You’ve all heard of the typical five-act plot structure—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. And it’s an excellent structure—bare-bones enough to apply to just about any story, while providing enough of a framework to fit your elements inside.
But there’s another structure that comes in handy, especially when you’re dealing with a work longer than a single installment.
I call it the four-element plot.
The four-element plot can be used in tandem with the five-act structure to see more easily how your overall plot pans out. The five-act structure will apply to every individual installment, and the four-element might as well; but the four-element is more about understanding the framework of the entire saga. It can help you to understand what pieces of the story are the most important, or where a saga might be experiencing some padding.
The four-element plot goes like this: exposition, building, the plot’s on fire, and finishing everything up.
They overlap with the elements of the five-act, but they don’t necessarily line up in the same way. For example—exposition will be more or less the same, but “the plot’s on fire” isn’t the climax, and “finishing everything up” includes both the climax and the resolution.
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To fully understand how this works, we’re going to be looking at two excellent examples: the Star Wars original and prequel trilogies. (Not the sequels, though…while The Force Awakens was lovely, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker are too disjointed and sloppy to really illustrate this point.)
A New Hope starts with an obvious bit of exposition—the opening crawl. We continue to receive information about the characters and the world as we’re introduced to Leia, Vader, Luke, Obi-Wan, and Han—what the Empire is, what the people are trying to do about it, and how it affects the common person.
Eventually, we’ve assembled enough of our ingredients to kick ourselves into the next step—building!
Exposition and building can and will occur at the same time. The four elements don’t necessarily cut each other off, but meld into one another as the story progresses.
Building is about characterization, backstory, and lore. We’ve been introduced to our world and the people within it; now it’s time to start fleshing everything out. We’ll dive deeper into the characters’ histories, goals, and ideologies. We’ll explore their relationships to themselves, each other, and the world at large.
The moment when Obi-Wan dies is the clearest delineation we’ve moved into building. We’ve learned about our major players (Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader), and now it’s time to test their faith and convictions by throwing them into the pressure cooker.
The last act of A New Hope lays the groundwork for Luke, Leia, and Han’s relationship, and begins to develop Han’s character with his decision to come and help the Rebellion.
I cannot stress enough how The Empire Strikes Back is the perfect example of the building step.
The plot is still moving—and it always will be, just not as fast as during the later steps. But Empire is mostly about feelings and relationships. Luke’s struggle to become a Jedi, what it means for his past and his future; Han’s tear over whether he takes off on his own or helps the Rebellion; and Leia and Han’s clash over their feelings for each other. We’ve assembled our ingredients, and Empire is the sweet, low-and-slow simmering phase where everything congeals into a perfect pot of story stew.
Of course, at the end of Empire, we reach my favorite phase—the plot is on fire.
The climax of Empire is when the plot lurches in a sudden jump. This won’t be the same for every saga; the lurch doesn’t have to be catastrophic. But there’s always a point where the plot thickens—where our stew begins to boil.
At the end of Empire, we know enough about the characters and their relationships to start pushing everything forward.
We learn about Luke’s true parentage (and in turn, introduce Vader’s central character conflict), and Luke’s dedication to the light side is put to the test. Han confesses his love for Leia. The characters have reached a turning point, where their faith and their loyalties are tested, and they must start to make irreversible choices.
The plot continues to burn into Return of the Jedi, cooling down just after the sequence on Tatooine. Everybody’s back together, their feelings on the important matters have been boiled down to a handful of key unknowns, and there’s just one thing left to do: wrap up the remaining conflicts.
We should come out of the burnt plot with a handful of questions—all of which will be addressed in the final section. Will Luke ever become a full-fledged Jedi? Will the Rebellion defeat the Empire? Is Vader going to change somehow now that he knows about his son?
The battle of Endor and the attack on the second Death Star are there to tie everything up.
We know who the characters are. Luke is a confident fighter and a Jedi; Han and Leia are dedicated members of the Rebellion; and Vader has made the decision to redeem himself by saving his son and killing the Emperor.
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Let’s take a look at the prequel trilogy next.
Our exposition takes place throughout most of The Phantom Menace. We meet Obi-Wan, an aspiring padawan; Qui-Gon, an experienced master who clashes with the council and his pupil; Padmé, a determined young queen taking the helm of planet leadership for the first time; Anakin, an extremely Force-sensitive child; and Palpatine, who we know is going to be our villain, but for now, appears as a caring and benevolent politician.
We spend much of the movie learning about the galaxy’s current climate—the tension between the Trade Federation and the Republic, the standing of the Jedi, and how the dormant Sith appear to be returning. We learn about the prophecy of the chosen one, and how the characters are pretty sure that person is Anakin.
The turning point to building occurs more or less when the characters decide to take back Naboo.
Right before, Qui-Gon begins to complicate his relationship with Obi-Wan by defying the council and declaring that he’ll take Anakin as his padawan. Padmé has spent much of the movie in the backseat, hoping the Republic can help her resolve her conflict; but she experiences a burst of character growth as she realizes she must take matters into her own hands.
The movie ends with Qui-Gon’s death, the reveal of the Sith, and Anakin’s induction into the Jedi. The characters have evolved, and life has started to test them. It’s time to put the lid on and let them cook—which brings us to Attack of the Clones.
When the movie starts, we learn about the state of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship. In general, the two care for each other; but Anakin is headstrong and unused to taming his feelings in the same way Obi-Wan learned to do growing up. And Obi-Wan struggles with mentoring Anakin, since, after all, he was thrust into the position unexpectedly.
We also see how Anakin and Padmé’s feelings have been developing. Anakin has been dreaming of the woman for years, while Padmé is seeing Anakin for the first time in a romantic light.
And lastly, Palpatine lurks in the background, posing as a friendly figure to our main cast, especially to Anakin.
The movie tests Anakin and Padmé’s romance; and within that, it examines how the two of them relate to their situation—how Anakin feels stifled by the Jedi, and unsure if this is the path he really wants out of life. Meanwhile, Padmé feels immensely dedicated to her people, but possesses normal wants and desires that she can’t really act on thanks to her career.
The climax of Attack of the Clones sets the plot on fire.
Anakin and Padmé have confessed their love for each other, and there’s no going back—they can’t pretend anymore that they don’t want to be in a relationship.
The Separatists have declared war on the Republic, and vice versa. As Yoda says—“begun, the Clone War has.” There’s no reversing things now. Characters have made decisions that pushed the plot into a huge lurch, and it’s time to see how everything plays out.
We pick back up in Revenge of the Sith. The galaxy, like the plot, is on fire, and numerous things are happening to ramp up the momentum—Anakin kills Dooku, Padmé reveals her pregnancy, and Palpatine deepens his manipulations to sow Anakin’s distrust in the Jedi. Major plot pieces are being moved, and now that we understand the characters and their motivations better (Anakin to preserve his relationship with Padmé while being accepted by the Jedi; Padmé to live a quiet life with her husband; Obi-Wan and the Jedi to end the war; Palpatine to take over the galaxy), it’s time to move into the endgame.
There’s a handy scene where Anakin is waiting at the Jedi Temple while Padmé is up in their apartment, each separately musing. Here, Anakin makes his ill-fated decision to go after Mace Windu as the Jedi confront the chancellor. Even though Anakin has yet to formally declare his turn to the dark side, this is his point of no return. He knows he’s not going to listen to the Jedi anymore. If he truly understood their goals and cared about the bigger picture, then he’d just stay behind—but his personal desires (and Palpatine’s careful manipulations) have taken over.
After everyone wreaks their havoc, we’re left with a handful of questions: what will happen to the Jedi? How will the war end? Will Padmé be able to reconcile Anakin’s actions? How will Obi-Wan react to his padawan and friend turning to the dark side? What will happen to the Skywalker children?
And as the movie continues, we answer them all—the Jedi are eliminated, Palpatine declares himself emperor and puts an end to the war, Padmé tries unsuccessfully to stop Anakin’s turning and passes, Anakin declares Obi-Wan his enemy, and baby Luke and Leia are sent away for their own protection.
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So, now that we’ve looked at a couple of examples, let’s sum everything up.
Step One: Exposition—introduce your characters, the world, and the situation.
Step Two: Building—start deepening the characterizations. Examine everyone’s relationships to themselves, each other, and their situations.
Step Three: The Plot’s on Fire—it’s time for the characters to start making pivotal decisions that push the plot forward.
Step Four: Finishing Everything Up—we’ve boiled our conflict down to a handful of yet-to-be answered questions, all of which will be addressed by the time our story ends.
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