Occasionally I receive emails from other authors who are starting out on their journey and they ask me craft questions. I’m thrilled when I can answer them! I was on Keystroke Mediums podcast not long ago and in response, I was asked by a listener how I structure my stories.

I'm mostly a pantser. I have a rough idea of what I want to have happen and how I want people to feel when they read the book (excited, sad, happy, joy, etc.) Having said that, if you feel like you're 'conforming' to structure and that’s stifling you, then you may not have a thorough enough understanding of the story you're trying to tell.

Something I picked up is that story and plot are two different things. The plot is what happens to the characters, the story is how they make it through. I've studied story structure for the better part of my life. From watching movies with a critical eye to reading books like Screenplay by Syd Field (Possibly the greatest book on storytelling ever written) along with The Fire in Fiction, by Donald Maass.

Having said that, there really are only 3-acts. A beginning, middle, and end.

People sometimes will break it up into more, by having each turning point in a story be its own act. That's fine, but it's overly complicated. There are, of course, examples (Pulp Fiction) of wildly different structures working… and when you’re Quentin Tarantino, you can do that.

Here is the basic story structure for every good story ever told and what I do. No one has to agree with me here, and I am not laying down the law. This is what I have learned over the years and how I view story.

ACT I Literally the beginning of the story.

Intro: Show the hero doing something competent (if he's a thief he's an excellent thief, if he's a mage, he's an excellent mage).

The Inciting Incident: Something happens, the hero is asked for help, or they help someone in distress.

The Hero Refuses the Call: This is when the hero (after initially helping) decides it is too big to help and they try to back out.

The Hero Accepts the Call: Either because their internal conscious won’t allow it, or an impassioned plea by a secondary character, the Hero decides to help.

The First Turning/Plot Point: Something happens that changes what the hero is trying to do, an objective shifts.

ACT II The middle of the story and the upping of the stakes.

Try/Fail Cycle: This act is a series of try/fails. The hero tries something, it fails. They try something else, it fails. The beautiful thing about this is you can have as many as you need.

The Mid Point: This is the most crucial point for sustaining tension in the story. This is the point where everything turns sideways, and everything they thought they were doing is all wrong, and now the story shoots off in a new direction heading to the conclusion!

The Black Moment: This is the moment that all hope is lost. The hero is down, the bad guy is in charge, all is lost.

The Resolution: Surprise! The good guy wins, he gets the girl (or vice versa) and the bad guy is sent packing.

You may have noticed how vague this is. That’s because it’s JUST structure. The structure of a story is an empty glass. You can put anything in it. You can make it look and feel like virtually anything you want. But this is the structure that flows up from the beginning to the inevitable end.

You can do anything you want in the structure because structure, isn’t plot or story. The plot is the thing that happens to the character. The story is how they get through it. And the structure is what binds it all together.

Plot leads to Story
STRUCTURE

Often times if you don’t know what to do next, or what should happen next, I find it’s because I either don’t know the kind of story I’m trying to tell, or I don’t know my character's motivations well enough.

The good news is, the first book is always the hardest. Then there are all these other things that are hard, and you have to figure them out.

I feel like being an author is like a story unto itself, except there is no third act. Once you are into the try/fail of the second act it just goes on forever. As you ‘level’ up, you learn and master new things and then there are even more things to overcome.

The good news is, as I always say, the only way to fail is to give up. Never give up and you will succeed. That’s true for everything, not just authoring.

If you want to see this in action, pick up Wraith: Danger Close (Superhero by Night Book Four) out now!