Story Arcs
Overview
The Story Arcs feature in ACT 3 AI provides a structured way to design, refine, and manage the overarching flow of your narrative. It helps creators move beyond isolated scenes and ensure consistency in theme, pacing, and character development across the entire project.
By breaking projects into arcs, acts, and beats, the platform ensures a professional story structure whether you’re creating a short film, episodic content, or a feature-length project.
Key Capabilities
- Arc Creation: Define one or more major arcs (e.g., Hero’s Journey, Romantic Subplot, Mystery Thread).
- AI Suggestions: The AI Wizard generates recommended arcs based on your logline, genre, and theme.
- Act Integration: Arcs are aligned with acts to give a coherent beginning, middle, and end.
- Beat Refinement: Each arc can be broken into beats, allowing detailed pacing control.
- Character Anchoring: Assign characters from Characters or Digital Actors to specific arcs for consistency.
- Visual Map: View arcs in a timeline or flow diagram for a top-down perspective of the narrative.
How to Use
- From the dashboard, navigate to the Story Arcs section or open via the AI Wizard.
- Input your project logline and theme.
- Review automatically generated arcs (you can accept, reject, or edit them).
- Link each arc to Acts and Story Beats for structural alignment.
- Assign key Characters or Digital Actors to arcs.
- Refine pacing and themes by adding or adjusting beats.
- Visualize arcs in the Timeline View for better creative control.
Tips & Best Practices
- Keep arcs focused—each arc should represent one major narrative thread.
- Ensure arcs interweave logically; avoid leaving unresolved threads unless intentionally open-ended.
- Use arcs for testing tonal variations (e.g., dramatic vs. comedic arcs) before finalizing.
- Review the Editor preview to confirm that arcs translate properly into Scenes and Shots.
See Also
Contact Us if you need help developing story arcs or have questions.