Act One and the Door of no Return.

I've been tinkering and building Act One of the screenplay I am currently working on tonight. The Screenplay is called "Shanks". It is a detective story 250 years in the future. I have never written a detective story before and its a bit daunting coming up with clever clues to sprinkle along the way. The software i'm using really is helpful as I can colour co-ordinate each thread of the tale. That means I can keep track and follow each thread to its conclusion.

Just for those who are not familiar with the nuts and bolts of story telling, I'll give you a quick 101 in telling stories...

Most stories are made up of 3 Acts...

The 3 Act Structure.

The first Act is your set up. Main characters are established and the lead up to plot point 1 is laid down. The foundation of the story is set. If your are writing a script for say...Doctor Who, there would be no need to establish the main characters, (as they are already establish during the run of the show. Kinda obvious when you think about it, eh?). It should also contain the "Inciting Incident". I will explain this in a bit more detail later. It should also include Plot Point 1, which is the "Door of No Return" (known from now on as the DONR). This is the incident that forces the Protagonist (your main character) go on the "journey" that is in Act Two, otherwise what is there to stop your character from going "fuck that!" and head off to his bed?

We are going to assume that whatever Plot Point 1 was is enough to stop the character going to his kip and he has went through the DONR and has found himself in Act 2. Act 2 is the meat of your story. This is where the action takes place. Your character has his objective and there are incidents that are trying to stop him reaching that objective. This is your basic plot. You would then reach the mid point of the story and WHAM! a major setback occurs. Character keeps going on until Plot Point 2 which takes him through another DONR and he finds himself in...

Act 3 is where all your story strands come together and the stories climax occurs. The End. credits roll and you can go and make a cuppa tea.

Hold on! Not finished quite yet.

So back to that bloody Plot Point One. Now most of the books I have read on writing and planning get a little bit confused. They say a big event pulls your character into the action.This is not the case. Don't get confused by the two. A building blowing up would not put your character in Act 2 unless he was trapped in the building trying to get out or if your character is a parent, their baby being kidnapped. But that is not a DONR either. They are what is commonly known as Inciting Incidents. Lets go with the baby story. Baby is kidnapped. Pretty major thing to happen. The police tell the parents to stay home, let the professionals deal with this. Weeks go by and the police have no leads. The parents decide to take matters into their own hands as the police have failed them. That is the Plot Point One. That is the DONR. The love for the child drags them kicking and screming into Act 2, the search for the baby.

Lets look at this in a real tv show. As I referenced Doctor Who earlier I will use that.  If you wish to follow what I'm blethering about, search for "The Unquiet Dead," written by the wonderful Mark Gattiss, on www.stagevu.com.

The Unquiet Dead

The Ep. opens in a funeral palor in the 1800's. a man is weeping over his grandmother who is dead in the coffin. The Inciting incident is coming up...wait for it...the corpse comes alive and strangles the grand son and goes running into the night screaming.

Pretty big event. But not the the DONR. Why not? Because the main Characters, The Doctor and Rose, are not involved in this incident at all. They are still travelling in time and space in the TARDIS. However this incident will lead to the DONR.

 In what way?

Well the dead woman goes to see her favourite author Charles Dickens read "A Christmas Carol" in the local theatre. That is what was planned before she died. The Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff only to be met with screaming theatre goers, rushing out as the dead woman's "ghost" leaves her body and flies around the hall. The Doctor cant resist a mystery and rushes in to discover that the "ghosts" are aliens made of gas. The aliens get away through the gas pipes leaving The Doctor to search for them and find out why they are on earth. He is hooked into Act 2, the hunt for the aliens.

If you look at any tv show this is pretty standard procedure. Watch a show or a film, see if you can find the Inciting Incident and the DONR. It should be there with in the first 15-20 minutes.

Time for a cuppa! happy hunting!