Wednesday, August 23, 2023

A bit on Story Structure

Some authors write by beats or mapped out Story structures to create stories. So in looking at something similar I was thinking this might help to analyze how this is done on for instance a Seven Point Story Structure.

So if you are not sure how to begin a story and meet each milestone you need for that story Maybe this will help. 

First Herr are the steps in a Seven Step Story Structure. 

Hook — Your character’s starting point in who they are now. Something is needed here to zap that reader to want to keep turning the page. 

Plot Point 1 — The event that sets your story in motion and moves you from the beginning to the middle point of your story. You introduce the conflict and your character’s world changes. Some call this the point of no return. This is basically when you character sets out on his/her journey to beat the conflict because there is no other choice. 

Push Point 1— This is where the bad guy or conflict up the stakes for the hero/heroine. Things get worse. Toss in the crazy. 

Midpoint of the novem— things are terrible for your character and so he/she moves into major action to overcome the conflict or beat the bad guy. Anything to overcome what is stopping him/her from meeting their goal. 

Push point 2 — pushes the conflict harder and puts the hero/jeroine into their darkest moments of the Story. It seems all is lost.

Plot point 2 — this is where the hero/heroine has made a turn to win or beat the conflict or bad guy no matter the costs. The story moves from the middle and it heading toward the ending or resolution. Your hero/heroine may discover what has to happen for them to overcome the obstacles. Their course of action may change to head then to the ultimate showdown. 

Resolution — This is the climax of your story. Everything in the story leads to this moment. Here, your character manages to overcome or meet the conflict head on creating a resolution good or bad to end the story. 

I may not have those beats down perfectly but if you have a story idea. List these points in your notebook and star plugging in the happenings of your story to meet all these points. This may take a bit. But for the first attempts just be simple. Several sentences in each point. 

Once you are done with a simple idea then go back and add some of the things that must happen in each area to move the character to the next steps. 

When you are done with that then write in paragraph form a long version of your story. Guess what that will make you a bit of a synopsis rough draft. 

Once you have this all down then map out how many chapters or scenes are needed in each area to move the character to the story. Do this all the way through. Now you have your outline and plan. 

Hey its Time to Write!!!