Structures of a Story: The rise and fall

Strap in, folks; we're getting started with a new series of Grammar Talk posts discussing different types of narrative structure! There are a lot of ways to think about the way a story is structured, and a lot of tools you can use to organise a plot. Over the coming months, we'll look at a selection of these structures and tools, as well as some elaborating techniques. I encourage you to think about stories you know that adhere to the structures we discuss over the course of the series, but also whether you might use them in your own writing.

This week, we're starting with a couple of foundational concepts: the three-act and five-act structures. Stick around and see where we go from here!

The most simple shape that a narrative structure can take is a rise and fall in tension: the action starts to escalate from the inciting incident until it hits the climax, and then winds down into a resolution. It is used for three-act and five-act structures, which you are probably familiar with at least by name as the default for teaching narrative structure, and many writers learn that this is the way to construct a story. The particular angles of rising and falling action, the placement of the climax, and the divisions and key points along the way change from one structure to another, but the overall shape is the same: action goes up, hits a climax, and comes back down.

There's a good reason why rise-and-fall structures are taught so widely compared to other types. The simplicity of this single arc or angle is easy to understand, and most stories fit well enough into it. When you're starting out as a creative writer, this is exactly what you want! More complicated types of narrative structure require deeper understanding of narrative beats and how they work, but a rise-and-fall structure only relies on a few well-known concepts, such as the inciting incident and climax.

Three-act structure

The most basic and foundational narrative structure there is, the three-act structure is the epitome of describing stories as having a beginning, middle, and end. Or, as one of my high school English teachers put it, you stick your hero in a tree, throw things at them, and get them down from the tree. Humans like the number three, so this feels like a natural way to divide a story. As you will come to see, the three-act structure is also the basis of a number of other structures that we'll discuss in this series.

When using the three-act structure, the first act is where you set the scene, introduce the characters, and put the plot in motion. The story's inciting incident happens here, along with the characters' response that kick-starts the story. In the second act, the characters must navigate obstacles and complications as the climax approaches. You will likely have a midpoint here which changes the story's direction, and perhaps a moment where everything looks like it might all fall apart. The final act rushes into the climax, where the characters must overcome their greatest challenge and achieve their goal, after which it settles down into the denouement.

The angle of this rise and fall looks rather lopsided, with the climax situated more than two-thirds of the way through the story, further if you have a quick denouement. Act two is the bulk of the story, where all of the meaty bits are; the first and last acts are usually much shorter. There aren't a lot of details to keep track of, which makes a three-act structure ideal for writers who prefer to go into a draft with minimal planning. It's also a structure that works especially well for shorter narratives, where you don't have much room for structural complexity.

Five-act structure

Five-act structures aren't as widely common these days as three-act structures, but they can frequently be seen in dramas, especially older ones. If you've ever read a play by Shakespeare or one of his contemporaries, for example, you will have seen that they are divided into five literal acts. The five-act structure is closely tied to the concept of Freytag's Pyramid, which was developed by Gustav Freytag in the 19th century to deconstruct classical tragedies.

In a five-act structure, the first act is fairly similar to that of a three-act structure; it introduces the characters and their context, and sets off the plot with an inciting incident. Similarly, act two follows the same upwards trend we saw in the three-act structure, building complications and tension. After this, though, the five-act structure becomes quite different. Act three is the climax, but, rather than being the point of final achievement, this climax is an irreversible decision by the protagonist―it roughly equates to a midpoint in a three-act structure. The fourth act then begins the descent, where the tension from act two begins to unravel and the characters must deal with the consequences of the climactic decision. The fifth act, then, is the resolution, where all the threads come together into the inevitable conclusion of the story.

The peak in this structure is a little more symmetrical, with the climax sitting closer to the middle of the story. In practice, the descent tends to happen faster than the build-up, but the difference between the pre- and post-climax sides is much less extreme than in the three-act structure. This more balanced split suits modern plays and musicals as well as classic drama, as it puts the climax just before the intermission. It also works well for a heavily character-driven story, thanks to the greater focus on consequences stemming from the character's decisions.