Story structure: three actsBeginning, middle and end.

Where it comes from

Syd Field was an American screenwriting teacher, and his first book, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (1979), set out what he called the paradigm: a film script in three acts. On a script of 120 pages, Act 1, the set-up, runs about 30 pages. Act 2, the confrontation, about 60. Act 3, the resolution, about 30. At the end of each of the first two acts comes a plot point: an event that turns the story in a new direction.

The Midpoint came later, in his second book, The Screenwriter’s Workbook (1984): a turn around page 60 that splits the long second act in two.

Field never meant the page numbers as rules: what matters, he said, is the form of the screenplay, not the page a plot point lands on.

The parts, in order

Pages are on Field’s 120-page script; the share is how far through the story that is, which is how it carries over to a novel.

In a 90,000-word novel, that puts the end of Act 1 around 22,500 words, the Midpoint around 45,000 and the end of Act 2 around 67,500.

Planning with it

Before you start, know three things: what turns the story at the end of Act 1, what changes in the middle, and what starts the ending. They don’t need to be detailed. They’re places to write towards, and they tell you when the set-up has gone on long enough.

Then fill in each act: in Act 1, what the reader needs before the first turn; in Act 2, what stands in the way, and how it gets worse after the Midpoint; in Act 3, how it ends.

Using it on a book written without a plan

Three acts also work after the fact. Write the draft, then look for the turns that are already there: the scene where the story can’t go back the way it was (Plot Point 1), the one where everything shifts in the middle, the one that starts the ending. Then see how far through the book each one is.

If your first turn comes at 40%, ask what the reader is waiting for: maybe the set-up holds things they don’t need yet. If nothing changes between 30% and 75%, that’s the long middle that sags, and a turn near the half way mark may be what it’s missing. A turn in a different place isn’t wrong. It’s something to look at.

Common misreadings

• Three acts of the same length. No: Act 2 is as long as the other two together.
• The page numbers are rules. They’re where the turns usually fall, on a script of a usual length. Field’s point was the shape.
• A plot point is the biggest event. It’s a turn: what sends the story somewhere new. It can be quiet, a decision or a phone call.
• The middle is where nothing happens. It’s half the book. The Midpoint is there to give it a shape of its own.

Save the Cat’s 15 beats fit inside the same three acts: Save the Cat puts the start of Act 2 at 23% and the start of Act 3 at 77%.

In Falcontext 6.0 Out now

Falcontext 6.0 is out: in the browser extension, the desktop app and Falcontext Perch. It adds a Structure section to the Edit tab. Pick Three acts, mark the chapter or scene that is each beat, and Falcontext says how far each one is from where Three acts puts it. It also names the beats you’ve gone past without marking one:

It measures by word count: against your book’s length, or against your word goal while the book is still shorter than that, so it works on a first draft that’s still growing. A beat that isn’t in your book can be marked as not in your book.

No AI reads your writing, so Falcontext can’t tell which scene is your Midpoint. You mark it, and it does the measuring. For three acts, the beats are the ends of Acts 1 and 2 and the Midpoint, at 25%, 75% and 50%. Your writing is never sent anywhere, and no AI is used on your writing in any way.

Other story structures

In Falcontext