Question: Theme/Counterpoint in a 4-Act Story
Posted: Oct 22, 2012 8:04 pm
Uncovering this put quite a bit into perspective.
I found I had actually posted a question earlier related to this. Chris was gave an encouraging reply. After writing what's below, I'm coming to realize both 4-act and 3-act methods have elements you'd want to skillfully meld together. It's not just favoring one instead of the other.
If I understand correctly, there are two kinds of setups: 24 and 28. The 28-scene is just for initial story development. The 24-scene one comes from 6 balance scales within one quad * 4 quads. These 24 scenes can become 3-acts or 4-acts. The 3-acts are subjective, journey-focused, and holistic. The 4-act method is objective, signpost-focused, and more linear.
My question deals with sequences. I interpret that two variations compared make a sequence. Possible total of 6 pairs for the story. This divides nicely in 3-act method, but not 4-act. So, for 4-act, each variation is applied directly to the Type per act.
Then I wonder how to input Theme and Counterpoint. That'd be crucial, especially with such a linear story. In a 3-Act method it's easy to use sequence pairings, but I want a more linear feeling story, so I go for 4-Act. I could take just the variations under the Concern quad then apply them to one Type per act. That's possible. It seemed for a while that "How Sequences Relate to Acts" was suggesting I just go to a new set of Variations in each Act, which feels like it would wither any author's message. Was there a method described in "How Sequences Relate to Acts" that I missed... or somewhere else?
I found I had actually posted a question earlier related to this. Chris was gave an encouraging reply. After writing what's below, I'm coming to realize both 4-act and 3-act methods have elements you'd want to skillfully meld together. It's not just favoring one instead of the other.
If I understand correctly, there are two kinds of setups: 24 and 28. The 28-scene is just for initial story development. The 24-scene one comes from 6 balance scales within one quad * 4 quads. These 24 scenes can become 3-acts or 4-acts. The 3-acts are subjective, journey-focused, and holistic. The 4-act method is objective, signpost-focused, and more linear.
My question deals with sequences. I interpret that two variations compared make a sequence. Possible total of 6 pairs for the story. This divides nicely in 3-act method, but not 4-act. So, for 4-act, each variation is applied directly to the Type per act.
Then I wonder how to input Theme and Counterpoint. That'd be crucial, especially with such a linear story. In a 3-Act method it's easy to use sequence pairings, but I want a more linear feeling story, so I go for 4-Act. I could take just the variations under the Concern quad then apply them to one Type per act. That's possible. It seemed for a while that "How Sequences Relate to Acts" was suggesting I just go to a new set of Variations in each Act, which feels like it would wither any author's message. Was there a method described in "How Sequences Relate to Acts" that I missed... or somewhere else?