LOST writing class #15: Act Three
You're approaching the end of the story. The end is in sight! Woo-hoo! Time to break out the good chocolate. After all, it's all a breeze from here, right?
The third act is about coming full circle with the characters and plot. You want to leave the reader satisfied, not whining that they can’t believe they wasted time and money on your story. Make sure that your ending is like the last fork of chocolate cake: satisfyingly sweet and wanting more.
The last act is one of the trickiest to write. And in my experience, also the fastest. There’s a big rush to get to the last words and type “the end” with a flourish. However, you don’t want to go so fast that you lose sight of what you’ve built up since page one. There’s a lot of loose ends that need to be tied neatly before you can close the curtain on the story. My best advice for doing this is to read through the entire manuscript up to this point. You’ve spent a lot of time on this story, but you may read it with fresh eyes and realize that the phone call the hero’s been waiting for still hasn’t rung. Or that the green eyes he fell in love with on the heroine have suddenly changed to blue. (Don’t laugh. Almost every writer has done this).
How does LOST handle the third act? Let’s take a look at season four’s episode “The Shape of Things to Come” (episode 9). Not only is it from Ben’s perspective, but it also sets us up for the rest of the season. I LOVE IT! Act two ends with the murder of Ben’s daughter Alex right in front of his eyes. Ben has been given a choice: give himself up or sacrifice his daughter. He foolishly believes that he’s in control of this situation and that no harm will come to his daughter. Therefore, he chooses to stay where he is and watches his daughter die. This choice informs the rest of the episode. Ben then calls the smoke monster to attack Keamy’s team while he and the rest of the Losties seek refuge in the jungle and get as far away from them as possible. On an interesting note, Ben’s flashforward also has a murder as the second plot point. In this case, we see Sayid at his wife’s funeral procession. He sees and confronts Ben thus setting up the third act where Sayid eventually becomes Ben’s personal hitman. What loose ends are tied up in the third act of this episode? We see Ben say a touching goodbye to his daughter. We learn that Ben knows how to contact the monster though he doesn’t know what it is. We also discover that Hurley knows where to find Jacob’s cabin which makes him valuable to Ben and Locke. And at the end, we learn about the rivalry between Ben and Charles Widmore: they’re both trying to find the island again before the other does. Not only does this episode stand alone, but it sets the viewers up for the rest of season four. How can you not love it?
The third act is also the point where your hero/heroine reaches the black moment, a point where all seems lost. We’ll be discussing that in detail next week, then I’ll be off to Denver for a writing conference and Disney World after that. Woo hoo!!!
The third act is about coming full circle with the characters and plot. You want to leave the reader satisfied, not whining that they can’t believe they wasted time and money on your story. Make sure that your ending is like the last fork of chocolate cake: satisfyingly sweet and wanting more.
The last act is one of the trickiest to write. And in my experience, also the fastest. There’s a big rush to get to the last words and type “the end” with a flourish. However, you don’t want to go so fast that you lose sight of what you’ve built up since page one. There’s a lot of loose ends that need to be tied neatly before you can close the curtain on the story. My best advice for doing this is to read through the entire manuscript up to this point. You’ve spent a lot of time on this story, but you may read it with fresh eyes and realize that the phone call the hero’s been waiting for still hasn’t rung. Or that the green eyes he fell in love with on the heroine have suddenly changed to blue. (Don’t laugh. Almost every writer has done this).
How does LOST handle the third act? Let’s take a look at season four’s episode “The Shape of Things to Come” (episode 9). Not only is it from Ben’s perspective, but it also sets us up for the rest of the season. I LOVE IT! Act two ends with the murder of Ben’s daughter Alex right in front of his eyes. Ben has been given a choice: give himself up or sacrifice his daughter. He foolishly believes that he’s in control of this situation and that no harm will come to his daughter. Therefore, he chooses to stay where he is and watches his daughter die. This choice informs the rest of the episode. Ben then calls the smoke monster to attack Keamy’s team while he and the rest of the Losties seek refuge in the jungle and get as far away from them as possible. On an interesting note, Ben’s flashforward also has a murder as the second plot point. In this case, we see Sayid at his wife’s funeral procession. He sees and confronts Ben thus setting up the third act where Sayid eventually becomes Ben’s personal hitman. What loose ends are tied up in the third act of this episode? We see Ben say a touching goodbye to his daughter. We learn that Ben knows how to contact the monster though he doesn’t know what it is. We also discover that Hurley knows where to find Jacob’s cabin which makes him valuable to Ben and Locke. And at the end, we learn about the rivalry between Ben and Charles Widmore: they’re both trying to find the island again before the other does. Not only does this episode stand alone, but it sets the viewers up for the rest of season four. How can you not love it?
The third act is also the point where your hero/heroine reaches the black moment, a point where all seems lost. We’ll be discussing that in detail next week, then I’ll be off to Denver for a writing conference and Disney World after that. Woo hoo!!!
Labels: Lost, writing class
posted by Syndi Powell @ 9:00 PM
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