The Third Act (Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 9 of 12)

The Third Act is what readers, writers, and characters have all been waiting for. This final section of the story is the point. It’s what you’ve been building up to all this time. If the First and Second Acts were engaging and aesthetic labyrinths, the Third Act is where X marks the spot. You’ve found the treasure. Now it’s time to start digging. Like the previous acts, the Third Act opens with a bang, but unlike the other two acts, it never lets up. From this point on, everyone is in for a wild ride. All the threads you’ve been weaving up to this point must now be artfully tied together.

The Third Act occupies the book’s final quarter, beginning around the 75% mark and continuing until the end. This is a relatively small portion of the story, particularly when considering all that must be accomplished.

Within the Third Act, we find the final four structural beats:

• The Third Plot Point – 75%
• The Climax – 88%
• The Climactic Moment — 98%
• The Resolution – 100%

 

The Third Plot Point, which we will discuss next week, is the final major turning point within the story. Like the First Plot Point, it does not explicitly belong to either the Second Act that precedes it or the Third Act that follows it. Rather, it creates the threshold between the two. Often referred to as the Dark Night of the Soul, the Third Plot Point is a moment of reckoning in which the protagonist faces the consequences of previous choices and decides how to re-commit to a final pursuit of the plot goal.

The Climax, which we will discuss in Part 11, begins roughly halfway through the Third Act. It signals the protagonist’s final push toward the plot goal and the final confrontation with the antagonistic force. It will decide the outcome of the conflict once and for all, determining whether or not the protagonist will gain the plot goal.

Finally, the Third Act ends with the Resolution, which we will discuss in Part 12. After the conflict has been decided in the Climax, the Resolution offers a last moment to tie off loose ends and show how the characters have been affected by the story’s events.

One reason the Third Act picks up the pace compared to the previous acts is the simple necessity of cramming in everything that needs to be addressed before the book runs out of time and space.

• All of the foreshadowing planted in the previous acts must now be fulfilled.
• All the characters (and other essential playing pieces, à la the Maltese Falcon) must be assembled.
• Subplots must be satisfactorily tied off.
• Both the protagonist and the antagonistic force must have time to actualize the final aspects of their intentions.
• The protagonist must face inner demons and complete the character arc in concert with the final conflict with the antagonistic force.
• Finally, everything must be capped with a satisfying Resolution.

That’s a lot to accomplish in 25% of the book, so there’s no time to waste. In the Third Act, we can see one of the primary benefits of structure: for the story to work, all the pieces in the First and Second Acts must be in place to lay the foundation for the finale.

Paying Off All Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing has two parts: the plant and the payoff. If the First Act was about setting up your story’s playing pieces—characters, settings, and stakes—your Third Act is about utilizing all these elements to their fullest capacity. Sometimes, this can mean returning to settings that haven’t been used since the First Act or reintroducing certain characters.

Most importantly, the Third Act is about fulfilling any expectations you have raised in readers. Some of these may be general expectations. For example, readers may expect an exciting action sequence in the Climax. Or they may expect the romantic couple to experience a Happily Ever After.

They will also expect all of their questions to be answered. In the First Act, you raised many questions to hook their attention. Now that you’ve successfully kept their attention until the end, you must satisfy their curiosity. If a backstory secret was teased earlier in the story, that must be revealed by the end. If tension (sexual or otherwise) was brewing between two characters in earlier scenes, that must come to a head before or during the Third Act. If a specific emotion (e.g., fear, desire, foreboding, grief) was emphasized, then you must make sure you’ve explained its origin and given it space to express.

Remember, the more heavily you emphasize a foreshadowing plant earlier, the more dramatic the payoff should be. If you’ve hinted at that backstory secret over and over again, you will heighten reader anticipation for the reveal. For example, if you’ve indicated a character was traumatized by something in the past, readers won’t be satisfied if the backstory event turns out to be pedestrian. This doesn’t mean you must always go big with your reveals; it does mean the intensity of the foreshadowing should be crafted to match the intensity of the reveal.

Fulfilling Your Character’s Arc

This final quarter of the story is a place of no escape for your characters. Their backs are against a wall, and their only remaining option is to fully confront the antagonistic force. All their reactions and actions in the previous acts have led them to a point where they must face every last one of their weaknesses and mistakes. If they’re to triumph, they must allow themselves to be broken—and then to either rise from the ashes with new wisdom and strength or to fall even further into destruction.

When your characters reach the Climax, they will make a last attempt to obtain both their story-long goal and their deepest Need (which may or may not be the same and, indeed, may even be antithetical). They’re putting all their cards on the table. If they don’t win now, they never will. The stakes are at their highest in the Third Act.

The First Act was where your characters were confronted with a new set of problems that required them to change their way of being. This kicked off their character arcs. The Second Act was where they slowly began learning the ineffectiveness of old perspectives, as well as new modes of being that allowed them to move through the world more effectively. The Third Act is now where these new viewpoints and skills will be tested.

A good Third Act will resonate deeply with audiences exactly because it hammers home the reality that true personal transformation is never easy. Beginning with the Low Moment at the Third Plot Point, the characters will face the consequences of their mistakes. They will learn of the sacrifices they will yet be required to make to finish their transformation and reach their plot goals.

Not all stories will see the characters emerging triumphant from their character arcs. Indeed, in contrast to Positive Change Arcs in which a character successfully transforms, Negative Change Arcs are all about characters who are unable to adapt to a new and more efficacious way of being in the world, leading them to moral failure and probably practical failure within the plot. Whichever type of story you’re telling, you’ll need to set it up in the First Act and pay it off in the Third. (For more about Positive Change Arcs, Negative Change Arcs, and Flat Arcs, see my book Creating Character Arcs and its accompanying Creating Character Arcs Workbook.)

Ending the Conflict

The story ends when the plot ends. The plot ends when the conflict ends. And the conflict ends when the protagonist’s relationship to the plot goal is definitively decided one way or another. Either the protagonist reaches the plot goal and “wins” or fails to reach the plot goal and “loses.” Sometimes, this will correspondingly mean the antagonist loses or wins instead. In such stories, the Climax is usually decided by a confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist—a winner-takes-all final contest.

For Example:

• The antagonist cannot stop the protagonist from achieving the plot goal, as in Star Wars: A New Hope when Darth Vader fails to kill Luke Skywalker before he blows up the Death Star.
• The plot goal is destroying the antagonist, as in Stranger Things when Eleven obliterates the Demogorgon with her telekinetic powers.
• The protagonist and antagonist meet in a mano-a-mano competition, which either may win, as in Rocky when the antagonist Apollo Creed wins the boxing match.

However, the outcome of the conflict may also be more complex.

For Example:

• The protagonist may lose the plot goal but gain a more valuable moral victory, as in Rocky.
• The outcome may not be a destruction of one of the characters but rather a union between them, as in romances in which the love interests represent each other’s antagonistic forces as they work through the relational conflict to reach their ultimate desire of being together.
• The protagonist may “win” the plot goal away from the antagonist, only to realize the victory is compromised, as in The Maltese Falcon, in which detective Sam Spade recovers the priceless artifact but must have his lover arrested.

As we will discuss more in Part 11, the Climax represents a definitive closure of the conflict that halts the story’s forward momentum. Although later permutations of the same conflict may arise in sequels, the story arc shared in this book reaches a conclusive end.

Examples of the Third Act From Film and Literature

Pride and Prejudice: After learning the terrible news that her youngest sister Lydia has scandalously run away with the scoundrel Wickham, Elizabeth returns home from her interlude with Mr. Darcy at Pemberley. The Third Act is a whirlwind of revelations, as Wickham mysteriously marries Lydia and Darcy’s aunt descends upon Elizabeth with demands that she promise never to marry her nephew. The plot and theme in this story are exceptionally tight with no loose pieces. Everything that was set up in the First Act and developed in the Second comes to fruition in the Third, as Elizabeth must recalibrate her opinions of Mr. Darcy in a realization of his worthiness and her love for him. Everything is complicated nicely with the dramatic doubt of whether her folly, not to mention Lydia’s, has forever compromised her ability to be with him.

It’s a Wonderful Life: The Second Act ends with Uncle Billy losing the Building & Loan’s $8,000 and George frantically attempting to recover it. This dramatic event is followed by the appearance of the angel Clarence and his granting of George’s wish to “never be born.” The Third Act is made up almost entirely of George’s exploration of the tragedies that would have filled Bedford Falls without his presence and influence. The main antagonist isn’t present in the unborn sequence that comprises most of the Third Act, although his presence looms large. The focus here is on George’s inner journey and transformation.

Ender’s Game: When Ender is forced to kill fellow student Bonzo, he is pushed to his breaking point. The time has come for him to leave Battle School and command Dragon Army in a larger arena. But after Bonzo’s death, the commanders realize they’re on the brink of losing the boy they’ve been grooming to save the world. Ender is permitted to return to Earth to visit his beloved sister Valentine. While there, he must make the decision that will change not only the fate of the world but also his own life. When he decides to return to space and take his promotion, events are sent into an irrevocable spiral to the Climax.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World: When a convalescent Dr. Stephen Maturin is set loose upon his long-anticipated and long-delayed Galapagos expedition, he accidentally discovers the enemy ship at anchor on the far side of the island. This launches the Third Act in a flurry of preparations. Captain Jack Aubrey formulates his plan to lure the enemy privateer near enough to make the kill. His crew hurries to prepare for the climactic battle that has been foreshadowed since the opening scene.

Top Things to Remember About the Third Act

1. The Third Act begins around the 75% mark.
2. The Third Plot Point ends the Second Act and begins the Third. This plot point may be a reversal of the gains made in the Second Half of the Second Act (as in Pride & Prejudice), an unexpected event (as in It’s a Wonderful Life), a personal decision (as in Ender’s Game), or a meeting between protagonist and antagonist (as in Master and Commander).
3. From its opening plot point onward, the Third Act picks up speed and doesn’t slow down.
4. Despite its comparatively fast pace, the Third Act must be thoughtful enough in its first moments to allow all the extra pieces to be either tied off and set out of the way (such as Ender’s relationship with his sister) or assembled for the showdown (such as the Surprise’s preparations for battle).
5. The Third Act pays off all foreshadowing. Everything set up in the first two acts comes full circle.
6. The Third Act completes the protagonist’s arc. Whether the character is following a Positive, Flat, or Negative Arc, the events of the Third Act offer the final possibilities for transformation.
7. The Third Act ends the conflict between protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist’s relationship to the plot goal will be definitively decided, whether victoriously or not.

If you can deliver a solid Third Act, you will have accomplished what myriads of novelists struggle to do (even published ones). This is where writers become authors!

Stay tuned: Next week, we will talk about the Third Plot Point.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Does your Third Act tie off all the loose ends? Tell me in the comments!

Related Posts:

Part 1: 5 Reasons Story Structure Is Important

Part 2: The Hook

Part 3: The First Act

Part 4: The Inciting Event

Part 5: The First Plot Point

Part 6: The First Half of the Second Act

Part 7: The Midpoint

Part 8: The Second Half of the Second Act

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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