When studying the basic tenets of story structure, people often complain that it is too formulaic. Still there are some things we can learn from this study that can help us to write better.

For example, when examining what should often occur in act one, it is at this point that the main character often finds herself in a rut. What is meant by this is that she is stagnant in her life. Perhaps she has a lot of bad habits that are holding her back from the life she really should be living.

The impetus for the main character to change for the better then should come in the form of someone new who enters her life and whom she needs for some reason. This is the character who will help her along on her journey and who is often called the motivating/mentoring character.

Act two then comprises the journey of this transformation. In order to transform, though, the main character must often learn a new skill. The motivating/mentoring character is the person who will teach her. This is often where the drama or the comedy of the story emerges as it will prove either comedic or dramatic to watch the main character doing something for the very first time. If a writer has spent the time to create a likeable character with human needs that the viewer or reader can identify with, we will want to see this character triumph.

This is not to say that the main character’s journey should be easy. The main character must also be tested. She is often tested by an antagonizing character, who either doesn’t want the main character to change, or who wants the same thing as her. It is thus part of the main character’s journey to conquer this opponent. The final scene of the third act should, in fact, be the main character triumphing over her opponent.

This is just a very rudimentary outline of story structure at its most basic. The best writers are those who know the rules of story structure inside out, and who can therefore break them.