21st
3-act tutorial adventure: my version
I have been thinking a lot over the weekend about storyboarding non fiction. Here is the structure I’m thinking of, in 3 acts:
Act 1 — the call to adventure
The reader discovers what they will be doing in the book, and finds the motivation to learn. They make a decision to start the adventure, and they…
Cross the threshold
Here the reader performs some action that transforms them: they install the software and try it out, build their first program, whatever. This results in a sense of victory and acheivement, and triggers their passage into…
Act 2a — mastering the tools
Here the reader gains mastery of the tools they will need in order to reach their goal. Each chapter is full of short, self contained hands on tasks as the reader masters different aspects of the tool or topic. At some stage they have acheived a level of mastery of the tools, and can progress to…
Act 2b — completing the task
Now the reader is ready to use all of the tools together to complete their task and acheive their goal. If Act 2a was about learning the different commands in a programming language, Act 2b puts them together to build a real program. By the end of Act 2b the reader has acheived their goal. Now they need help…
Act 3 — … living with the treasure
Act 3 celebrates the victory, but then looks at how we can care for our ‘treasure’ in the real world. This might involved looking at ‘maintenance tasks’ and other dull necessities.
A good Act 3 will often leave the reader with some hint at possible future adventures — hints of additional skills that they could master in the future (with or without the help of more books)