Chapter 1: Story
Story theory began with the Greeks, and we’ve been developing structures consistent with it
for millennia. If you want to write successful narrative, half the battle is knowing what you’re
looking for. A sharp eye for story comes from understanding that its basic ingredients are
universal and learning how to spot them in the real world.
Research shows that most human beings have a better grasp of narrative than other forms.
Narrative delivers a clearer message to the majority of readers and readers prefer narrative
presentations. We remember facts more accurately if we’re exposed to them in a story,
rather than a list. We’re more likely to buy arguments that lawyers make in a trial if they
present them as part of a narrative.
Protagonist-complication-resolution model for story:
(At its most basic, a story begins with) a character who wants something, struggles to
overcome barriers that stand in the way of achieving it, and moves through a series of
actions - the actual story structure - to overcome them.
Jon Franklin: A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic
character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves.
Key ingredients in story:
★ A sequence of actions: a chronology of events.
○ Plot = when a storyteller carefully selects and arranges material so that larger
meanings can emerge.
○ The narrative is that the king died and then the queen died. The plot is that
the king died and the queen died of grief. (Novelist E.M. Forster)
○ A pattern of cause and effect ⇒ series of plot points = any development that
sends the story spinning of in a new direction (Robert McKee)
★ A sympathetic character: protagonist
○ The protagonist is the character who drives the story forward actively. This
character takes action to achieve a desire, overcome an antagonist or solve a
problem. ⇒ The person who makes things happen.
○ In a narrative, sympathetic characters are protagonist. Bad guys seldom work
as narrative protagonist because they show us the way things s hould be
done, readers can’t identify with them and readers expect heroic - or at least
likeable - protagonists. (That’s why criminal protagonists in Hollywood movies
usually come off as loveable rogues).
○ You can write about bad guys, but don’t make them your protagonist.
★ A complication: the bigger the complication, the bigger the story
○ In literature, only trouble is interesting. (Janet Burroway). So a protagonist
needs a problem. Not every complication has to have life or death
consequences. “The profoundest impediments to our desire most often lie
close to home, in our bodies, personalities, friends, lovers, and family. Fewer
, people have cause to panic at the approach of a stranger with a gun that at
the approach of mama with the curling iron” (JB).
○ Think about complications in terms of human wants. Someone wants
something, sets out to get it → sets a potential story in motion
○ You don’t need an earth shaking complication to write something compelling.
Good little complications make for good little stories.
★ A resolution: the ultimate aim of every story
○ The resolution releases the dramatic tension created as the protagonist
struggles with complication.
○ It contains the lesson that the audience carries away, the insight that the
story’s readers or viewers or listeners can apply to their own lives.
○ In simple yarns: resolutions are purely physical.
○ More complex and meaningful stories: a deep and permanent psychological
change revolves the complication
○ Not every narrative has a resolution.
■ Explanatory narrative → progresses along a flat trajectory
■ Narrative essays → bring readers into the writer’s thought process
■ Vignette → capture a revealing slice of life
■ Novel → more complete story lines with definitive resolutions
(contrast)
○ Honest non fiction lacks the pure protagonist-complication-resolution structure
of fiction.
○ Happy ending = constructive resolution. Tragedy = negative resolution. A
preference for positive endings doesn’t mean you should avoid telling the
stories of protagonists who at first glance seem to be failures
A compelling story must immerse readers in another world, carrying them away from their
mundane daily cares. Writes accomplish that diversion by combining strong action lines with
artful scene-setting, reproducing realities where readers can join the story’s characters.
Chapter 2: Structure
Stories tend to certain shapes, and if you stray too far from them, you end up with no story at
all. Most important of all is the structure of the incidents, not of man, but of action and life
(Aristotle).
Structure is more visual than logical, a pattern of parts with its own rules for fitting pieces
together, and most experienced writes create some sort of visual guide to the assembly of a
story. They express their structural ideas as a kind of blueprint.
A blueprint is a way of ordering what you need when you need it as you methodologically
work your way toward the finished structure depicted in your drawing. You can revise it and
avoid the time and expense of gathering material you ultimately won’t need. A good blueprint
eases writing.
,
A narrative arc is built from the orderly progression of facts through specific story elements.
An arc has not just a beginning, a middle and an end, but a sequence of events that will
keep a reader moving along (Jim Collins). A true narrative arc sweeps forward across time,
pushing ahead with constant emotion
The arc passes through five phases that mark any complete story
1. Exposition = the phase that tells readers who protagonists are and gives them just
enough information to understand the complication they will face.
➢ A phase where you define your characters (Aristotle)
➢ The trick to write a good expository segment is to tell readers what they m
ust
understand… and no more.
Story theory began with the Greeks, and we’ve been developing structures consistent with it
for millennia. If you want to write successful narrative, half the battle is knowing what you’re
looking for. A sharp eye for story comes from understanding that its basic ingredients are
universal and learning how to spot them in the real world.
Research shows that most human beings have a better grasp of narrative than other forms.
Narrative delivers a clearer message to the majority of readers and readers prefer narrative
presentations. We remember facts more accurately if we’re exposed to them in a story,
rather than a list. We’re more likely to buy arguments that lawyers make in a trial if they
present them as part of a narrative.
Protagonist-complication-resolution model for story:
(At its most basic, a story begins with) a character who wants something, struggles to
overcome barriers that stand in the way of achieving it, and moves through a series of
actions - the actual story structure - to overcome them.
Jon Franklin: A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic
character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves.
Key ingredients in story:
★ A sequence of actions: a chronology of events.
○ Plot = when a storyteller carefully selects and arranges material so that larger
meanings can emerge.
○ The narrative is that the king died and then the queen died. The plot is that
the king died and the queen died of grief. (Novelist E.M. Forster)
○ A pattern of cause and effect ⇒ series of plot points = any development that
sends the story spinning of in a new direction (Robert McKee)
★ A sympathetic character: protagonist
○ The protagonist is the character who drives the story forward actively. This
character takes action to achieve a desire, overcome an antagonist or solve a
problem. ⇒ The person who makes things happen.
○ In a narrative, sympathetic characters are protagonist. Bad guys seldom work
as narrative protagonist because they show us the way things s hould be
done, readers can’t identify with them and readers expect heroic - or at least
likeable - protagonists. (That’s why criminal protagonists in Hollywood movies
usually come off as loveable rogues).
○ You can write about bad guys, but don’t make them your protagonist.
★ A complication: the bigger the complication, the bigger the story
○ In literature, only trouble is interesting. (Janet Burroway). So a protagonist
needs a problem. Not every complication has to have life or death
consequences. “The profoundest impediments to our desire most often lie
close to home, in our bodies, personalities, friends, lovers, and family. Fewer
, people have cause to panic at the approach of a stranger with a gun that at
the approach of mama with the curling iron” (JB).
○ Think about complications in terms of human wants. Someone wants
something, sets out to get it → sets a potential story in motion
○ You don’t need an earth shaking complication to write something compelling.
Good little complications make for good little stories.
★ A resolution: the ultimate aim of every story
○ The resolution releases the dramatic tension created as the protagonist
struggles with complication.
○ It contains the lesson that the audience carries away, the insight that the
story’s readers or viewers or listeners can apply to their own lives.
○ In simple yarns: resolutions are purely physical.
○ More complex and meaningful stories: a deep and permanent psychological
change revolves the complication
○ Not every narrative has a resolution.
■ Explanatory narrative → progresses along a flat trajectory
■ Narrative essays → bring readers into the writer’s thought process
■ Vignette → capture a revealing slice of life
■ Novel → more complete story lines with definitive resolutions
(contrast)
○ Honest non fiction lacks the pure protagonist-complication-resolution structure
of fiction.
○ Happy ending = constructive resolution. Tragedy = negative resolution. A
preference for positive endings doesn’t mean you should avoid telling the
stories of protagonists who at first glance seem to be failures
A compelling story must immerse readers in another world, carrying them away from their
mundane daily cares. Writes accomplish that diversion by combining strong action lines with
artful scene-setting, reproducing realities where readers can join the story’s characters.
Chapter 2: Structure
Stories tend to certain shapes, and if you stray too far from them, you end up with no story at
all. Most important of all is the structure of the incidents, not of man, but of action and life
(Aristotle).
Structure is more visual than logical, a pattern of parts with its own rules for fitting pieces
together, and most experienced writes create some sort of visual guide to the assembly of a
story. They express their structural ideas as a kind of blueprint.
A blueprint is a way of ordering what you need when you need it as you methodologically
work your way toward the finished structure depicted in your drawing. You can revise it and
avoid the time and expense of gathering material you ultimately won’t need. A good blueprint
eases writing.
,
A narrative arc is built from the orderly progression of facts through specific story elements.
An arc has not just a beginning, a middle and an end, but a sequence of events that will
keep a reader moving along (Jim Collins). A true narrative arc sweeps forward across time,
pushing ahead with constant emotion
The arc passes through five phases that mark any complete story
1. Exposition = the phase that tells readers who protagonists are and gives them just
enough information to understand the complication they will face.
➢ A phase where you define your characters (Aristotle)
➢ The trick to write a good expository segment is to tell readers what they m
ust
understand… and no more.
