Original Plots. Bryan O'Neill

and Communism are forms of government are easily corruptible. A democracy where the people truly have freedom of speech, and freedom to demonstrate is a form of government where the citizens can struture the society they live in.

      The main motivation for many well written villains in a story is one of a person that is treated harshly by the society in which he lives who decides to lead a revolt, or rebel somehow. Mencius’s focus on character is the important part to focus on here. His concept provides a motivator and justification for villainous acts. Why does a villain become a villain? If unjust treatment by the society they live in is the answer then that leaves open an opportunity to describe a villain’s background.

      Mencius’s theory on society assumes a just kingdom or government would be in support of their citizens. A democracy achieves this but only if the government meets the people halfway to help make decisions that better everyone within that community. Even a democracy can start to become corrupt if it gets too big and the people’s ability to change it is lost. In the war torn lands of China Mencius was not able to achieve his dream of change, at least not in those times.

      It is interesting that Aristotle and Mencius were alive at the same time and deep in thought about society and how it effects real world character development. Aristotle was learning and developing character behaviors that would influence the western world while Mencius was developing character behaviors that would later influence the east. Both have contributed a wealth of knowledge for story development when it comes to character relationships.

      Aristote and Mencius, like many philosophers have studied in depth how people’s actions and thoughts influence the word around them. Character relationship study has a direct on the stories you tell.

      The Five Act Structure

      One of Aristotle’s theories; that has proven invaluable over time is the Three Act Structure. In it, he defined a story as having three sections or acts: a beginning, middle, and an end. The structure is about as basic as you can get, but it represents the cleanest linear way to tell a story. Each act must represent actions that drive the characters through an event.

      The Roman poet Horace is credited with modifying the Three Act Structure in his work Ars Poetica (18 BC) to include two more acts, the additions being Rising Action and Falling Action. These plot points were added to further clarify the action. This creates the Five Act Structure.

      

       The Five Act Structure

      

       Act 1: Exposition | Beginning

       Act 2: Rising Action| Plot Point 1

       Act 3: Climax | Middle

       Act 4: Falling Action| Plot Point 2

       Act 5: Denouement | Ending

      

       Act 1: Exposition | Beginning

      In the first act, the setting, characters, and pace must be explained. If a premise is used for a story, this is the time to formulate it. A premise is simply a purpose or overall message you are trying to convey. This act establishes your world; therefore, you want to grab the reader’s attention early so you can hold it all the way through. Missteps in the first act of any story can push your audience into the, “I don’t care what happens to the characters,” zone.

      There must be a balance between description and dialogue. If you get too hung up on describing the setting, your character development suffers. If you use too much dialogue, the audience can lose track of setting details. A great first act should introduce the main characters of the story. Whether they are introduced as a group, individually, or by chapter is up to you, but the main core of characters should be introduced here. One of the biggest downfalls at the onset is under developing characters or simply introducing too many at once.

      Setting and pace are two additional features that are critical to the first act. The setting can change, and depending on how much of your world you plan to introduce to your audience, you should have a good idea how much detail on setting you should add.

      You should also be conscious of the pace of the story from the start. Whatever pace or overall speed you decide to create for your story must be consistent. Some stories open up with great action, then get slower as time goes on, only to fizzle out at the end. On the flip side, some stories take forever to get started, then do pick up speed later to a great climax, but you may have lost your audience by then. Keep the pace; if a scene or chapter feels too slow, add dialogue or describe a point of interest.

      The end of the first act will do so with a point of no return event for the characters. This event should be enough to naturally keep the audience wanting more. The event also needs to ask a few questions of the stories characters. What exactly was the event and how many main characters were affected? Why did this event take place? Was it part of some bigger plot and if so, who or what is ultimately behind it? How do the characters feel about this emotionally? Can they learn something from this event? Are the characters for it or against it?

      These questions can start to be answered as soon as the second act begins. Each major twist should spawn similar questions. If the questions are left unanswered, the plot points may be too weak to stand alone. Too many questions left unanswered will frustrate your audience. You do not want to get in a situation where the audience is nearing the end of your story, but still thinking about unresolved issues from the beginning.

      Great stories will answer the why things happened questions rather than focus on what happened questions, especially in mystery stories or any mystery that is implied, for that matter. Audiences will expect these questions to be answered by the end of the story. Taking a, “Some questions are best left unanswered,” stance is truly a storyteller cop out if a mystery is implied. Audiences will think you could not come up with anything and the story has a greater chance of failing.

      Keep track of the ongoing questions in your story and answer them by the end of the story or series, if sequels are to be made.

      By the end of the first act, the main characters and subplot characters should be easily identifiable. You should already know what all these characters have to do next as a result of the point of no return event. The narrative voice (whose point of view the audience should be following) also needs to be clearly established.

      

       Act 2: Rising Action | Plot Point 1

      The second act represents a point of no return for the main characters. This point of no return generally takes the form of a struggle that may be physical; or emotional. Classic narrative conflicts including: Man vs. Man, Nature, Himself, God, Woman, or Society describe plot points, for examples. It will involve some kind of action that drives the plot forward. It is an act that would not allow the main characters to go back to how things were before the event. The rising action should allow the characters to move forward, but not allow them to go back to how things were, necessarily.

      The second act is also where the storyteller needs to define sympathy for the character. Often the point of no return event will make the audience feel sorry for the character, but that does not mean they are hooked. The point of no return is a call to action for the heroes. He reaches a point of no return situation where he is either forced to act or simply does so out of duty. The villains, who may or may not have had a hand in the event, will look for opportunities to exploit or use it for their own gain.

      The transition into the third act begins when the hero and his supporting characters respond to point of no return event.

      

       Act 3: Climax | Middle

      The third act is where empathy needs to be established, or the story will have a hard time impressing an audience. Most of the time, this is where good stories completely