Story Structure is Fundamental
First find out what your hero wants, then just follow him.
— Ray Bradbury
Dean Koontz, a prolific novelist, and author of How to Write Best Selling Fiction, recently told me he begins with “…a small premise and one or two characters I believe will fascinate me, along with a central theme from which others might grow. No notes, no character sketches, no plot line. If the main character works, if he/she comes alive to me, then the character takes the story places I never foresaw. Outlines are limiting for me, and I need to let the imagination rule.” That does not mean that the stories he builds do not have rules. He lets the characters guide the process.
What is Story Structure?
Story structure is archetypal. That means the brain is wired for story, whether we are conscious of it or not. Knowing the structure can help stimulate our imagination. It all begins with the three act structure first developed by Aristotle.
As a writer, I value that intuitive approach. I also find it incredibly helpful to follow the guidance of what we call story structure, the conscious craft of telling stories. These time test elements can stimulate the imagination to create stories that resonate with the psyche. Our psyches are wired to respond to story. Every story is the story of everyone’s journey. As Aaron Sorkin, an award-winning screenwriter says that audiences know the rules without knowing they know the rules.
The Story Structure Process
Rules
The rules are there to help us create the story magic. But I also agree with Koontz about keeping it simple. Story structure and/or the so-called rules of story does not exclude originality but rather, it encourages structure. It takes a lot of originality to imagine and structure a well-told story.
The bottom line is that stories that grab us use a story structure designed to capture and hold our attention, and to cause us to feel empathy and tension. We get hooked and want to know what will happen next. It’s all about sustaining our attention with emotion. If the story is told in a way that drops or transports us into the experience of the protagonist. We vicariously experience what the protagonist experiences as though we are right there.
Goal
The goal is to tell the story in a way that causes readers to feel as if they are the character in a simulation. This is called narrative transport. It is a phenomenon identified by academic researchers on communications Melanie Green and Tim Brock. We begin with capturing the attention of the viewer or reader, so they care about the story.
Great stories incite reader’s emotions, particularly evoking pity and fear. Aristotle valued this in particular as key in heroic engagement. Pity engenders empathy. This sustains attention through rising and falling action with tension and release. It is what the reading or viewing audience unconsciously expects and wants. Kendall Haven, in Story Proof, agrees: “The common structural patterns of a story (even if unconscious) are fixed and established in every person’s mind.”
Elements
All stories have a protagonist, a term that originates from the ancient Greek word for chief actor or combatant. Just as each of us is the protagonist of our lives, the protagonist in the story is the main character with whom we identify. The protagonist has an important goal or desire that usually emerges after and/or because of the inciting incident that drives the action.
As in life, there are conflicts and challenges that stand in the way of the protagonist getting what he or she wants. Tensions also arise from the role of the antagonist. This term comes from the Greek word for competitor, referring to any character who frustrates the protagonist’s goal or desire. We can all relate to this because this struggle is a metaphor for life. Stories draw us in because they explore problems. Their results and resolutions, show us how characters change, how they react to loss, and how they grow.
Conclusion
By the end of the story, the protagonist may or may get what they want, but they always gain new insight or growth. This is part of the resolution of the story. We go on that journey vicariously with the protagonist and we connect emotionally with that character. We want to know what will happen. The plot is the vehicle that helps to unfold the story, the action and conflict that drives what happens next. Sigmund Freud suggested in a paper he wrote Creative Writer’s and Day Dreaming that the enjoyment that the audience experiences from storytelling is the liberation of tension in our minds the story creates. This happens because stories transport us out of our world into the story’s world.
You as a Writer
As writers, we also go on a journey that can be viewed as being a parallel adventure to the protagonist. Writing our stories can help us to understand ourselves and others. It is through finding our own voice and the stories we were meant to tell that we can see how the inner world affects the outer world.
I compiled together the helpful guide that shows how story structure can help you in your process.
Finally, it is important to remember that creativity is both a conscious and and unconscious process. Oliver Sachs confirmed there are three stages to creativity. The middle stage is incubation. He said, “this period is essential to allow subconscious assimilation and incorporation of one’s influences and sources to reorganize and synthesize them into something of one’s own.” Understanding story structure can help us to navigate the creative process.
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