The Hollywood Formula, for easy reference:

[agilebrit]

Act One:
1% -- opening scene
2-9% -- setting up the story
10% -- inciting incident; introduction of the conflict for the protagonist
11-24% -- surviving the change (recovery)

Act Two:
25% -- The Big Decision; the tipping point
26-49% -- exploring the new world
50% -- midpoint; protag goes from reaction to action
51-74% -- the return of the villain leads to...
75% -- "all is lost" moment

Act Three:
76-84% -- licking wounds, new plans
85% -- the "aha!" moment
86-100% -- the Final Push

Okay, so. Act One is in the can. In Act Two, Nachi has a decision to make as far as what he's going to do going forward. And if he decides that he's going to be an Evangelist to the Fallen, rather than concentrating on his Charges like he ought, not only will he garner negative attention from the higher-ups in Hell, but also from his own superiors as well, because that's not his Duty.

So what I need to do is slot the Seven-Point Plot System into this formula as both mini-arcs and overall arcs. And then I need to decide exactly what Nachi's character arc is. How does an actual Angel of the Lord have a Journey of Faith? I've said in the past that it's not a matter of Faith for angels but a matter of Trust (as has been borne out in dogeat_underdog's character arc in the RP), so that's a starting point, anyway.

I also thought about having Act Two be from the newly-restored Ralesh's POV, and then having Act Three bounce back and forth between the two of them. But at this point, I'm still noodling notions, so. I'm not sure exactly where this will go.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting formula. I copied it off for my own use edification.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

It doesn't always hold true (for instance, 80% of "Die Hard" is Third Act), but if you squint you can usually see it in people's storytelling.

I'm not sure how much of this I'll actually use, structure-wise. I'm pretty married to the 7-point plot structure at this point, but it really does help to see exactly how Story works even though I've been doing it on an instinctive level for years.