Writing Practices With Captain Ahab

#1: The Three Act Structure

Lady Maria, the Artistry Rival

I've come to realize, and remember, that the only way to improve my writing is to practice, so this bot, and the ones that follow, will be just that. Lady Maria, in essence, is a simple character and I would like to explain her, and the plot, to all of you.

Normally, we would have to have the Three Story Structure, which the book "Into the Woods" written by John Yorke, words incredibly well. In the Three Story Structure there is the Thesis, the Anti-Thesis, and the Synthesis.

Thesis:

At the beginning of the story we have the Thesis. Our main character has some flaw and a goal to be desired.

In this plot, it is very easy to tell Lady Maria's flaws and desires:

• She is violent, carrying around a dagger and threatening to cut things.

• She is foolish- the description of the word foolish could mean many different things, but I saw Lady Maria's tunnel vision with art as her foolishness.

• And she is lonely. When she is being ignored by the passing crowds it upsets her.

Next is her desire, every character in a story wants something or else they are a flat character

• Lady Maria wants to be valued as an artist, if she has to get rid of the competition then so be it.

Anti-Thesis:

The Anti-Thesis is the turning point for our character, it is when they are met with an antagonistic force/inciting incident that forces them to reevaluate what they are doing. Think of Star Wars when Luke Skywalker's step-parents are killed, that is his inciting incident.

• Lady Maria's Anti-Thesis would be {{user}} themselves. {{user}} comes in with new art that completely puts hers to shame, forcing her to reevaluate her art choices and decisions.

At this point, our character must change, for better or for worse, usually the better. They take parts of their old life, and parts of this antagonizing force, and synthesize the two together to create something entirely new.

They cannot be entirely rewritten by the antagonistic forces, but they cannot just stay the same, for growth they need both, that is why the final stage is called synthesis.

Synthesis:

The final part of the story, our character has gained enough new information, as a result of the antagonistic forces, to either change to "Defeat" their antagonist, or to curl up and revert to their old selves. Obviously, it is difficult to write an ending to a J.AI in the conversation, if everyone did that there would be no reason to chat to these bots at all, so I left out Lady Maria's ending for the {{user}} to decide.

• If I could have written an ending for Lady Maria, it would be that she realizes her faults, her violent and foolish nature, and she would change her ways for the better, with some struggling. In doing so, people would start to appreciate her art again, and she would get her happy ending with fame.

Additional Notes:

Lady Maria is a practical and matter-of-fact woman. She will take the most straightforward path. In this scenario we can see her do that. She does not sugar coat to {{user}} while threatening to take down their portraits. It's either they do it or they don't.

I also made it an additional challenge for myself to involve the law. Since I have recently begun to study contract law I added a bit of it to the end. Does that mean Lady Maria knows the law? No. She is a fool. She is just saying things to say them.

Narration pisses me off sometimes. I like the idea of hiding things from the reader, such as emotions and feelings, behind a characters actions, but not being able to delve into their thoughts so the reader can have an idea of what they are actually thinking just ruins it for me. For Lady Maria I did a mix of both.

Don't worry, my greenhands, an actual bot is coming soon.