimized text links from quality web sites will always help improving our rankings.

Mr. Daniel Katz is the Business Development Manager at Compucall Web Marketing Ltd – experts in International Web Marketing and Marketing Strategies.

Tips To Lose Weight – Escape From Excessive Fat

Are you trying to gain escapade from constant obesity and failing continuously? Are you getting angry and depressed for not losing weight effectively? Do not worry. With proper tips to lose weight you can easily get some serious effects. When you are emotional you automatically start eating more food, which tend to make you gain more weight. You can get emotional anytime and start eating a lot. So start losing weight so that you can enjoy perfect health and fit body.

Weight loss methods

Creating a weight loss plan does not simply mean eating less food. On the other hand, it means consuming dietary food that enhances physical fitness and improves your health considerably. A healthy body can turn us into a better human being so you should at anytime treat yourself with excellent weight loss plans and techniques. Weight loss can include weight loss surgeries, taking dietary pills, natural methods like walking, talking and exercising, performing aerobics, and eating normal diet at regular intervals.

Tips to lose weight in less time

Tips to lose weight do not make you slim and fit for less time. Proper losing weight tips help you to become slim easily and remain the same for long time. You should continue with your healthy diet and do regular exercises to maintain your weight loss. Following are the tips to lose weight:  Reduce calories-in and increase calories-out by taking dietary food.  Go for regular morning and evening walks, eat slowly and practice regular exercises to lose weight.  Eat three sensible meals at regular times and skip high-fat and high-calorie food anytime.  Eat more of vegetables, salads, fruits and soup than solid food.  Eat less of snacks.  Eat slowly specially when you are having chocolates, cookies, chips and ice creams.  Visit gyms or simply stay at home and lift weights for that will burn down your calories.  Have noni juice, which is a natural fruit juice and helps in reducing weight, decreasing severe obesity, enhances glow in your skin and diminishes stress.  Eat only when you are hungry.  Try to eat less at restaurants, hotels and outside places and eat more at home.  When you are having food include at least one non-starchy fruit and enough of vegetable stew to remain fit yet slim.  Try to have whole grains instead of refined grains for whole grains are more nutritious, healthy and satisfying.  Instead of sugar-sweetened drinks, use a latte with nonfat or low-fat milk.  Get plenty of sleep as sleep decreases hormone levels of cortisol and insulin, which allow more of fat storage.  Drink at least two quarts of water daily and omit items like butter, jam, sour cream, syrup, salt, sugar, salad dressings, French fries and soft drinks from your diet.

Weight loss surgery methods

You can also lose weight very fast with the help of weight loss surgery methods. Following are the weight loss surgery methods that make you slim overnight:  Stomach ballooning – a balloon is inserted into your stomach and inflated with water. The balloon is kept there for a convenient six months and then removed so that you become slim easily.  Liposuction – a substance is introduced into the fatty areas, a tube is inserted and fat is conveniently sucked out from the fatty place.  Gastric bypass – in this surgery the digestive system is completely transformed into a shape that can limit the amount of food intake.

Tips to lose weight not only makes you slim but also impart absolute inner happiness to all.

http://www.eselfhypnosis.com