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4. Story Outlining

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You want all main points and points in between to be delicious to the reader, whether those points are a salty or sweet kind of delicious. 

Story Structure: 7 Narrative Structures All Writers Should Know

My Plot Structure

Beginning (stasis)

  • Hook (starting hook, grab reader's attention)
  • Introductions (the world, the characters)
  • Set Up (set the foundation for the action to rise)

Now is the time for introductions.

Here you are establishing the investment the reader will later feel in the story, the characters, and what happens to them. 

The beginning should introduce the themes, motifs, lessons, and purposes the book is going to later delve into more deeply. 

The beginning should introduce the characters and the world to bring the reader into the loop of the universe they are in. 

The beginning should make promises about:  - The genre and subgenres (the type of book this is) - What kind of ending you can expect  - What kind of emotions you can expect to feel 

How are the characters now? 

Are there new things in the middle or end of the book that should introduced in the beginning? Is there anything in the middle or end that seem to come out of left field that should be foreshadowed in the beginning?

Middle (change)

  • Rising Action (adventures and conflicts begin)
  • Minor Conflicts (first obstacles, smaller enemies)
  • Climax (major conflict, boss fight)

Now is the time to have many decisions before you and many things to think about and many emotions to feel. 

Here you are delving deeper into the themes, motifs, lessons, and purposes of the book. 

What will make the characters change? 

In the middle of the book, everything should reach its turning point, the characters' development and the plot.

End (new stasis)

  • Falling Action (success or failure)
  • Resolution (a new stasis, growth and learning)
  • Continuation (ending hook, hook readers to keep reading)

Now is the time to make decisions and come to conclusions about how we think and feel.

Here you are reintroducing the new status quo, overviewing all that has changed, and introducing all the new questions, thoughts, fears, doubts the new stasis gives the main characters.

How has the main character changed? How has their world changed?

In the end of the book, things should come to conclusions, promises made to the reader should be met, some amount of answers and closure should be given even if you are also setting up a hook for the reader to keep reading the next book.

Three Act Structure

ACT 1 - Set Up

  • Exposition
  • Inciting Incident
  • Plot Point 1

ACT 2 - Confrontation

  • Rising Action
  • Midpoint
  • Plot Point 2

ACT 3 - Resolution

  • Preclimax
  • Climax
  • Denouement (dust settles, all made clear, strands of the plot drawn together)

8-Point Arc

  • Stasis
  • Trigger
  • Quest
  • Surprise
  • Critical Choice
  • Climax
  • Reversal
  • Resolution

Story Arc

  • Beginning (contrasts with end)
  • Inciting Incident
  • Rising Action
  • Midpoint
  • Push Back
  • Climax
  • End (contrasts with beginning)