Let’s start with Act I in our Oliver and Sophia story. Based on what we’ve already created in previous posts, here’s the beginning of my synopsis.
Oliver Tyson, a forensic artist and single father to his nine-year-old daughter, Gia, is assigned to reconstruct the face of a young woman whose skeleton was found in an abandoned house. The Jane Doe, estimated to be around 21 years old at the time of her death placed seven to ten years ago, could be any number of missing people.
Detective Sophia Porter, driven by the unsolved disappearance of her older sister Cassidy ten years prior, is determined to find answers. Sophia is working on her crime board, going over the evidence of her missing sister once more; but she questions why she bothers. Nothing’s changed in years. One day she’s going to have to accept that Cassidy is gone and move on. One day.
Subplot 1: Gia, Oliver, and Oliver’s mother’s story. When Gia was only two years old, Oliver’s wife left him for another man and granted him full custody of Gia. He was shattered, but also determined to raise his daughter with the help of his mother. He’s also decided romance isn’t for him. He’s got his work and Gia; he doesn’t need anything or anyone else. (You will show the reader a little bit of this in the opening scene since we’re opening in his POV and he’s in his everyday “normal.”)
Inciting Incident: When Oliver arrives to work, he finds his office is vandalized. Sophia and her partner are assigned to investigate. As Sophia and Oliver meet, they feel an instant connection, both personally and through their shared desire to uncover the truth.
Response to the inciting incident: For Sophia, the discovery of this skeleton is more than just another case. Every unidentified body carries the weight of possibility: Could it be Cassidy? So, needless to say, she’s intrigued and wants to follow this case—and Oliver—to its conclusion. Once she’s taken Oliver’s statement, the crime scene unit has done their job, and everyone has gone home, Sophia can’t get Oliver out of her head—or the work he’s doing on the skull. She calls him and asks him to meet for dinner. She’s got questions. He agrees.
Subplot 2: Sophia’s never-ending search for her missing sister. She’s got a crime-scene wall at home that she studies, but knows without new information, she’s at a dead end. Her parents occasionally ask if she’s made any progress on the case, but she always says no. They don’t outright tell her to quit looking for Cassidy, but the undercurrent is there; and anytime the subject is brought up, they encourage her to let Cassidy rest in peace.
She leaves to go meet Oliver for dinner. (On her way to dinner, she can be thinking about Cassidy and wondering if the bones in the morgue belong to her sister. This leads her to think about her parents and how they’ve just given up on finding Cassidy. She will never understand this. This is part of subplot 2 and her internal conflict.)
Oliver says goodbye to his daughter, Gia, and his mother and heads to the restaurant, eager to see Sophia again, but also conflicted. He’s had one woman bail on him, and he’s still not sure why or what sent her running into another man’s arms. But he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to trust another woman again. This is where you can circle back to a little bit of subplot 1. This is also where you can show the internal conflict going on inside Oliver.
In the parking lot of the restaurant, someone attacks him with the warning to “let the dead stay dead.”
The attacker runs off and leaves Oliver bleeding from a head wound on the asphalt. Sophia arrives to find Oliver dragging himself into a sitting position. He tells her what happened while someone calls for an ambulance. He insists he’s fine. Then he tells her the attack was personal and relays the message, connecting it to the skull in his lab.
Sophia asks him if he plans to quit reconstructing the face.
He looks at her and frowns. “Absolutely not. Whoever didn’t want her face to be revealed just made a huge mistake. I’m going to be working on that reconstruction day and night now.”
End Act I
Here you have the summary of your first act with information about the main plot (we know the characters, their occupations, a little bit about their personal lives and backgrounds). We’ve ended Act I with a call to action and questions. Why doesn’t someone want the identity of the body discovered? (Main plot) Why did Oliver’s wife leave him? Did he do something, or was she just a troubled person? How could she leave her child? (Subplot 1) How can Sophia’s parents give up on finding their daughter? Will she find more evidence to suggest what happened to Cassidy? Is Cassidy dead or alive? (Subplot 2)
Think about your story, and see if you have references to your subplots in Act I and if they flow seamlessly throughout.
Until next time.