# Three-act structure — outline template

> A working outline, not a formula. Fill in what you know, leave the rest as a question, and
> revise the whole thing after the first draft. Replace the prompts in italics with your own text.

## Story

**Working title:**

**Logline:** _(one sentence: who wants what, and what stands in the way)_

**Genre / audience:**

**Point of view and tense:**

**Theme:** _(the question the book keeps asking, not the answer)_

---

## Act I — Setup (roughly the first quarter)

**Ordinary world.** _What is the protagonist's life like before anything changes?_

**What they want.** _The external goal, stated so plainly a stranger would understand it._

**What they need.** _The thing they would never say out loud, and probably do not know._

**Inciting incident.** _The event that makes the old life impossible. It should happen early._

**Debate.** _Why they hesitate. What the cost of saying yes looks like._

**Plot point 1 — the door closes.** _The choice they cannot unmake. Act II starts here._

---

## Act II — Confrontation (roughly the middle half)

**New world.** _What changes about the setting, the rules or the company they keep?_

**First attempt.** _They try the obvious thing. It half-works, and costs something._

**Midpoint.** _A reversal or a revelation. The goal becomes urgent or the plan becomes wrong._

**Consequences pile up.** _Allies lost, lies exposed, the flaw showing. This is where the book earns_
_its length._

**All is lost.** _The lowest point: what they believed was working has stopped working._

**Plot point 2 — the door opens.** _The lesson, the sacrifice or the new information that makes the_
_final move possible. Act III starts here._

---

## Act III — Resolution (roughly the last quarter)

**The plan.** _What they will do, and what it will cost._

**Climax.** _Confrontation, not conversation. The flaw is faced or it wins._

**Resolution.** _The new normal. Show the change in one concrete image rather than explaining it._

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## Notes

- Threads to plant in Act I and pay off in Act III:
- Characters who need an arc:
- Scenes I am afraid are filler:
- Open questions: