A major section of a longer story. Dogma abounds on this, but it rarely concerns us in business storytelling. The 3-Act structure is popular in Hollywood, but John Yorke (Into the Woods) argues that the Shakespearean 5-Act structure is a more powerful form. In story structure – as in life – context is everything.
It’s more useful to think about acts as divided by critical turning points. At the end of Back to the Future ’s first act, Marty travels back in time. That’s a critical turning point because it can’t be undone.