Screenwriter Michael Arndt knows that all good stories have powerful beginnings that set up the story. In Beginnings: Setting A Story in Motion, he reveals what he’s learned working for Pixar and demonstrates how to write a good beginning for Act 1 using Toy Story, Nemo and The Incredibles as examples.

While some writers may stay away from storytelling formulas and prescriptive advice, I am always looking for ideas to strengthen my storytelling and aim to do like Picasso, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

I have outlined Michael Arndt’s ideas below:

1. Establish the world your character lives in
2. Introduce your main character doing the thing they love most (their grand passion)
3. Establish your character’s hidden flaw that comes out of their grand passion
4. Establish storm clouds on the horizon
5. BABOOM–someone takes away their grand passion and changes their view of their future
6. Add insult to injury and make the world unfair.
7. Character comes to a fork in the road and must make a decision on how to deal with their new reality.
8. Character makes the unhealthy choice (rather than the right choice–which is boring and leads to no story)
9. Character’s wrong choice leads to a crisis.
10. We transition into the 2nd act (the journey) and 3rd act (to fix their flaw and to hopefully get back what they lost).

I have been working on my script for my winter project, and while I know the story I want to tell, I was not sure how to structure it as a 3-Act structure. So I decided to experiment and write out my story using Arndt’s ideas for Act 1.

I am happy to say that following this exercise made me focus my ideas, define my character and set up my story in a powerful way, so that Act 1 easily flowed into Acts 2 and 3. At first, it felt awkward to write out Act 1 in an outline form, and the whole outline seems long enough to cover Acts 1 through 3. I did two iterations but without realizing it each time, my character’s passion and flaw were too vague and general. And what was my character’s BABOOM moment–was this part even necessary? But when I finally found the BABOOM moment on the 3rd try, I knew it was worth it.

So if you are having difficulty writing a powerful story, I recommend trying Arndt’s ideas on beginning a story and see how much more powerful your Act 1–and the rest of your story–can be.

 

The video above is one of my greatest inspirations. I wanted to share it with the class, because it has strongly influenced me–and, I would say, close to 2 million other people that have viewed it since 2010. It wasn’t until I saw this video a few years ago that I realized the possibility of combining my passions so powerfully: to make a difference in the world through motion graphic animation.

However, in years since, I’ve also come to realize that technical skills are nothing without a powerful story to drive the plot and touch people’s hearts.

So I began to study storytelling, including enrolling in Stillmotion’s Muse course, which has been immensely helpful to me in understanding what drives a great story and how to structure stories.

According to Muse, a powerful story is comprised of a strong protagonist, conflict and six essential plot points: 1) the Hook, 2) the Ask, 3) the Acceptance, 4) Hurdles, 5) the Answer and 6) the Jab. The Girl Effect is powerful because it has all these ingredients.

I will attempt to dissect the Girl Effect’s story and explain the plot points with examples. I hope this exercise will prove to be just as useful for you.

1. Act One

The Hook (the opening that grabs and holds our viewers’ attention): “We have a situation on our hands” (:05) and “the clock is ticking” (:10) We immediately think, ‘Uh-oh. What’s going on?’

Our protagonist: a 12-year old girl (:24). She is the one we root for as she goes through struggles to her “inevitable” fate. Though she represents the millions of girls in poverty, she is the one we are rooting for her throughout the story.

The Ask (the challenge that our protagonist faces): She lives in poverty and her future is out of her control. (:31)

Conflict (also called the unanswered question): Can our protagonist escape the cycle of poverty? Will she? (:32)

2. Act Two

Hurdles (obstacles blocking our protagonist’s goal): being married off and becoming pregnant when she is barely a teen, surviving childbirth, selling her body to support her family and contracting and spreading HIV. (:42)

The Acceptance (when our protagonist accepts the Ask or the challenge): she grows up “happy and healthy,” “she sees a doctor regularly,” “she stays in school where she’s safe,” she “uses her education to earn a living” and now she is the one in control of her life. (1:24)

3. Act Three

The Answer (the resolution to the Ask): “she can avoid HIV”, “she can marry and have children when she’s ready”, and her children will be healthy like she is, and this can continue from generation to generation. (2:01)

The Jab (the purpose of the story and your call to action): “50 million girls in poverty equals 50 million solutions. This is the power of the girl effect. An effect that starts with 18 and impacts the world” (purpose) (2:37) “The clock is ticking. girleffect.org” (call to action) (2:57)