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[HernanZh]

Give me an example. Go ahead.

I wrote an exciting thriller with literally no beginning and end!


(sorry for off topic)

[Paul Eres]

shouldn't this be in 'writing', not 'design'?

anyway the three act structure works for about 99.9% of stories. sure there are 0.1% that don't fit it but if you're unfamiliar with the three-act structure you probably won't be able to write a story in that 0.1%. you're supposed to learn the rules before you break them and all. that's like saying

'programming, graphics, sound are too restrictive! i want to make games without code, images, or sound files'

'okay. but first: what do you know about code, images, or sound files?'

'nothing. they're too restrictive so i never learned about them'

[Charlie Sheen]

i might be wrong cause i know nothing about writing but i think dictionary of the khazars has no beginning and end in a sense that 3 x should ignore if dum

[1982]

anyway the three act structure works for about 99.9% of stories.

Well then this probability only states that making almost whatever story goes inside 3/4-arc structure always by an accident. Then why use it as a tool for writers if all stories go into that anyway? So we have a tool which is averaging conclusion of majority of stories, and then we use that as a guidance of how to write a story? Do I see pattern here?

'programming, graphics, sound are too restrictive! i want to make games without code, images, or sound files'

'okay. but first: what do you know about code, images, or sound files?'

'nothing. they're too restrictive so i never learned about them'

This comparison is bad because you probably cant make a computer game without those elements, but you can make a written piece without any aristotlean stuff. Poems for example, they are almost always stories but at the same time can lack any "coherent" structure.

The real thing is that the classic Aristotle Poetics is not as simple as Paul Eres is trying to imply.

[Paul Eres]

i wouldn't say it's an accident. i'd say that the three act structure is inherent in human psychology and/or in the nature of stories. may as well say that the reason most languages have vowels and consonants is an accident, and the reason most languages have grammar is an accident (rather than just how human language works)

i agree though that you don't have to consciously use it as a guide to writing stories, just like you don't have to consciously use grammar when forming sentences; a lot of the time it's just ingrained in a person and being too conscious of it just slows you down. but that doesn't mean that grammar is useless to study, it can be useful when learning foreign languages, or when trying to improve as a writer in one's own language. but it works best when used automatically rather than consciously

most professional writers don't sit down and think stuff like 'okay, what's act 1; hmm let's introduce characters. okay it's act 3 now, time to write a climax and resolution'. they don't consciously think that. they just write a story and know that it'd fall into that structure, due to how many stories they've read and written

almost all long poems fall into the three-act structure. some short abstract poems might not (such as haiku) but we wouldn't usually call a haiku a story (although some of them can be stories). but i've actually seen haiku that do fall into a 3-act structure -- it's often very natural since it has three lines (and the middle line is the longest). often the first line introduces some thing(s), the second line says something interesting about those thing(s), and the third line is the climax/resolution about those thing(s)

[1982]

most professional writers don't sit down and think stuff like 'okay, what's act 1; hmm let's introduce characters. okay it's act 3 now, time to write a climax and resolution'. they don't consciously think that. they just write a story and know that it'd fall into that structure, due to how many stories they've read and written

I agree, this is exactly what happens. And most of the time it requires deliberate action to break trough from that pattern. But what would be wrong with that? This is the pattern I am personally against of. But I personally don't try so much to break from it because I am not a writer anyway.

[Paul Eres]

nothing's wrong with it. i'm just saying that you can't break that structure unless you know what it is, so saying 'who cares about this structure' will make you *less* likely to break it, not more likely

[1982]

nothing's wrong with it. i'm just saying that you can't break that structure unless you know what it is, so saying 'who cares about this structure' will make you *less* likely to break it, not more likely

That opinion comes mostly from my personal experience where the classic system is been teached as final truth of storytelling. Okay I understand that not everyone is brainwashed with this, and it can be even a bad thing if you want to be writer.

Instead of internet saying: read this, learn and use it. It should state: read this, learn and break it.

But art in internet is generally all about form. And the quality of art is measured of how well it follows the whatever form that has been established.

[Paul Eres]

i don't think we should be saying either one. we should say: learn about it, then decide to use it or don't use it yourself

[1982]

i don't think we should be saying either one. we should say: learn about it, then decide to use it or don't use it yourself

Nah, too humanistic and boring.

[Paul Eres]

related to the 3 axe structure, independently discovered:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo-ha-ky%C5%AB

[ham and brie]

I think the concept of kishoutenketsu, a 4 part structure, is actually more common in Japanese thinking about narrative:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu

(the examples in that Wiki article are pretty bad though and don't really explain it...)

[baconman]

MegaMan 9/10 Endless Attack, ppl? :D

[Muz]

Beginning, middle and the end? Why restrict your creativity with such constraints.

Write me a story without a beginning or end, I'll wait.

Minecraft.

[moi]

-finnegans' wake

-the bald soprano