Jargon, part 2

The last post looked at some storytelling jargon. In this one we’ll look at how it’s often used in story structure. But, remember, it’s the purpose behind the words that’s important, not what they’re called.

• inciting incident - this is what starts the story off, sets up the story question

• major plot points - these are the major incidents in your story - think of when you’re telling someone a story about something that happened - you don’t usually tell them every single detail - just the major points.

• act breaks - the end of an act is normally when something changes for the better or the worse. You’ve been building up to something, it’s all going well and then something happens that throws you off course.

• midpoint (what building towards and then reacting away from) - this is often when you reach the initial goal you set out and it’s not what you expected or it brings in new problems. It’s something you build towards and then react away from

• reversal - this is when one thing is expected to happen and something else happens instead or things don’t go as expected. Once you know this happens - i.e. if it happened when you’re filming - you can use this as a plot point in the edit by building up to it.

• climax - this is when you have to make the decision based on all that you’ve gone through or learned or the hardest task

• resolution - this is when you answer the question you set up at the start, tie everything up