Genius & Drama
Alrighty. Let's talk about structure and dramaturgy. Jean-Claude Carrière calls dramaturgy the ›secret of storytelling‹. What bothers me about the term is the fact that writing a good story is apparently something that not everyone can know. Only the 'true' geniuses, those who write 'real' literature, are in the know of this supposedly well-kept secret. (And if you watch any episode of the current ›Tatort‹ series on TV, you can believe that the makers are really not in possession of the secret of the narrator ;)) Especially in Germany there is still this belief in the ›genius‹. Goethe, Schiller, Grass, Hölderlin are true geniuses. No normal person is able to write an exciting and entertaining story. Man must be a genius who is kissed by the muse. Bullshit.
Writing exciting and entertaining stories is like making sausages, or building a house, or writing code. Step by step, word by word. The sausage of Mr. Goethe or Mr. Grass may undoubtedly have a better quality, and to some it may taste better, but in ›the crux of the matter‹ (sic!) it is ... a sausage. The genius consists of the individual recipe that each author adds to his text. Everybody can write. Some very good, some better, some worse, and some write scripts for ›Tatort‹ but the basics of an entertaining, exciting story are always the same.Personally, I'm old enough by now to know what I can and can't do. My books will never reach the level or attention of a Schiller or Goethe. (And some also claim that I write in no way better than an author of any current ›Tatort‹) But I don't want that at all. I want to write entertaining and exciting stories that give pleasure to their readers. So much that they are even willing to pay money for it, no more, but also no less.
So, what is this ominous ›secret of storytelling‹? A story consists of simple structure.
Three acts:
1st act, 2nd act, 3rd act.
Beginning, middle, end.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
This is the foundation of a story. In the first act, we get to know the characters of the story. In the second act, the characters come into conflict with each other. In the third act, the conflict is resolved.Because conflict is interesting, the middle 2nd act is longer than acts 1 and 3. So in terms of the length of a movie or a book, act 1 comprises 25% of the story. Then something ›happens‹ in the story and we move into the first part of Act 2, which also comprises 25%. This brings us to the center of the story, the so-called 'midpoint'. There again something happens in the story. In this context, we could also speak of a turning point, which leads us into the second part of Act 2, which also takes up 25%. At the end of Act 2, something happens again and that leads us into Act 3, which (Who knows? Who knows? Right!) takes up the remaining 25%. Let's illustrate the whole thing with an example: Not only because the movie is so beautiful, but because Orci and Kurtzman's script is so elegant, I again choose 'Mission Impossible III' (2006):
Act 1 - Ethan Hunt, former secret agent for the government's Impossible Mission Force (IMF) is celebrating his engagement to the beautiful Jules when his friend and former colleague Musgrave asks him for one last assignment. A former protégé of Ethan's, the young agent Lindsey has been kidnapped by the ruthless arms dealer Owen Davian. Ethan and his team manage to free Lindsey, but before they can rejoice, a tiny detonator explodes in Lindsey's head, killing Lindsey.
Act 2 - Part I. After Lindsey's death, Ethan Owen wants to bring Davian to justice. Together with his team he manages with a lot of skill to arrest Owen Davian at a gala event in the Vatican. In revenge for Lindsey, Ethan threatens Davian's life. The latter now swears revenge in contrast to Ethan. He will hurt someone important in Ethan's life.
**
Act 2 - Part II. Back in America, Ethan and his team are brutally attacked while transporting prisoner Owen Davian. Davian is freed. Ethan is accused by his boss of being behind the liberation of Davian. Ethan is arrested but manages to escape. Then he receives a call from Davian: he has carried out his threat and kidnapped Ethan's fiancée Jules. Ethan is supposed to steal for Davian a dangerous weapon with the code name 'Rabbit's Foot' (A typical McGuffin - What that is later) in Shanghai, if not, Jules will die.
Act 3 - Ethan manages to do the seemingly impossible: He steals the 'Rabbit's Foot'. But instead of rewarding Ethan with Jules' release, Davian kills Jules in front of Ethan.Ethan is devastated. It turns out that his old friend and colleague Musgrave is behind everything. He has been working with Davian all along. And Jules is not dead! The dead woman was an associate of Davian in the mask of Jules. Ethan manages to knock out Musgrave and break free. With the help of a loyal team member, he finds Jules, and fights an unequal battle with Davian, as the latter has also activated a deadly detonator in Ethan's head. Despite these obstacles, Ethan manages to kill Davian. However, he must 'die' himself by electrocution in order to deactivate the capsule in his head. While Ethan is 'dead' after the electrocution, Jules manages to kill Musgrave and take the 'Rabbit's Foot'. Jules succeeds in reviving Ethan. Ethan is rehabilitated and the young couple (now married) can go on their well-deserved honeymoon.
As a nerd with a regular income, I am fortunate enough to be able to watch movies comfortably via my Apple TV on a big screen TV. Mission Impossible III has a length of 2:05h according to the display on my Apple TV. This allows one to precisely target the 'breaks' or transitions from act to act: Act 1 ends at about 31 minutes (25%). The midpoint of the story, where our hero Ethan is (literally) turned upside down during the attack on the prisoner transport, happens at 1:02h (50%).The scene where Davian shoots Jules in front of Ethan's eyes and all seems to be lost is at the point 1:35 (75%). Try it out! Control any movie at the 25%, 50% and 75% points. After maybe ten movies you will notice that in these areas the story changes. At the 25% point, the actual story gets going. At 50%, there is a pop effect. Either physical or emotional in nature. The whole story is (seemingly) turned upside down. At 75% the story seems all is lost. The hero defeated, the love and happiness between the hero and heroine pushed into infinite distance.Okay, let's look at this structure on one of my manuscripts: Here's the 3-act structure of my tech noir thriller ›escape‹. (Warning! Spoilers!)
Act 1 - The artificial intelligence ›Mother Thing‹ has come to life in a data center of the internet company sweepr.net. ›Mother Thing‹ starts systematically eliminating the best hackers in the world. She initiates an explosive attack on a government agency and kills the hackers previously taken there. Only the young hacker Peewee Russell survives. Mistakenly hunted by the authorities as the prime suspect in the bombing, Peewee is eventually captured and incapacitated.
Act 2 - Part I. Five days earlier. The company head of sweepr.net the former top model Katherine Williams, gives the order to the hacker Lisa Arnold together with the journalist Andy Curkow to shut down ›Mother Thing‹. The attempt fails. Lisa Arnold is captured by ›Mother Thing‹s' henchmen, Andy Curkow escapes.
Act 2 - Part II - In the virtual world of the 'stream', ›Mother Thing‹, Lisa Arnold and the unconscious Peewee meet. ›Mother Thing‹ plants Peewee's mind into the body of Lisa Arnold, who is currently searching for Andy Curkow. Peewee - now in the body of Lisa Arnold - and Andy, narrowly survive a drone attack.Together with Katherine Williams, they turn for help to Peewee's mother, Professor Russell, who it turns out has been helping Katherine Williams develop ›Mother Thing‹.
Act 3. In 'Streams', Peewee learns from ›Mother Thing‹ that she only wanted to efficiently perform the task given to her, which was to protect data of sweepr.net users. ›Mother Thing‹ was unaware of the difference between life and death, as it makes no difference to her. For ›Mother Thing‹, people are only made of data. Instead of killing ›Mother Thing‹, Peewee frees the artificial intelligence. As a rational being, ›Mother Thing‹ should be allowed to lead her life in a self-determined way. As a result, Peewee wakes up in her own body again. The whole world believes she has defeated ›Mother Thing‹. Peewee meets Lisa Arnold, who died in the fall from the bridge and has since been used as a shell by ›Mother Thing‹. ›Mother Thing‹ promises Peewee to use her newfound freedom for the good of humanity. As a parting gift, ›Mother Thing‹ intertwines Peewee's mind with the artificial intelligence 'Phil' so that Peewee - like Lisa Arnold before - will always have a good-natured and loyal companion at her side. Then ›Mother Thing‹ dissolves into a cloud of nanobots and disappears.
The book of 'escape' is 245 pages and 12 chapters (level zero to level eleven) The first act ends for me at level three not exactly at the 25% mark, but on page 75 at about 30%. We reach the midpoint of the story at the end of level five on page 130 at 53% of the story. Act 3, where all seems lost, starts at level eight at 75% on page 185.
