Blogging for success - the three act structure

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 Hi guys,

And I’d like to congratulate those of you who have already started up their blogs and have begun dipping their toes in the huge internet ocean.

On this particular post i’d like to tell you a story. Since the Golden Globes have been dished out earlier this week and I’m a filmmaker by trade I’ll make it slightly more interesting and entertaining for you the way script writers do it for us on the big screen.

For those who don’t know anything about film scripts they are normally broken down into a three act structure: Act 1, act 2 and of course act 3.

In Act One we are introduced to our heroine (I’ll make her female if you don’t mind), who lives in her ordinary life in a predictable world.
We quickly find out who she is, where she comes from and perhaps also what she does for a living. We learn a little about her background and her
surroundings and soon realise that she is not satisfied with her life or some aspect of it. Hmmmm, sounds familiar?

So, leading a monotonous and predictable lifestyle our Heroine soon comes to a point in Act One where she faces a major problem or a dilema in her life, also known as The Inciting Incident, and she is somehow coaxed by unseen forces (maybe the subconscious?)  into taking the necessary action and rise to the challenge.

Of course, our Heroine is unsure of whether she should procede and take matters further, after all she is ordinary and has never come across this type of situation before so she seeks advice from her closest and dearest to her and is met by ‘forget about it’ and ‘Don’t waste your time’. Most of her friends and relatives try and peruade her to avoid it at all costs and try and convice her to stay where she is, safe and secure in her ordinary world. And she will probably take heed of their advice at first, but then she will come across the advice of perhaps a stranger or an unforseen mentor who will give her that push or nudge that she needed towards taking that first step into unchartered waters and begin her journey into discovering her true self and, of course, achieving her ultimate goal.
this is the point, towards the end of Act One, where our heroine decides to take up the gauntlet and sail away into the big, frightening and challenging ocean of the internet.Which propells us nicely on to Act Two.

Now that our Heroine has set sail on her dinghy boat unaware of what lurks beneath that deep blue ocean of the internet she has become, in some way, accountable for her actions and to her ultimate goal and sets off to acomplish it. So Act Two now places many complications in our Heroines path, how will she overcome these complications which she’s not accustomed to in her everyday life? Along the sail she will meet many strangers of the sea who will be of help and some who will be a hindrance and who will do everything within their power to stop her from reaching her ultimate goal - just for the sake of it. Our Heroine will be tested and prodded to see if she can stand them and at some points in her journey she will succeed and in some she will fail (failing forward) but these failures will not deter her from her paths journey.  She will ride the peaks and troughs of the oceans waves and have some glorious moments and some miserable ones along the way but they will be small in comparison to what awaits her further down the second act

After braving some of the elements of the big internets ocean and overcoming her small obstacles, along the way there will be a point towards the end of Act Two where our Heroine will begin to flounder. Yes, my friends her ultimate goal which seemed so near, so close will all of a sudden vanish from sight and cause our heroine to begin to lose confidence in her abilities to navigate successfully to her ultimate destination.
Then suddenly a huge wave of guilt will engolf our Heroine and try and drown her completely and end her journey to success.

At this point my friends, I would like to pause for a quick second and add that some of us if not most of us will come across this same predicament.
Throughout our journey on the blogospheres ocean we will reach a similar moment like our Heroine has, were we will feel that nothing is moving in our favour, as if we’re stuck in motion, and that all of our efforts up to this point were for nothing.
Please, please, please stick with your path and don’t give up on yourself yet. Remember I’ts always darkest before dawn (yes, I know it’s a cliche but I had to say it). Okay back to our Heroine…

So our heroine takes on that major blow from the the oceans destructive wave which nearly topples her dinghy into the oceans deep abyss. But, she manages to remain balanced and hang on for dear life because something deep inside of her tells her that she can’t give up now, not after all she’s been through Plus how will she face her friends and family? And just as she’s about to slip and allow the ocean to swallow her whole… something amazing happens!
as if by magic, the ocean begins to calm itself down and the sea becomes tranquil. It seems like our heroine has survived the ordeal but how come? Was it an act of God that came to the rescue? Maybe. Has the internets ocean great force given up on our Heroine and her dinghy? Perhaps. But what I do know is this that the moment one definetely commits oneself, then providence moves too (by W.H Murray - click on this link to get the whole quote).
which moves us nicely into Act Three.

Now that the ocean has calmed itself down our Heroine goes through a certain transformation a sort of resurrection if you will. It’s as if our old Heroine from the ordinary life has died and now a new more feisty and courageous one is born. 

Our Heroine sees land in the distance, an Island in fact, a beautiful one with the sound of regge, hip hop, classic music (whatever you choose it to be), emanating from it. and as she nears the shore she can’t believe her eyes, along the beautiful sandy beach there are hundreds of people clapping and cheering her arrival and a huge banner hangs from a above which reads, congratulations (put your name here), you’ve made it! And as our Heroine docks her dinghy and steps onto the nice sandy shore she cant believe her eyes when Richard Branson himself comes up to her and congratulates her for making her journey a truely remarkable achievement of success. ‘You did it (put name here)’, he says with his toothy smile and a twinkle in his eyes, ‘and now its time for you to claim your reward’ (that’s up for you to decide what it is) as he hands over to you the Elixir of life.

And as our Heroine accepts her prize and cheers are heard throughout the island our Heroine now knows that she is a changed person in her behaviour, attitude and actions.  She will be forever different because of the road or in this case ocean she’s just traveled.
As a true Heroine she will now return with the Elixir from this special place and hopefully bring it back to share with others in her ordinary world.
And then of course we have… the sequal

So my compadres I hope you liked my analogy there for your blog’s success and I would love to hear your comments about this post and whether you think that films are  similar and can be an influence on our way of life.

regards

Che Guy