even Zen Haiku has the 3 line structure, i think. Good article.

I can't even think of HOW you'd do something without a beginning, middle, and end. Anything that takes place over time - even individual scenes - has a beginning, middle, and end.

My own personal "three" seems to be:

Procrastination.
Writing (eventually).
Finishing and feeling good for having written.

But the next day I have to start all over again.

If only I could get rid of the procrastination part.

The problem is always the Middle, isnīt it? Beginnings are easy, endings are fun or provoking. Nobody knows how to write a good middle part.

Am I right?

Was just at my high school reunion. Someone asked, regarding my screenplay: "How's your third act?" It resonated with me later that one could ask the same thing about acts in life.

I'm not at the third act turning point yet, but it seems like it would be:

Years 1-20: First Act
Years 20-60: Second Act
(with 40 as the mid-point!)
Years 60-80: Third Act

And then some people get an epilogue.

Thought
Action
Result

I guess you can go through life with a 2 act structure (mindless thought-action, thought-action) but there is no examination of the result without the 3rd. That's the teachable moment where it shows the meaning of the story... and our lives.

I've always looked at structure as multi-level: there's the surface or plot level, and there's the deeper, meaning level. The surface level can be in almost any configuration of acts (or parts), from 1 to 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and more. Mostly, though, it is in 3 acts. The deeper meaning level structure is invariably in 3 parts. They co-exist, and this accounts for all the confusion. People see the 5-act ALL THAT JAZZ, or the 7-act WILD THINGS, and they can't reconcile it with Syd Field's paradigm. But the 3 parts are there, too, and I've analyzed it at my blog here and here.