A long discussion with my brother about various longform fictions brought up some ideas I thought to share.
Story structure is key to almost all commercial and popular fiction, movies and television. What I'm talking about is what you might call the information flow of the story if you were an engineer (which both my brother and I have been). The segments below could be episodes or chapters or groups of episodes or chapters. In something as short as a novelette, they could be very short indeed.
1. Initiation - You don't want this to look like an infodump but that is essentially what it is. You have to introduce the essential conflict and the majority of the main characters. There is micro structure to this, too. The first paragraph or scene must include at least a tease of the essential conflict.
2. Overview - This is a wider look at the situation, probably more characters and almost certainly any main characters not introduced in the first segment. Subplots are set up and the essential conflict is elaborated.
3. Twist - This is the first reveal, the complication that adds interest to the story and makes sure that the viewer or reader knows that this is not something they have read or seen before. You don't want to introduce any main characters after this part.
4. Tension - The plot seems to get more desperate. At least one character is shown to have deeper implications for what is happening. The main characters are involved to the hilt.
5. Midpoint - This is a false climax, things seem to be almost resolved but the essential conflict is not solved though one or more subplots may be finished off. If so, you can introduce new minor subplots.
6. Regroup - The main characters find new resources, new minor characters can be introduced and at least one major character may switch sides in the coming conflict or be killed off.
7. Desperation - Things become truly urgent for at least one central character. This feels as if the climax is approaching like a freight train, or that the ripcord on the parachute is stuck. A new reveal adds more complication.
8. Pause - Things happen but the main intent of this section is to be sure the reader or viewer really knows the main characters and the essential conflict. This can feel almost like a new introduction to characters and situations, a reprise.
9. Revelation - What appears to be a final twist, things may be turned upside down, a main character appears to be dead, or turned to the other side or out of the story. The villain might not be who it appeared to be. Tension is at a maximum and conflict starts to ramp up to the next section.
10. Climax - The battle at the end of the universe. The essential conflict is out in the open and all guns are blazing. People die, even the main characters can die. Often the antagonist/villain dies or changes sides in this section. Or both. Another reveal can be hidden in the action to be explained later.
11. Cleanup - The necessary sequence to be sure that the reader or viewer understands what happened and is emotionally satisfied by it.
That's just one way of expressing this structure and different writers would probably divide it up into different sections. As an exercise, see if you can identify the parts in such stories as Star Wars, Who Shot Liberty Valance, or Groundhog Day.
Hugs,
Erin
Comments
Great summary Erin :)
Is it bad that I'm 43 chapters into 'Magic is' and we've only reached stage 4? lol
If it's any consolation I've got the plot planned up to stage 11, it's just not written yet ;)
I'm surprised how well this matches up with so many of the better fictions you see out there.
Usually if you condense such a complex matter down to make it easily understandable the explanation tends to lose its connection to the most noticeable correlations your trying to point out in the first place but this is dead on for a lot of mainstream genre's.
I might have to save this post for future reference when I'm working on other stories now, things are formulaic a lot of times for a reason after all :)
Thanks for the food-for-thought Erin.
Hopefully it helps some new writers in their efforts down the line too.
Nessa
More thoughts
In longform/multipart works, this structure can be fractal. For instance, in Lord of the Rings, there are actually six books (published as three). Each of the books has a version of this structure, though some of them are incomplete versions. And the overarching story has the structure, too. But in fact, each of the books is made up of smaller narratives, each of which has some of this structure. It's like fibers making up threads that are twisted into twine that is woven into ropes that are gathered into cables that are tied together to make nets.
How this can work is that Part 11 can become the Part 1 of a new structure. Or some section can be divided into a microstructure that resembles the whole.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Nice Data Flow Structure
Hugs Erin, yep, that looks like a blue print building plan for writers. Nicely laid out and organized. Survey and drive the stakes, build the forms, pour the foundation, now we need a floor to work off of. The walls give it a concept of the way it is going and retains what goes inside. The roof gives substance to all it covers. The trim finishes the inside as fixtures are installed. And the story, I mean house is finished ready to be enjoyed by the reader who hopefully moves in and lives with the actors and actresses for a little relief from the outside world.
Going to copy your power points as it is well laid out steps for writers to follow if they plan on writing. I'm sure my guide would be useless to them unless they were in construction.
Enjoy life, its too short to take seriously
Always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I'm going to print this out,
I'm going to print this out, then read my story again. I think, accidentally, I did it correctly.
I just folliwed, in my mind, the layouts of the thousands of books I've read over the years.
Hugs,
Karen
It's generally called
It's generally called 'Dramatic Structure', and it's been analyzed out the wazoo since the greeks - at least.
(Gotta love Theatre history)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure
Five part is considered, on the whole, to be the base of all stories. (Freytag's Pyramid) Some people complain that it only applies to ancient works, not modern, but that's sophistry. Stories may have more to them, but they aren't really any different now than they were with Oedipus Rex, or the Iliad.
Also review Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" monomyth description.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Yup
Versions of the same thing; my description is an attempt to capture the essence of the structure as used in modern popular works.
It's good to know the forms because then when you go outside of them, you can know why and what to expect in the way of an effect on your reader.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Very cool.
This is pretty informative, I probably should have read something along these lines before I attempted writing the story I'm doing (my first ever). Comparing what I've written so far though I believe I've captured most of these elements even if several of them are splintered all along the story line.
Very neat design though, thank you for sharing,
Rebecca.
I know I’m weird. The fact that I’m trans is probably one of the more normal things about me.
Story Guidelines
Not only does story telling follow that tight a pattern, but there is also a limit the reader wants to stay in each phase. I read once that the initiation should not take up more than 5% of the total story.
Readers have internal clocks and will feel that the story is dragging if the timeline isn't met.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I think that it all depends
I think that it all depends on what you are used to. (to what you are used?) Look at the Brothers Karamazov, or War and Peace. Both of those are INSANE in the introductions. But yet they are/were held up as great literature.
Even Moby Dick is a slow start.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Both right
You're both right, styles do change over time. And my guidelines above are meant for popular and genre fiction and media; classic literature has different rules.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.