Writing a story is like creating a sculpture. It can be whatever shape you want it to be. It’s ultimately your artistic expression, and how it makes you feel is more important than how it makes other people feel.

With that said; if you’d like other people to feel the same way about it as you do, then you may need to get it into an identifiable shape. To get a sculpture into shape, you would use a chisel. To get a story into shape, we use story structure. 

Why Do Audiences Like Story Structure So Much? 

Because our brains have evolved to very much enjoy pattern recognition. It’s how our primal ancestors learnt which berries were nutritious and which were poisonous. We still use pattern recognition to survive the modern world, and our brains also apply it to the art we consume. As such, human brains tend to gravitate towards story structures that they already know and understand. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t change it up…the human brain also loves to be surprised (which is the basic tenet of comedy); and like the sculpture’s chisel, story structure is “a tool not a rule”. 

But story structure is also a very broad thing; it’s possible (and in my humble opinion, advantageous) to have a story that is extremely well structured that also subverts audience expectations at every turn.  

So What’s a Basic Story Structure?

You probably already know this, but a classic story structure, at its purest, is:  

Beginning.

Middle.

End.

Say More Things. 

Sure. If you want to expand on that;

Beginning. 

Your protagonist (ie. your hero/main character) is in their Ordinary World. Keep in mind, “Ordinary World” is just a phrase; it doesn’t mean your protagonist can’t start their story in a world of magic. But if that is the case, then that magic world should be ordinary to your protagonist. And in this ordinary world, your protagonist should want something that’s going to drive the story. Maybe it’s treasure or money. Maybe it’s acceptance from the cool kids. That’s up to you. 

If you want to give your story a bit of emotional depth—which I think is akin to giving your sculpture some sick abs—then you should also give your protagonist a character arc. The best way to do that is to establish something they need. This should be different to the thing they want. So as an example, if they want money, or acceptance from the cool kids, then what they need could be something like “learning how to be charitable” or “learning to accept themselves”.

But for now, your story is going to be driven by your character chasing what they want. The moment they start doing that, they have left their Ordinary World and entered the Special World. They are now on a road to adventure. Whether that “adventure” is a story that focuses on grounded interpersonal dramas, or high fantasy action, or both, or neither; that’s entirely up to you. The road to adventure is paved with the things that you find interesting.

Keep in mind, if you want others to find them interesting too, then you’re going to need CONFLICT and OBSTACLES. You need to make it very very hard for your protagonist to get what they want. Something and/or someone (presumably the antagonist ie. the villain) should always be in their way.

This will take you to the…

Middle.

The middle of the story is a great point to give your protagonist an even greater setback. 

This can also take the form of a false victory, in which the protagonist thinks they’ve achieved their goal, but then learn that they are very wrong about that. 

As an example, if your protagonist is on a treasure hunt, then, after many close shaves, they’ve finally got the treasure chest back on their boat, and, feeling very happy with themselves, they finally open the lid – and learn that the chest is empty. This gives them a new story goal; where’s the real treasure? Does the bad guy have it? Did it fall to the bottom of the ocean? What does the protagonist do now?

Another great way to frame a false victory is to give the protagonist what they want; but not what they need. Perhaps to get this far, they’ve had to choose their want over their need. Which means your protagonist has come home with the treasure, and they’re rich now – but they’re not happy. Maybe they were only truly happy when they were searching for the treasure because of the allies they made. Maybe they betrayed those allies in order to get the treasure home. Maybe those allies are now in danger. 

So what does your protagonist do now to make things right now? 

Answering that question will take us to the…

End.

Around here is usually where the protagonist hits an all-time low. It might even look like they’ve lost. They may be close to death. Or someone they know is. Maybe they are lost, with no hope of getting found. Maybe everyone hates them. Maybe they’ve soiled their pants in front of everybody during the school play. What an “all-time low” looks like is entirely up to you.

So too will be how your protagonist claws their way back to victory. To do that, your protagonist may need to get smart. They may need to get tough. They almost certainly need to prove themselves. If your protagonist has learnt any kind of lesson that what they wanted is not what they needed, here is where they are going to need to put that lesson into action. How exactly? That’s up to you. But you don’t have to make this easy for them; don’t forget the CONFLICT and the OBSTACLES are going to make your story all the more engaging.

After all that, you get to decide how successful your protagonist is. You get to tell us if it’s a happy ending, a sad ending, or a bit of a mix.

I should, at this point, mention that many great stories have themes. A theme is something that the story is “about”. Like environmentalism, or family, or the joy of food. There’s no limit to what a theme can be. It can be anything you want.

Why Are You Only Mentioning Theme Now? 

Because some writers know what their story’s theme is before they start writing, but a lot of writers (maybe most) do not. Which is fine. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it.
But if you are a story-first-theme-later writer, I can tell you a dynamite way of working out what your theme is.

The lesson that your protagonist just learnt on your beautifully structured adventure? The one that’s about them learning about what they truly need? That’s it. That’s your theme. That’s what your story is saying to the world. It can totally say other things too. You can have as many themes as you want. But your character arc, your protagonist’s emotional journey; that’s a perfect showcase for your main theme.

And look at that! You’ve created a sculpture that is utterly unique and undeniably yours; but one that has an identifiable structure guaranteed to make the most jaded of art critics mutter “dang, those are some chiselled abs”.

Fabian Lapham