#5 act structure

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

‘And yup here comes the dark night of the soul :)’

Wackus I swear with one measly tag you have struck fear into my tender reader heart 😨

I mean we all knew it was coming but I’m not ready

hehe >:) this goes back to the 3 act structure I was supposed to do but didn't

basically i took the same beats from the snyder structure and stretched them into 5 acts. instead of the dark night of the soul beginning act 3, it will end act 4.

the star is where we are now >:3

[the-one-that-weeps]

I find it a little poetic that, usually, plays have 5 acts, but isat has 6. And the sixth one is responsible for breaking the cycle. Like telling the viewer that "hey, it's not over. Your life isn't theatre. So go out and live."

[slayingfiction]

The 5-Act Story Structure

The 5-Act Story Structure, often associated with classical drama and Shakespearean plays, offers a more nuanced approach to storytelling than the 3-Act structure. It is designed to provide a deeper exploration of themes, characters, and conflicts. This structure is divided into five parts: Introduction, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.

Act 1: Introduction sets up the story by introducing characters, settings, and the initial situation or conflict.

Act 2: Rising Action builds upon the foundation laid in the first act, developing the story's main conflict and complicating the characters' lives.

Act 3: Climax is the turning point of the story, where tensions reach their peak, and the main conflict is confronted head-on.

Act 4: Falling Action deals with the aftermath of the climax, leading towards a resolution but still containing elements of conflict and tension.

Act 5: Denouement resolves the remaining conflicts, wraps up loose ends, and concludes the story, often leaving the audience with something to ponder.

The 5-Act Structure is particularly suited for stories that require intricate plotting, detailed character arcs, and a gradual buildup to a climactic confrontation. It allows for a more layered exploration of themes and a complex interweaving of subplots, making it ideal for epic narratives, complex dramas, and stories with a wide scope of characters and settings.

Compared to the 3-Act and 7-Act structures, the 5-Act structure offers a balance between complexity and manageability. It’s best used when the story demands depth and complexity but still needs to maintain a coherent and focused narrative arc. It is perfect for stories where the journey, including its ups and downs, is as important as the destination.

Happy Writing!

See Slaying Fiction for more fun posts!

[tragedycoded]

the loop may be ended...

... but there was demand for a playlist, and the old one sucked.

While the 1872-73 timeline is mostly marked by power ballads (it's a love story) the rest of the songs are either straight-up d̷͍̼̒̍o̸̮͝ơ̵̻m̷͎̂ ̷̨̑̎m̵̦̮͝e̶̺͕̍̓ṱ̴̈̽a̸͖̎̍l̶̩̈́̂ or they're some flavor of experimental/noise/atmospheric black metal. Or they're strategically placed video game soundtracks that make me burst into tears bc I'm ridiculous, but prob sound out of place to an emotionally stable individual.

Anyway they match up with the chapter order until you get to "Litany of Desire," which covers chapters 10 + 11. After that it's [chapter number] -1.

Body Void and Xiu Xiu were thrown in for the somatic sound effect. I had to be careful which "meant to make you feel weird" songs I included; I may think it's funny to listen to ultra-low frequency tones high off my ass until I trigger my occipital neuralgia and puke, but that's a personal choice.

Rambling about the individual songs in Act 1 under the cut. Anyway. Tagging the DMLS folks, plus @astramachina and @sableglass and @words-after-midnight bc MUSIC.

@leahnardo-da-veggie @the-golden-comet @cowboybrunch @finickyfelix

@lychhiker-writes @wyked-ao3 @saturnine-saturneight

@gioiaalbanoart @davycoquette @zackprincebooks @jev-urisk

1) "The Bad Luck That Saved You From Something Worse": You hear that noise at the beginning? I hate it. It feels like feelers inside my skull. That's the feeling of restarting at the beginning of a time loop--something shitty happened and I have no clue what I was doing or what I'm supposed to do next. #hofercore

2) "The Parasite" - the first time I heard this song, Sullivan and Royston popped into my head.

Then Royston started bitching me out because it wasn't his fault they were here and Sullivan wasn't dead and they weren't supposed to be here and behbehbehbehbeh.

3) "No One Like You": Not just a '80s song because Jamie is a millennial. No no. There's a reason I put this as The Song for the beginning of the bar fight loop (there are loops within loops bc I love myself. Twine loves this too.)

Each time they go it gets harder bc Sullivan keeps forgetting everything lol.

4) "High Plains Eulogy": This is the first Royston POV chapter and he has eyeballs. He realizes he's fucked up. IDK if he realizes there was literally nothing he could do to get here any sooner. (I'm willing to give him this much: Sullivan being pissed off and avoiding returning his letters fucks the run every single time it happens.) This is the first of many "Royston is a visual learner" chapters.

5) "Psalm III - Olam Teshuvah": You hear the dripping and screaming in the beginning? I think I'm being clever and warning you what's going to happen with Martin, who is just standing there in a catatonic stupor.

6) "Ace of Spades": This was, at the time, the most ridiculous thing I'd ever written. It is 100% Royston's fault the shootout happened in the first place, let alone escalated to the degree that Sullivan couldn't reel it in. Sullivan would have compared it to bullriding, if he'd "ever partaken in such a foolish activity."

7) "Ashen Era": Johnson and White are explaining the tree to Sullivan. I'm warning you about the tree with this song.

8) "This One Has No Heart": I mean… [gestures at Martin; gestures at Royston] … they're both fucked.

9) "Hysteria":

Director's Commentary moment, are you ready?

In the prologue, Hofer's ears start ringing. This is because there was a previous run where he caught a bullet in the neck and fucking died. (Tinnitus is a warning you're about to do the same stupid shit that got you killed previously. Sullivan doesn't really get that bc he keeps finding new exciting ways to die.)

When Hofer got shot in the neck, that restarted the loop--Sullivan dies in that cabin if Hofer doesn't treat his leg. So as far as Royston was concerned, he was just in the train, shot full of the Delilah Special, and now he's opening his eyes and Sullivan is fine and he doesn't know if Sullivan remembers/hates him/etc. and he can't fly out of bed all dramatic like he wants to bc he literally has no control over his skeletal muscles (thanks, hemlock and whatever else Delilah hit him with.)

If anyone has any interest in seeing an entire post like this a) you're crazy and b) I would be more than happy to do one with more effort/spoilers.

[the-writing-mechanic-official]

The Writer's Workbook:

Writing

4.25 Story Arcs

To expand on my last post on the 3-Act story structure, there are actually other structures to go with.

The 5-Act Structure:

This structure is more simplistic and is mostly used in fairytales or books aimed for children. The flow of action in it is a steady rise then fall.

Act I: Exposition.

Act II: Rising Action.

Act III: Climax.

Act IV: Falling Action.

Act V: Resolution.

The 8-Act Structure

This one is basically a more outlined form of the 3-act Structure. Every act here can fall under the same 3 in that one. If you have the events of your structure, you can further detail them with this one.

Act I: The Exposition. (Setup)

Act II: The Inciting Incident. (Setup)

Act III: Rising Action. (Confrontation)

Act IV: Mid-Point. (Confrontation)

Act V: Vital Plot Point. (Confrontation)

Act VI: Pre Climax. (Resolution)

Act VII: Climax. (Resolution)

Act VIII: Denouncement. (Resolution)

If you compare these two to the 3-Act Structure. it looks like this.

Every plot point in the 5 and 8-act structures falls in with the 3-act, but the difference is in the distribution of the suspense/tension.

The 5-act is good for a certain type of stories, but if the 3-act fit with you more, consider expanding it with the 8-act structure.

Main Post

[equalseleventhirds]

it is so late and i am so tired and i haven't even been online much lately, but i've been ruminating abt ttrpgs (as i have endless rumination time at work and on the train, which is 80% of my time anyway)

and abt the like, unreasonable mindset ppl get into abt dnd 5e due to Marketing and also Actual Plays. u kno, that it can Do Anything, that u don't gotta know the rules, that the dm should plan a conventional narrative and u gotta stick to it, that it's for cute queer found families, roleplaying rollplaying bullshit, etc.

and sometimes there's posts from ppl who are outside of that mindset like, wow try another game, but also pls don't bring that mindset to other games we love. u kno.

and maybe i simply spend a lot of time in podcast & streaming circles and also circles of ppl who learned ttrpgs from podcasts & streaming, but, crucially, i don't play d&d

so i meet a lot of ppl who have moved past d&d, right. but. still have that mindset abt their new favorite game(s).

like, 'oh unlike d&d this is actually a queer found family narrative' they say abt a heavily pvp game where u can be queer but it's not about queerness.

'oh unlike d&d you can create a real story' they say, as the gm ignores the handy Make Situations sheet the game comes with and plans a 5-act narrative years in advance.

'oh unlike d&d this game is about ROLEplaying not ROLLplaying' they say, ignoring the social mechanics of the game in order to draw out talky scenes. for character work. for realism. for the story.

'oh unlike d&d this one is so easy to learn' they say, not reading huge and relevant sections of the book until halfway through the session.

i could go on. once i played a kinda weird and poetic indie game with folks whose primary game was motw, and the amount of 'hey this weird and poetic mechanic doesn't make literal sense to me as a character action' haunts me.

and it is immensely frustrating, bcos like.... on the one hand, god i'm glad you're playing something that's not d&d!! that's so important!! on the other hand, you likely learned about this game through an actual play where they (hopefully) used the basic mechanics for stuff, but mostly ran the story like a 5e actual play.

like, i love the adventure zone, but my god you're gonna come out of amnesty or steeplechase with a WILD misunderstanding of the themes and story even a lot of the mechanics of motw or bitd. (both games i like very much. but don't play them like the mcelroys.) or like, god i'm glad the d20 folks are having such fun with kob-adjacent games. but do NOT learn kob from them.

and listening to famous ppl do that to a game i like is one thing. a frustrating thing, to be sure. but participating in a game like this, or even hearing my friends & acquaintances play like this? hateful. makes me grit my teeth and cry. makes me make weirder and weirder game mechanics, which hopefully i'll make into coherent games someday.

anyway, this is all to say, before you start your found family motw game where u will team up with the monsters to save everything and maybe also bigfoot is there, a. stop listening to taz amnesty, b. read, really REALLY read apocalypse world and get a handle on THAT, c. go reread motw and think hard abt it, and d. watch buffy and supernatural a bit. yeah i know they suck. think rly hard abt that scene in buffy where xander chooses not to tell buffy that angel will get his soul back so buffy has to kill her and then no one ever finds out abt that and i HATE that scene but also it's the kind of thing motw was built for, you see.

also play weirder games and adjust ur expectations but whatever.

[jaderavenarts]

Something I love about RDR2's storytelling is that it reminds me so much of longform television that'd have like 26 episodes a season or whatever. Like each chapter (or maybe a combination of chapters for the shorter ones) is a different season where they set up the new primary location and current goals/strings of the main plot that tie back to the overarching story. Sprinkle in stranger missions, camp conversations, exploration, and robberies with fellow gang members as "filler" episodes/scenes of episodes that flesh out the characters, relationships, world, and backstories, and at key points there'd be the hard hitting plot heavy episodes, until everything blows up at the season finale, which only get bigger with each season. And how you get to the last season of a show and look back at the first ever episode like "wow things were so simple back then."

[warlenys]

poldark, 1x05.

[essektheylyss]

presented without comment

[mashamorevvna]

genuinely need to find a concept for a fic around shadowheart&ketheric bc I KNOW there's a lot of potential for past-sharran and sharran in the process of becoming something else/worse

[sketchz]

3- favorite soundtrack? (For the isat ask game)

[eskawrites]

8k words of notes for the charmed au that i’m not gonna write and there’s only like 4 instances where a non-evil man is mentioned

[obeetlebeetle]

trying to crack ep3 is SO hard. wuvvy. hob. what is going on in ur little heads

[raininyourblackeyes]

If these exams go well and exactly as I plan them to go, I will post that BSD fic. I promised it to my friends because the goal is unrealistic, but here is the written proof that I did.

[starlooove]

so when it comes to exotic now y’all just wanna ignore connotative vs denotative definition 💀

[uniformbravo]

if the nanowrimo word goal was 30,737 i simply would have won