A story structure that works for you
In the first act you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act you let him down.
— George Abbott, producer and director
As an author and Melbourne copywriter I know how important it is to nail a solid story structure.
Last post, I wrote about story structure. Remember? A story structure is the framework on which we hang our plot.
In his wonderful book The Novel Project, author, Graeme Simsion, describes it as, ‘the framework that supports scintillating prose, keeps the reader engaged and enables you to tell a story: to say something beyond ‘Look how beautifully I write’ and ‘Here are some events and observations’.
He also points out that Star Wars was developed using the Hero’s Journey structure — one of the many frameworks that exists to help writers order plot events.
Storytellers have used the Hero’s Journey in both oral and written form for eons. It’s often used in mythological stories, and is told in three stages. It goes something like this...
A heroine’s ordinary life is disrupted by a call to action. She embarks on a perilous journey full of peril, which tests her character, skill and strength. The journey culminates in a final battle before our heroine returns home, transformed and triumphant.
Sound familiar?
In his seminal book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, academic, Joseph Campbell, categorised the Hero’s Journey into three distinct stages (or acts).
1. The Departure
2. The Initiation
3. The Return
Writers have since expanded and adapted these stages to suit their needs.
As mentioned last blog, I often use Michael Hague’s Six-Stage Plot Structure to develop a new work. Like the Hero’s Journey, Hague’s framework elaborates on a traditional Three Act structure.
However, other common story structures worth exploring are:
The Snowflake Method: A method that encourages writers to begin with a simple theme and then, over time, develop and add complexity to the theme.
The W-plot Model: A structure anchored by five turning points — making up the points of a ‘W’. A series of events connects each turning point to the next.
Gustav Freytag’s Pyramid Model: Freytag, a19th Century German playwright and novelist, used a basic triangle to represent dramatic structure, identifying the seven parts he deemed essential to storytelling.
Story structures are often best understood visually to see how they organise plot — so take a look at the links I’ve included in this post.
It’s also important to note that these structures are meant as a guide only. If you feel, for instance, that the climax of your book should happen sooner than a structure dictates, move it. You’re the writer after all and know your story best…
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Happy writing!
