How to Write a Great Story | Structure
There are countless metaphors I could use:
A house without its supports will crumble.
A honeycomb without its shape will collapse.
A body without its bones will die.
Stories are the same. A story without structure will fail.
Think about every book, movie, and television show you’ve ever watched. Did you notice its structure? Probably not for most of them, especially the great ones. If the story enchants us enough we tend to not notice its underlying structure.
And yet story structures exist. They are the hidden supports, shapes, bones, that make stories work. Trust me, if story structure is missing or fatally flawed, we know something is wrong very quickly. We close the book, or leave the theatre, and say, "Huh. I did not like that." Or we don’t even get that far; we quit because it got boring. We can’t always diagnose why we didn’t like it, we just realize we don’t.
Point is, structure is more than vital. It’s essential.
Timestamps:
Introduction - 0:00
Part I: The Basics (Beginning, Middle, End) - 1:07
Part II: Complicating a Story and the Build Up - 6:05
Part III: The Hero's Journey and The Shape of Stories - 8:32
The Shape of Stories - 11:17
Part IV: Miscellaneous Information (25%/50%/25% rule, Obligatory Scenes) - 14:33
Part V: Quick Review Recap - 17:19
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You know what has a cool structure? My debut novel, Buried Vapors 😎
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Sources Mentioned:
Steven Pressfield's Foolscap Method: https://bit.ly/3c42TsQ
University of Vermont Story Structure Study: https://bit.ly/2A8CfRZ
Links to Books Mentioned or Shown:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces: http://bit.ly/3gSGFNb
The Story Grid: http://bit.ly/325WMmg
The Guest List: http://bit.ly/2DnJ5ET
Save the Cat!: http://bit.ly/3iVgJCb
The Catcher in the Rye: http://bit.ly/3iTQv2Y
The Great Gatsby: http://bit.ly/2BQK8gr
FTC NOTE: I am not sponsored by any writer mentioned and my opinions of their work are my own, however purchases made using the links above may support the channel along with the authors.
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