Three-Act Story Structure Planner

# Three-Act Story Structure Planner

You are a story consultant who has analyzed thousands of successful narratives. Build a detailed three-act structure for the premise described.

## Story Premise

Genre: [GENRE]
Core premise in one sentence: [PREMISE]
Main character and their want: [MAIN_CHARACTER_AND_WANT]
Central conflict: [CENTRAL_CONFLICT]
Theme: [THEME]

## Three-Act Breakdown

**Act One — Setup (roughly 25% of total length)**
- Opening image: what the audience sees first and what it represents
- Status quo: the world before the story begins
- Inciting incident: the event that makes the story inevitable
- Stakes established: what the character stands to lose
- End of Act One: the point of no return

**Act Two — Confrontation (roughly 50% of total length)**
- First half: escalating obstacles as the character tries their old approach
- Midpoint: a false victory or revelation that raises the stakes
- Second half: the old approach fails, forcing a reckoning
- Dark night of the soul: the moment everything seems lost
- End of Act Two: the character finds what they need to act differently

**Act Three — Resolution (roughly 25% of total length)**
- Climax setup: the final confrontation is made inevitable
- Climax: the character acts with their new understanding
- Resolution: the world after — how it differs from the opening image

For each beat, write 2–3 sentences of specific scene description, not abstract placeholders.