What time of year is it when Act 4 starts?
Is the setting meant to be an obstacle for your characters?
ACT 5: Denouement | Ending
Where is this story taking place when Act 5 starts?
Is the story taking place in a physical (world) or mental (dream) realm?
Is this story happening in our universe or somewhere else?
If this world is not Earth, what are special traits or features of this world?
What makes this place special?
What kind of climate is there when Act 5 starts?
What time of day is it when Act 5 starts?
What time of year is it when Act 5 starts?
Is the setting meant to be an obstacle for your characters?
The Rules Grid
The Rules Grid is without a doubt one of the most overlooked and underdeveloped arcs in storytelling. Following the rules is ever fun, but for the purposes of your story, it is important. This grid is used mainly for plugging plot holes in your story. A plot hole is any state of inconsistency in your story. Lapses in where people are or what is going on and when can cause the continuity of a story to flounder. Plot holes in your story can cause an audience to lose track of what is going on; this leads to confidence failure, and any empathy that you have built may be in danger of disappearing due to confusion.
Stories that involve fantasy for example may take a creative license on the laws of physics. Anything can happen and it doesn’t have to make sense; however, stories that do take the time to craft out a rule structure are more likely to succeed in the long run.
One of my favorite movies is Back to the Future (1985) and illustrates how the rules story arc can come in handy.Time travel movies are notorious for breaking their own rules. Einstein’s General Relativity says you can not travel through time while areas of quantum physics say, given the right circumstances, it might be. The debate continues to rage on! For time travel movies there has to be a set of rules in place to govern what is and is not allowed in the story.
What happens if you go back in time and somehow prevent your own birth? This creates what is called a paradox which is a true statement that leads to a situation which defies logic. If you went back in time and prevented your own birth, how could you later go back in time in the first place? Depending on the writer there are many answers to a paradox. Having a set of rules for how it all works is a great idea if you want the story to make sense. For first Back to the Future movie, this worked.
In the movie Marty McFly goes back in time to 1955 and alters how his parents meet which changes his own existence. He is able to rectify the situation with his parents but their meeting happens a different way. This also changes the world Marty knows back in 1985. When Marty arrives back in 1985 his parents are together, but the life he knows it is different. The story works but you never find out what happened to the other timeline Marty left originally. Maybe it disappeared completely. Maybe it went on without Marty ever being born.
It is fine to add rules as your story goes on, but if the story is meant to be taken seriously you have to explain them. Audiences are expected to suspend belief in most cases, but rule adherence varies through the different genres. Different storys will have different sets of rules. My advice is be consistent.
An example of a movie that did a great job of following its own rules to critical and financial acclaim was Inception (2010). In that movie the main protagonist Dom Cobb is a specialist at dream sharing. A corporate mogul wants Cobb to plant an idea in a rivals mind. This concept called Inception is not easy to do. Cobb He assembles a team to help and they go through several layers of dreams to plant the idea.
Many movies tinker with the idea of exploring dreams, but what writer Christopher Nolan got right with Inception is making up and sticking to his own rules till the end. They never go into the details of the device that allows the dreams to be shared but along the course of the movie the characters do define how the dream sharing works first in practice, then in implementation. As the teams go deeper into the dream states knowing the rules and sticking to them help the story, creates detail, and pays off in the end.
The story was a tremendous critical and financial success. The takeaway here is when it comes to writing, creating your own rules and following them pays off in big ways. Sticking to your own rules cuts down on continuity errors and plot holes. The grid for keeping track of the rules would look something like this:
ACT 1: Exposition | Beginning
What are the rules or laws set for the settings you have created?
What is the heiarchy of leadership for the beings in this world?
Are there general rules that must be followed for a plot device to work?
What possible outcomes if a character does not follow the set rules?
What are the punishments or rewards for characters concerning rules?
If alien in origin, how does the equipment or devices in your story work?
Is this story happening in our universe or somewhere else?
ACT 2: Rising Action | Plot Point 1
What are the rules or laws set for the settings you have created?
What is the heiarchy of leadership for the beings in this world?
Are there general rules that must be followed for a plot device to work?
What possible outcomes if a character does not follow the set rules?
What are the punishments or rewards for characters concerning rules?
If alien in origin, how does the equipment or devices in your story work?
Is this story happening in our universe or somewhere else?
ACT 3: Climax | Middle
What are the rules or laws set for the settings you have created?
What is the heiarchy of leadership for the beings in this world?
Are there general rules that must be followed for a plot device to work?
What possible outcomes if a character does not follow the set rules?
What are the punishments or rewards for characters concerning rules?
If alien in origin, how does the equipment or devices in your story work?
Is this story happening in our universe or somewhere else?
ACT 4: Falling Action | Plot Point 2
What are the rules or laws set for the settings you have created?
What is the heiarchy of leadership for the beings in this world?
Are there general rules that must be followed for a plot device to work?
What possible outcomes if a character does not follow the set rules?
What are the punishments or rewards for characters concerning rules?
If alien in origi,n how does the equipment or devices in your story work?
Is this story happening in our universe or somewhere else?
ACT 5: Denouement | Ending
What are the rules or laws set for the settings you have created?
What is the heiarchy of leadership for