Four acts beat sheet
Three acts with the long middle cut in two at the midpoint.
Use it with your book's length
How it works
Four acts is three acts with the middle split in half. In the first half of the middle, the hero is on the back foot. They react, run and learn. At the midpoint they turn around and start to fight back. Each act is about a quarter of the book.
Many writers find four even parts easier to plan than one short act, one huge act and one short act.
Good for: Writers who get lost in the middle of three acts. Works for any genre.
Watch out: Each act needs its own turn at the end, or the four parts blur into one long story.
The 9 beats, and where they fall
| Beat | Where | In 80,000 words |
|---|---|---|
| SetupThe hero, their world and what they want. | 0% to 25% | 0 to 20,000 |
| Inciting incidentThe event that starts the story. | 10% | 8,000 |
| First turnThe hero is pulled into the main problem. | 25% | 20,000 |
| ReactionThe hero runs, hides and learns what they're up against. | 25% to 50% | 20,000 to 40,000 |
| MidpointThe hero learns something big and stops running. | 50% | 40,000 |
| Taking actionThe hero goes after the problem, and it pushes back hard. | 50% to 75% | 40,000 to 60,000 |
| Second turnA loss or a discovery that sets up the end. | 75% | 60,000 |
| ClimaxThe final fight or choice. | 85% to 95% | 68,000 to 76,000 |
| EndingWhat life looks like now. | 95% to 100% | 76,000 to 80,000 |
The places are rough guides, not rules. Plenty of good books move a beat by a chapter or two. Put in your own word count and chapters to see your book's numbers.
Other story shapes
- Three acts beat sheetThe classic shape. Act 1 sets things up, act 2 is the long middle, act 3 is the end.
- Five acts beat sheetRising action to a turning point in the middle, then the fall to the end. The shape of Shakespeare's plays.
- Save the Cat beat sheetBlake Snyder's screenwriting beats, as Jessica Brody laid them out for novels.
- Hero's journeyJoseph Campbell's journey, in Christopher Vogler's 12 steps. A good fit for quests and fantasy.
- Heroine's journeyA journey where the lead wins by building a team, not by fighting alone. After Gail Carriger's book.
- Story CircleDan Harmon's eight steps around a circle: you, need, go, search, find, take, return, change.
- Seven-point story beat sheetDan Wells's plan: decide the ending first, then build back to the start.
- 27-chapter methodThree acts, each cut into three blocks of three chapters. Fill in 27 chapters and you have a plan.
- Fichtean curveStart in trouble and never let up. One crisis after another, climbing to the climax.
- KishōtenketsuA four-part shape from China and Japan with no fight at its center: introduce, develop, twist, bring together.
- Romance beat sheetThe usual shape of a love story, in four parts: meet, fall, pull apart, come back together.
- Mystery beat sheetThe usual shape of a whodunit: crime, clues, a wrong answer, then the truth.
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