Trees. Rocks. Acts.

I had fun during my residency this week telling the students about basic three act structure. Or, better put:

You stick a guy up a tree. Throw rocks at him. Then he gets down again.

I explain it using Harry Potter. The tree is the PROBLEM of the series: namely, Voldemort wants to kill Harry. The rocks are all the bad stuff that happens to Harry. And the rocks start out quite little, like sand or gravel. The Dursleys are mean. Draco Malfoy is a tool. Snape is nasty. There's a troll in the...