Storytelling: The Three Acts

The concept of three acts is at least as old as Aristotle. But one could argue that it's such a fundamental concept to everything – the concept of a beginning, a middle and an end – that it was there since before the beginning of time. (In fact the concept was created before the beginning of time, exists during the existence of time, and will disappear when everything all goes back to being merely inky thoughts in the mind of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.)

Below is a table showing how prevalent the concept of the three parts is in story-telling theories from all disciplines.

General Story	Beginning	Middle	End
3 Acts	Act I	Act II	Act III
Placement of the Hero	In place	Out of place	Back in place
General Improv Scene	Setup	Problem	Solution
Platform Model	Platform	Tilt	New Platform
Balance Model	Balance	Imbalance	New Balance
Routine Model	Opening Routine	Break the Routine	New Routine
Hero's Journey	Departure or Separation (from Ordinary World)	Descent and Initiation (to Special World)	Return (to Ordinary World)