Writing with 3 Equal-sized Acts: The Hunger Games

A while ago, a follower read my article "Variations on Story Structure: A List," and asked me to elaborate on how The Hunger Games (book) doesn't follow the typical beat percentages, and they wondered if I could maybe go over how to pull that off. I wasn't sure when/if I'd get to it, but . . . here we are!

Now, because I know we have a lot of new followers, I want to make sure we are all starting with the same foundation, first. (If you've been following me for a while though and don't want the review, feel free to skip to the section after this next one.)

Typical Story Structure

Most stories follow 3-act structure, with the middle of the story taking up about 50% of the book. Because the middle is so long, most people will split it into two. So, typical stories look like this:

We could argue that because there are four major turns (or "peaks") that this is really a 4-act structure, but to keep with the language most commonly used, we'll call it a 3-act structure, with Act II split into "Part I" and "Part II."

This typically breaks the story down into quarters (more or less). Each section takes up about 25% of the story.

Yes, some writers hate percentages, but percentages are the quickest, easiest way to communicate when something usually happens in a book, so, we'll use them.

Like pretty much anything in writing, though, the percentages are just guidelines. It's what usually works for most audiences. It's what the audience is used to seeing.

The four peaks are plot turns--they turn the direction of the story. A year or so ago, I realized that this also means they shift the protagonist's goal, or their plan to get the goal in some way (for an explanation of that go here.) When a plot turn happens, the goal or plan has changed (at least somewhat).

These plot turns are also called turning points or plot points, and depending on what approach you use, you may know them by other, more specific, names.

In 7 Point Story Structure, they are Plot Point 1, Midpoint, Plot Point 2, and Climax (or "Resolution" (or part of Resolution, anyway)).

In Save the Cat!, they are Break into Two, Midpoint, All is Lost, and Finale (or part of it).

In the Hero's Journey, they are Crossing the Threshold, unstated, The Ordeal, and Resurrection. 

(But if you aren't familiar with any of those names, that's okay too.)

Whether or not you are aware of it, most of the stories you consume follow this basic structure.

To take it a step further, there are usually medium turns in between each of these major peaks (which I didn't draw in that image). These are frequently what people refer to as Pinch Point 1 and Pinch Point 2 (and the inciting incident for Act I, depending on how you view it). Act III's doesn't have one common name, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist--it's usually the turn that takes us into the climax.

This means that most stories have a turn every ~12% of the story--a big turn every quarter, and a medium turn in between those.

You can learn more about all that in "The 12% Rule of Story Structure."

But of course, while this is by far the most common way to structure a great story, it isn't the only way to structure a story.

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Variations on Story Structure: A List

You can find a lot of information on story structure in the writing community, but when it comes to discussing variations on structure . . . that gets harder to find. I've been talking a lot about story structure on here, particularly over the last two years. And every so often I feel like I need to "cleanse" myself of all the rules, percentages, and beats, and remind everyone that writing doesn't need to be an exact science. Not every successful story fits story structure perfectly.

With that said, like all writing "rules," once you understand structure, it's easier to "break" it successfully. The rules are really more like guidelines. 

Story structure exists to help us understand and write great stories. It's not necessarily there to use as a rubric to decide whether a story is good or bad. Sure, it can be used as a sort of checklist to help us evaluate our own stories, or to help us dissect other stories, but it's not necessarily a rubric to determine what "grade" the story gets. If a story is successful, we can use structure to help us understand why that might be so. But if a story is successful, we don't use structure to give it a "bad grade" just because it didn't fulfill everything in the exact, "right" way. If it's successful, it's successful. I don't think anyone is saying Wonder Woman is unsuccessful just because it had some variation. 

If everyone followed the "perfect" story structure, exactly, all the time, things could potentially become annoying--especially in the wrong hands. 

So lately I've been on the lookout for popular and/or successful stories that have structural variations. Remember that most successful stories do have mostly the same pieces--they just might be rearranged a different way (a.k.a. a variation). I'm sharing some of what I've found today. This won't be comprehensive, as there are probably more variations than I could fit in a blog post, but it will teach you about some of them, and maybe give you some ideas on how to use them. 

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