This translates into the three-part dramatic structure.
In act 1 you introduce your setting, characters, and situation (conflict) that drives the main character from their “normal” life toward some conflicting situation. This is called by various names, including inciting incident, catalyst, trigger, or the disturbance.^^ I
n act 2, the character encounters various obstacles and antagonists as the conflict develops. Near the end of act 2 or the beginning of act 3, there is the climax, in which the hero draws on the wisdom he has learned and takes a decisive action that brings the story to a conclusion.
Act 3 is the resolution of loose threads and a view of the outcome. What follows is some basic advice from fiction writers on beginnings, middles, and endings of sermons.
Making an entrance:
Making an Entrance
You may write your sermon’s opening last. A story or image that you have placed later in the sermon may jump to the head of the line. Be open to that happening.
‘Ancient Greek teachers of public speaking recommended that the opening of a speech needed to arouse interest. As a preaching professor I often advise students to make a promise (overt or strongly implied) at the beginning of the sermon, a promise of what listeners will get if they stick with your sermon to the end
Not just any promise will do. It has to be something people want enough to keep listening.
Fiction writers would challenge us in the opening of our sermon to introduce a theme, a story, a person, or a situation in which listeners can see themselves, whether they want to or not.
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An example of an opening makes a promise more relevant to most listeners:
A person in anguish over a chronic, excruciating problem at the core of his life. That was Paul in the first century for a reason he does not reveal to us. This is many of us this morning for reasons we may not have revealed to anyone else. What was the thorn in his flesh that drove him into the arms of a strong and loving God? We may not find the answer to that question, but along the way we may find something even more important.
Fiction writer Nancy Kress says that every story makes a promise to the reader—actually, two promises, one emotional and one intellectual, because the function of stories is to make us feel and think. “The emotional promise is this: Read this and you’ll be entertained, or thrilled, or scared, or titillated, or saddened, or nostalgic, or uplifted, but always absorbed.” The intellectual promise can take one of three forms or some combination of them:
- See this world from a different perspective. 2 . Have your current belief about the world confirmed. 3. Learn of a different, more interesting world.