Magic Number 3

Have you ever noticed that three is truly a magic number? I’m not talking numerology or anything like that, but the number three keeps coming up in everything I’ve been reading lately. The Classic Three-Act form. A hero must pass 3 tests to get his reward. Three cheers. Make sure you highlight a setting with at least three things that would be noticed by your POV character. Hey, 3rd person. The list just goes on and on and on.

Three is a useful number. It is a symbol of the unity of body, mind and spirit. You can split the difference between two extremes. You can accurately describe a position relative to an initial point – above or below as relative to on. If you can break something down into three parts, you can also likely split those down into three parts each as well.

This last one is the one that strikes me as important today. Reading Dunne’s Emotional Structure is making me think about symbolism and look at the importance of making connections between actions of the plot as they are used to dredge up the protagonist’s emotions from the past. He recommends breaking the Second act into 3 parts — a movie within a movie. Looking at what I have so far, it strikes me that even the set up might be constructed in a similar fashion.

One of Dunne’s exercises is to condense your idea in three sentences and then expand them into three pages. Hmmm. There’s that three again. Writing three sentences sounds simple, doesn’t it? It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever attempted. Working from the previous exercise of writing a set-up including the inciting incident, three tests for the protagonist to face, and the climax and resolution, I tried to do this with the story for Revealed. I know I’m going to have to expand the scope of the story – it ain’ta gonna be short when it’s done with me.

I’m going to have to settle in and really think about this one a bit more. I’m finding one of the most difficult requirements is to have thought everything through before I start typing. There’s just too much to juggle in my head to keep it all straight and meaningful. That’s another great quote from Dunne: “Organizing your artistic effort only makes it better.” The other phrase I find myself chanting a lot lately is “That which does not kill us serves to make us stronger.” I can only hope those are both true.

If you’d like to read more about the significance and the prevalence of the number three in American culture, you can visit The Book of Threes. If you’re looking for a wider scope, you can read about The Symbolism and Spiritual Significance of the Number Three which doesn’t limit itself, but explores most of Western culture.