Day 7 Assignments

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s 4-Act Structure!

What I learned doing this assignment is: how easy it is to structure a story when you’re dealing with characters and locations who have levels built in and who each have a three-act structure.

Tell us the following:

Concept: The prime suspect in a murder will only treat a wounded man if the cop who accidentally shot him proves the doctor innocen

Main Conflict: Robert, a rookie detective, must reinvestigate a murder under the nose of an older, revered cop in order to get D’Quan, the chief suspect, to treat an innocent man Robert has accidentally shot.

2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening: D’Quan is in an argument with his strung-out brother when a gun goes off and his brother is killed.

D’Quan is on the run and in hiding at the community outreach center.

Inciting Incident: Robert shoots an innocent man, Standish, while hunting for D’Quan. D’Quan witnesses the shooting, and drags Standish off.

Turning Point: D’Quan calls Robert – he’s got the man he shot, who will die unless he treats the wound… which he’ll only do when Robert proves him innocent!

Act 2:

New plan: Robert must figure out where D’Quan is… then must reinvestigate the crime scene – to nail D’Quan!

Plan in action: Robert keeps D’Quan on the phone to listen for background noise, wants to hear from the victim… and tries to examine the crime scene under the nose of his mentor and hero, Markway.

Robert uncovers evidence that D’Quan supplied opioids illegally to his brother and others – he really is a criminal, and part of what he’s been doing is trying to cover this up.

Midpoint Turning Point: Just as the gunshot victim takes a turn for the worse thanks to Robert’s resistance, Robert discovers the body of a drug OD victim in a secret freezer in the sub basement of the Youth Center — evidence that D’Quan may actually be innocent – there’s something more going on here than a family spat involving drugs.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Robert reevaluates his values system elevating the police above all else and his inherent racial bias.

New plan: Robert needs to find out what else has been going on at the Youth Center in order to prove D’Quan didn’t do it.

They discover Markway’s scheme.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Markway is the murderer, with a mission to eliminate D’Quan and now Robert – and Robert just gave him D’Quan’s location!

Act 4:

Standish is fading – D’Quan can either get him to a hospital and reveal his position or stay hidden but Standish will die.

Final plan: Robert has to head off Markway in order to protect D’Quan, as D’Quan performs an impromptu surgery to extract the bullet from Standish in order to save Standish’s life.

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Robert lures Markway into confessing everything on record as they play cat-and-mouse through the subbasement connecting the clinic to the Youth Center.

D’Quan faces Markway and shoots him to save Robert.

Resolution: Robert exonerates D’Quan, but D’Quan is still railroaded for the minor violations by a system that favors White people. Robert joins Standish’s team; he and Standish vow to expose Markway’s misdeeds despite a system that wants to sweep the scandal under the rug.