Opening Image
In one moment, we set the tone, mood, style, and scope of the story. It’s a ‘before’ snapshot of the hero’s world.

Theme Stated
A moment when a secondary character may pose a question or statement that is the theme of the story, or a location might suggest the theme.

Set Up
Introduce your hero and key characters in your story. Show character flaws that need fixing. It might show the hero’s weakness and need to change. You might also set up the stakes and goal.

Catalyst
A single life-changing event, a Call to Adventure makes the main character realize that Stasis = Death.

Debate
This is where the hero reacts to the change that occurs. Should she follow the path this change leads to? The character makes a choice.

Break into Act II
A moment when the hero leaves the old world behind and chooses something new. A strong, definite change as the story proper begins.

B Story Introduction
Sometimes the love story or introducing new characters. This beat gives us a break from the tension of the main story; it is a subplot to carry the theme of the story.

Fun and Games
The heart of the story, promise of the premise, trailer moments. The stakes are not too high yet, the hero is exploring the new world of act 2.

Midpoint
The momentary threshold between the first half and the second half of the story; the stakes are raised; the fun and games are over. It’s sometimes a false success, or more often something goes badly wrong.

Bad Guy Closes In
This section of the story is where the hero is really tested, the knife is twisted. Now a different challenge must be overcome. Perhaps the bad guys regroup and attack; or the hero’s team begins to unravel.

All is Lost
A moment that puts your hero at her lowest point, she is beaten, the hero’s life is in shambles. Blake talks of a ‘whiff of death’ at this point in a story, sometimes the mentor dies, perhaps symbolically. The old way of thinking dies. The hero may give up or run away, there seems no hope.

Dark Night of the Soul
The hero ruminates in the darkness before the dawn. Hero figures out the answer sometimes with insight from the B Story. She will pull out the last, best idea that will save herself and everyone around her.

Break into Act III
The hero has dug deep, learned, changed, and found the solution. The stories carried by the theme and sub plot intertwine with the main plot. The hero has an idea to solve the problem and the end is in sight.

Finale
The final act is where the hero triumphs and a new world order is revealed. The bad guys are dispatched, the problem is fixed.

Final Image
The closing scene should be the opposite of the opening scene; it is the proof that change has occurred and is real. closing scene should be the opposite of opening scene; it is the proof that change has occurred and is real.