Writing 101: Structure

Writing 101: Structure & Outlining

You already have an idea of what to write and you know who your story is about. So now it?s time to finally start writing, right? No. Simply having an idea of what you want to write isn?t good enough. You need to know exactly where the story is going before you sit down to write. How do you do that? With Structure!

What is Structure? Before I define structure let me throw out another buzz word: Plot. What is plot? Plot is all the junk that happens in your story. Structure then is the order in which it happens. If you were to think of your story as a house then the structure is the foundation. It?s what holds the house up.

The Three Act Structure:
The three act structure supposedly dates back to Greek times. Though I?ve never personally read any three act Greek plays. What you will most likely recognize it from is movies. Though it?s become such a common story telling tool that it does regularly appear in comics and novels.

When using a three act structure, Act I is used to build your world. In it you meet the protagonist and are exposed to their flaws. You learn about the world/environment the protagonist lives in and you get to see the kind of relationships they have with other people.

Act II is the meat of your story. Everything is already set-up, which means that Act II gets to focus on creating conflict. This whole section is nothing but the protagonist getting into more and more trouble. All of which has to be in someway their own fault. It should end with the protagonist at rock bottom.

Act III is where everything comes together. The protagonist rises from their lowest points, learns from their mistakes and fixes everything.
So basically to sum it up Act I is your beginning, Act II is your middle and Act III is your end.

How Hollywood Does it:

If you are a screenwriter you live and die by structure. It?s just how Hollywood works. Luckily if you are planning to write a comic then you have a lot more freedom. We?ll get to that in a minute. First, however I do want to talk about how an expanded three act structure works in Hollywood. Simply understand what they do can be helpful in figuring out what works best for you.

Most movies have a basic structure and here is how it breaks down (note: most screenplays are 100-120 pages):

Act I
Opening ? This is an attention grabbing scene that sucks in the viewer and sets up the premise to the movie. For example if you are doing an action movie then this scene will be a big action sequence.

Page 3 ? By page 3 of a screenplay we should?ve met the character and know the central question to the movie. The central question can be simple or complex. In a romantic comedy it might be ?Will John ever get a girlfriend?? And to set it up you may have dialog of him whining or complaining about not having a girlfriend. Or maybe he?s a player and instead of whining he?s claiming that he would never settle down no matter what.

Page 3-10 ? This is where you get to know your main character. Their personality. Their flaws. etc? This is where you set up their story arc for how they will grow and change over the course of the story.

Page 10 ? The catalyst for the story should happen by this point. It does not always have to happen because of the protagonist?s actions, but you need to be careful that your main character doesn?t become too passive. So in a romantic comedy this might be the first scene where the boy meets the girl. In an action movie this might be where the main character?s daughter gets kidnapped and it spurs him into action.

Page 30 ? You midpoint scene should happen sometime between 20 and 30 (depending the genre you are writing). It?s one of the key most important scenes in your story. Based on everything that has happened, your character needs to make a commitment to the journey in front of them. So in a romantic comedy this might be when the boy and the girl start dating. In an action movie it might be when the Father learns a terrorist has captured his daughter and the terrorist will let her go if he kills a senator. ?The Act I end point scene is all about spinning the story in a new direction and at the same time you need to make sure you embrace a character?s flaw cause ultimately the characters will fail at their task/journey and they will fail because of their flaws.

Act II
Act II is a beast. It?s total hell. Personally it?s what I hate more than anything else. Instead of thinking of it at 60 solid pages it?s best to break it in half. So in a romantic comedy the first half of Act II is the characters dating. Or maybe in something like Iron Man it?s Tony building the suit and learning how to use it.

Midpoint ? The midpoint scene is a re-commitment to the goal/task made in the Act I end scene. So in a romantic comedy maybe it?s the characters taking things a step forward. They are past the wooing stage and are now a couple. Or in Iron Man it?s Tony finishing his suit and deciding now to use it to be a hero. It?s important to once again have the character embrace their flaw.

Page 90 ? Things go to hell. Everything goes wrong and it goes wrong because of the main character?s flaw. So in romantic comedy it?s when the girl dumps the guy because of his flaw. Or if it?s an action movie maybe it?s the Father trying to save his daughter and he succeeds in assassinating the senator and he is arrested. In a more fantasy type piece it?s where the heroes fail to stop the villain from destroying the world and the big bad starts wrecking things.

Rock Bottom ? You need to hurt your protagonist. You need to utterly break them. There are three main things you need to do. You need to take away their family, take away their job/career (their career could be ?to be a hero and save the world it doesn?t have to be a job job), and take away their love. It?s a deadly trifecta.

Epiphany Moment ? this is the part where in House all of a sudden someone says something random and he solves the case. He gets that look in his eyes and just knows the answer. In a movie this moment is like that but not as dramatic. It?s when the character is at rock bottom and something happens and for the first time the character realizes his/her flaws. They realize what they?ve been doing wrong and they realize they need to fix it.

Amends ? This is when the main character makes amends with his supporting cast. So in a romantic comedy where the guy lost the girl and then pushed his friends away? this is where the guy would apologize to his friends and then ask for their help to get the girl back.

Climax ? This is the climax. I don?t need to explain this.

Final Temptation ? this is a very important moment that a lot of people miss. Your character started out on a journey. They had a flaw. Everything when wrong because of that flaw. They learned their lesson and then started to fix things. The Final Temptation is one last chance where your antagonist temps your protagonist into re-embracing their character flaw. If the point of your story is for your main character to grow then have them do the right thing. If you are doing an anti-hero or have a darker theme then maybe your character fails and they re-embrace their flaw. ?so it doesn?t matter which way you guy just make sure you have that moment.

Epilogue scene ? This your end scene. There is normally a call-back to the very first scene of the movie. It? is offered refereed to as a ?book end.?

If you want homework then I suggest you pop in some of your favorite movies and watch the first 30 minutes. ?Back to the Future? ?Star Wars? ?Indiana Jones? ?Iron Man? ?Sweet Home Alabama? ?Aliens? ?Hitch? ?Men in Black? ?whatever. As long as it?s a mainstream studio film you?ll be able to watch it and see the structure. For example here is the Act I breakdown of ?Fellowship of the Ring.?

• Opening ? We have the opening with Gladriel explaining the epic history of the ring. It sets up the world, the overall conflict, and is attention grabbing.
• Our Hero ? We meet Frodo Baggins & Gandalf the Grey.
• The Hobbit Life- We see what life in the shire is like for our main Hobbit Cast Members
• The Ring ? We are introduced to the ring and witness the power it has over Bilbo
• Catalyst Scene? ? Bilbo fakes his death and Frodo takes up the ring.
• Bad Guys ? We see Gandolf visit the White Tower. We see the Nine Riders ride. We see Frodo & Sam try to have their normal lives but something isn?t right.
• ?Act I End Point ? The Nine Riders reach The Shire and as a result Frodo, Sam, Merry, & Pippin leave and start their journey.

Structure in Comics:

Comics aren?t movies, which means that structure isn?t as important, but it does matter, specially in regards to pacing. However a comic book writer isn?t as much as a slave to structure as say a screenwriter is. Currently speaking a modern comic is 22 to 32 pages (depending on the ads). A story arc in a comic could last one issue or two, or three, or twelve, or whatever. If you plan on producing a webcomic that isn?t restricted to a page count then you have even more leeway. So as a writer one of the first things you need to do before writing a comic is figure out what your structure is.

You can use the three act structure I mentioned above, but you don?t have to. Personally speaking, my background is screenwriting. So I feel comfortable tweaking and adjusting the traditional three act structure to serve my needs. Do I follow it religiously? No. That would be a mistake. However it?s a useful tool for planning your story, specially in making sure that the pace is on the right track.

Traditionally with Marvel and DC there actually used to use a form of structure that was called ?ABC Plots.? I know Peter David for one was a big fan of using it in his books. The basic idea is that there are three story-lines in a comic. The main storyline is A. It?s what the main focus of the comic is about. The B storyline is set-up for the next issue where it will become the main focus. The C or even D story-lines are small teasers and set-ups for several issues down the road.
So basically what I?m saying is that the world is your oyster in terms of structure. Pick whatever kind of structure you want, just make sure you really sit down and figure it out before you start writing.

Writing a Treatment:
Once you decide what kind of structure you want to use your next best step is to write a treatment. What?s a ?treatment?? It?s basically a one page write-up of your story. You don?t share backstory or anything extra in it. You start it where your story starts and give a prose description of what it?s about. In many ways you can consider it a more fleshed out version of your pitch. It may not seem important but it really helps in figuring out the beginning, middle, and ending of your story. So basically the elements of a one page treatment are as follow:

1. Introduction to key characters
2. Who, what, when, why and where.
3. Act 1 in one ?to two paragraphs including mention of the Act I turning point.
4. Act 2 in two paragraphs. Should dramatize how the conflicts introduced in Act 1 lead to a crisis.
5. Act 3 in one ?to two?paragraphs. Dramatize the final conflict and resolution.

However keep in mind that there are no set hard rules with treatments. If I even bother to do a treatment it?s never more than one page. Yet some think a treatment must be three to ten pages. So there is a lot of wiggle room and it?s really about figuring out what works best for you.

If you still aren?t sure what to write think of a treatment as an explanation of how readers will?experience?your story. It?s important to use active voice and to avoid vague or hyperbolic phrases.?When writing a treatments you want your reader to be able to visualize your story. So it might even help to write it in present tense. It is a more creative assignment?so make sure your treatment feels alive and not cold and merely the facts.

Outlining:
Once you have your treatment then that?s when the real fun beginnings. You get to start outlining! This is where structure really maters and personally it?s one of my favorite parts of the writing process.
There are a lot of different ways to outline. Some people use index cards and each scene represents a card. That way they can move and shuffle the cards around. Some people use expensive computer software. Me personally, I totally use computer paper and just make a list.

When it comes to outlining, it?s really just about what works best for you. I don?t even use a traditional outlining method. I do something referred to as a sequence outline (which is based off the traditional Hollywood structure). For example let?s look at the original outline for ?Holiday Wars: Volume 1? ((I?m not posting Act III because I don?t want to spill too many spoilers)).

So as you can see the basic sequence outline is pretty?vague. It?s not even a full scene by scene breakdown. You kind of just use it to figure out the big things?that need to happen for the plot and character development to move forward. Doing this let?s you see the overall structure of the story and helps in seeing what?s missing.

Usually once I do a sequence outline (and have revised it a few times). I?ll then go back and do a scene outline. In that I write down the name of every scene. Then beside it I write down two things. The first is why the scene is important to the plot and the second is why the scene is important to character development (The general rules is that a scene has to move the plot forward or it has to be about character development. I like to try to make sure that every scene has both).

In Summary:
Structure is a massively useful tool in writing. In comics it?s not as important as it is in movies, but it?s still something you can use to help plan your story. To begin you want to flesh out your pitch and turn it into a one page treatment. From there you can do a basic sequence outline. Once you?ve revised your sequence outline you can then flesh it out even more by doing a scene by scene breakdown. From there you?re just about ready to start writing!

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Source: http://www.makingcomics.com/2012/02/20/writing-101-structure/

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