Characters that start out as enemies, and through the course of the story turn into friends or lovers is quite a popular trope, and because it’s popular it’s used a lot. It can work really well, and satisfy your audience in a specific way, or it can just feel predictable and dull, depending on how you use it.
A Narrative Triplet is where a concept or a theme is launched in the first use, established in the second, and then resolved in the third. It can make a good beginning, middle and end to your story, and makes the experience of reading it or watching it more satisfying for the audience.
The inclusion of satisfying set up and pay off in your story means your audience will find it so much more entertaining. The set up is early story beats that are part of the story in general, but then are pulled upon to be relevant to the climax of your story later. It means your audience feels rewarded for paying attention, and included in the story process because those early set up notes are put in just for their enjoyment.
Using flashbacks is when you have two time lines, your main story line, and then a back story line in the past.
“Pantsing” comes from the expression “fly by the seat of your pants.” If means to be making your story up as you go, and finding out what’s going to happen along the way. “Plotting” is where before you start writing, you work out who you characters are, key events in the story, what page count you’re aiming for etc in advance, and then you follow that plan as you work.
Your first act is setting up what they want, the second act is where they start to pursue it, and the third act is where they’ve learned what they need to learn to go about getting it. Your midpoint comes at a point where your story pivots into a new setting or a new scenario.
A three act structure is like a framework for your story, and is how you move your plot along in a controlled way that keeps your story organised and making sense. However, as with most things there is fluidity to it and if a three act structure doesn’t work for your story that’s okay, but if it does work, and it does help you, then this is a good guide on how to implement it and why you might want to.
To explain how and why you use Narrative Triplets in your writing, I am referencing the film Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse, so this post does contain SPOILERS if you’ve not seen that film. I’ll cover key moments in the film and how these Narrative Triplets make the entire plot stronger.
Most of the time when you go into reading a book or watching a film, there will be a person who’s telling you the story, it might be the lead character who’s POV you’re in, or an actual narrator. That’s usually a person who you trust is giving you an accurate account of the events occurring in your story. However, there is such a thing as an “unreliable narrator,” and I’ll be explaining how and why you might use an “unreliable narrator” by referencing the book The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.
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