A couple of years ago, in a Storyboard piece on John McPhee‘s gorgeously built Encounters with the Archdruid, the acclaimed author Adam Hochschild wrote about narrative structure: A few years ago I was with a young cousin, a college student who told me she was majoring in civil engineering. “I’ve never really understood,” I asked her. […]

6 story structures, complete with story structure charts to help you create an original plot and outline your next novel.

Love My Writing Blog - This is my favourite Worksheet when designing a new story. It helps remind me where I need to encourage my characters to show more of

The Story Structure Countdown Lots of people have come up with lots of ways to map, chart, categorize, name and formulate story patterns and structures. It’s worth noting that almost a…

The greatest hits of story structure, all in one place, arranged chronologically and side-by-side for your comparative viewing pleasure! This chart is only a small selection of story templates avai…

The key event forces the main character to make a decision for action. This closes out Act 1 and moves us into the action of Act 2.

Want to write a story that works? Learn how to plot your novel using the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet in this post! (Free worksheet included!) #writingtips

My Resource Room students have been reading several short stories in our literature book and I have been teaching/reviewing story elements and conflict. These are the notes they pasted in their jou…

I'm back! Sorry for the M.I.A.!!! I have been swamped with the usual and getting ready for our Harvest Festival fundraiser. One more week of that and I can hopefully breathe again! I wanted to share a few things we have been doing in our classroom over the past few weeks. I feel so behind! We had our open house and we had these super cute sneaky e guys to greet the parents. We also made the All About Me Bagpacks. Of course, I forgot to get a pic of those. I love this idea using the first letter of each student's name to practice place value. I think Rayann found it on Pinterest. I introduced story structure to my little ones. This is the anchor chart we made to go along with one of the short stories from our reading series. These posters came from my Story Structure Unit. We are loving this vocabulary game from Mrs. Bainbridge. We recorded it in a flap book after we put our vocabulary words in order on the front flaps. The kids are loving Brown Bag Book Club. We made these main idea hands to put on our bags of popcorn. They discussed the weekly story and the main idea before the assessment. You must check this book out! Rayann introduced me to it. It is great for teaching math problem solving strategies! Here is a freebie from my Sneaky E With the Vowel O Word Work Packet. Click *{HERE}* to grab a copy. I just posted my latest word work unit tonight to accompany A Tiny Seed. Off to bed to get ready for a busy day. I am on the decorating committee for our Harvest Festival. I can't way to show you pics! We are going with an Enchanted Forest theme. It's on Friday night, so I will post pics next week. Have a great week, friends!

Learn about the Hero's Journey, the most popular story structure in history, in this master guide. Includes a definitive definition and examples.

Storytelling comes naturally to humans, but since we live in an unnatural world, we sometimes need a little help doing what we’d naturally do. I’m a big fan of the work of Dan Harmon, writer …

Discover 7 of the most popular story structure models used by writers today. Suitable for authors, playwrights, and screenwriters.

An exciting twist on more common story structures, the Four Act Structure is one you'll definitely want in your novel writing toolkit.

One of my favorite ways to outline or plan a story is to map it out like a subway or road map. Here's how this technique works. Each road or subway line

We already get a One-liner and synopsis of our story. And now we need to construct the full story for the Movie. There is an established and verified structural framework to build up your Story: Th…

The 5 items on this novel-writing checklist will impact every page. Whether you're writing or revising, make sure all your story's pieces are in place.

Story plotting and structure provide a way to give your storytelling scope in a systematic writing process. Learn more.

Sakura Amadare, 33. This blog is an amalgam of things that I like, FFVII (and namely the exquisite Sephiroth) being one of those things. I am a Jack of many trades, but creativity grounds all of my varied dabbling. A selection of the many things I love: writing, reading, fashion, modeling,...

Free Novel Writing Worksheets (PDFs) The cornerstone of the Novel Factory software for writers is to handle useful information that authors might be collating in order to help them write their novel. This could be relating to plot, characters, locations and more. As well a offering a place to keep all that data, the Novel…

{via} For the Scribblers' Conference. This is something else I learned in my Novel in a Year class. Basically, you have three acts and three disasters, along with a whole bunch of other awesome stuff. The above picture shows you the Three Act Structure combined with the Hero's Journey and the Character Arc (never heard of that, but it's pretty self-explanatory). You could figure out the Three Act Structure just by that picture, but here are a few other points (that correspond with the Hero's Journey) to help. Act One Act One is the first quarter of your book. Yes, I know it's odd that there are four quarters and three acts (at least that's what I thought), but writers and math don't mix, I guess. Inciting Incident: This happens after you introduce your character and his/her world. Make it happen fast. First chapter kind of fast. (I think. That's what I was supposed to do for school, at least.) What is it? The inciting incident is when something happens to set the story in motion. It involves the main character. It doesn't have to be something bad. You're just disrupting it and making something change. I'm pretty sure my teacher put it this way: it could be someone dying or it could be someone getting pregnant. Whatever you want, I guess. The First Disaster: (This is also called "Plot Point #1" in many places.) It happens at the end of Act One. So a bit before or at a quarter of the way through the book. At the VERY end of Act One, you're character makes his/her choice that there's no going back from. To help you gain your bearings, this is "Crossing the Threshold" in the Hero's Journey. What is it? A disaster. Obviously. It's something that isn't going to be resolved until the end of the book. You turn your main character's world upside down and then expect them to keep going. According to Randy Ingermanson, it's okay for the first disaster to be caused by external things and not caused by your main character. Act Two Act Two consists of the next two quarters of your book. This is also where things get messy and confusing for me. I've heard two different things about this act. So first I'll tell you what my teacher taught me and my classmates, and then I'll tell you what I've heard while doing research for this post and other stuffs. The Midpoint: What me teacher (and others) say: the midpoint of the book—also the midpoint of Act Two—is "the threat of death." This isn't a major disaster (or otherwise called a major plot point). What is it? This threat of death doesn't have to be physical. It can be, but it can also be relational or emotional or career-related or whatever. The Second Disaster: (Also called "Plot Point #2" in many places.) What my teacher (and others) say: this can happen from anywhere a bit before the midpoint of the book to right before three-quarters of the way through the book. Yes. Lots of room there. What Randy Ingermanson (and others) say: The second disaster happens halfway through Act Two—not as far as three quarters of the way through. This is in place of the "threat of death." What is it? Mr. Ingermanson says that the second disaster should be caused by the main character trying to "fix things." The first disaster happens, things don't get better, so your main character tries again (and fails) to resolve the conflict. Act Three The last quarter of your book. The Third Disaster: (Also know as the climax.) Mr. Ingermanson has the climax at the end of Act Two, but according to my teacher and what she said her editor said, the resolution can't take up a quarter of the book. That would make it to long. So, the climax is going to hang out in Act Three with the resolution. At least for this post. It's the climax, so things get...climactic. What is it? Your main character has tried to fix the first disaster, which resulted in the second disaster. Then he/she tried to fix that mess, and look! Climax time! This is when your main character must battle and defeat the villain (or, if it's a series, you kinda-sorta defeat the villain. But if you completely defeat the villain in the first book, what are the rest of the books going to be about?) This is the black moment. Your main character is at his/her lowest. He/she thinks that if she can't defeat the villain, he/she will never recover. The Resolution: This should only be one or two chapters long. The disasters and conflict have been resolved. Everything is slowing down. Your characters actually have a chance to breathe. This is the "Return of the Elixir" for the Hero's Journey. Goals have been accomplished and lessons have been learned. The end! DISCLAIMER: (because I'm terribly insecure.) I'm seventeen. I'm not published. Okay, I am, on here and on Figment, but not really published. You could say I'm inexperienced. Very inexperienced. I'm still in the learning process. The Hero's Journey was created by some awesome guy named Joseph Campell. My teacher taught me this, and then I used the notes from her class and came up with these explanations of the 12 steps. I've probably misinterpreted at least a few things. So Google this and ask actual published writers about it and DO YOUR RESEARCH. ♥ Bekah Joan geez. i have gone over and over and over this post, but writing it in one sitting has slightly damaged my brain, i think. i do apologize terribly for anything that's worded wrongly or anything. ughhh i need foooooood.

A novel or narrative structure has to do with the story and the plot –the way the action unfolds, peaks and resolves.

Learn how to use the Three-Act structure to create riveting stories, and see expert examples of the Three-Act structure in use!

Free Novel Writing Worksheets (PDFs) The cornerstone of the Novel Factory software for writers is to handle useful information that authors might be collating in order to help them write their novel. This could be relating to plot, characters, locations and more. As well a offering a place to keep all that data, the Novel…

Explore sunni.brightspot.brown's 4051 photos on Flickr!

THE STORY GRID Due to multiple requests, here is a photo of the very same infographic I shared with my business partner and friend Steven Pressfield.

Just as a musician must first understand the structure of music to be able to improvise, so must a story writer understand the structure of story.

Learn how to develop a story and read ten steps to a plot that has structure, momentum and the ingredients readers love.

Teaching prose, drama, and poetry is quick and easy. Your third and fourth grade students just need a little vocabulary and practice.

Looking for a plotting formula? In this post, we share an infographic of The Hero's Journey, a device used by writers when plotting their books.

Plotting by J.L. Bell

Love My Writing Blog - I found these infographs while searching for inspiration one day. I wanted to find a creative writing prompt to help move my story forwar

Three act structure is the satisfying story structure underlying many successful stories, from children's books to groundbreaking novels. Learn more.