There are many online resources and books on plotting because it's not easy to plot seamlessly, so the reader doesn't see the scaffolding of the house you just built.
This information below, excerpts from blog posts by R.E. Vance and Gloria Russell, freelance writers for the Self-Publishing School, outlines three types of story structures.
Story Structure #1 – Three Act Structure
The 3 act play or three act structure…It’s the most basic of story structures, very popular in Hollywood-style films. Its greatest strength is its simplicity. When you follow it to a T, you’ll have a clean setup, a satisfying payoff, and little excess to confuse or obfuscate your story. It’s streamlined, effective, and efficient.
Many world-famous novels use this structure, including:
Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The three-act structure uses five elements which include the acts, various scenes, and two key transitions, aka “pinches.”
Here is the three-act structure broken down:
Act 1: Setup - We’re introduced to the main players with some mild character development and the main conflict. We understand the voice, tone, and direction of the story.
Pinch 1 – This is when the initial conflict arises (also known as the inciting incident). In Romeo & Juliet, the conflict of the young couples’ love for each other.
Act 2: Confrontation - Now, we face difficult (seemingly impossible) odds to overcome. In Romeo and Juliet, the stakes for the lovers are spelled out. They marry secretly, which forms the end of the major plot points, the star-crossed lovers are not just passingly at odds with their society. Within the three-act structure, this is a single plot point. We get that they love each other and that love means marriage. Then, the middle act is the apprehension of their actions bringing about unintended but not unforeseeable consequences. Act 2 ends shortly after a complication that brings the elements to a head.
Pinch 2 – The conflicts addressed in Act 2 come to a head, and decisions must be made. This is often the moment where all hope is lost for your protagonist.
Act 3: Resolution - Everything boils down to this act. All of the conflict, main plot points, subplots, and challenges arise, and the climax kicks off, shortly followed by the story's resolution. With Romeo headed to banishment, Juliet seeks a drastic plan to keep him around. She fakes her death to bring out the true feelings of the interested parties. And you know how this tragedy ends.
Story Structure #2 – The Hero’s Journey
When the good guys and bad guys are less black and white, the Hero’s Journey is another proven model that works. The journey typically consists of 12 steps. It’s the backbone of traditional storytelling. This structure focuses on five plot points, usually one or two scenes each, that create the scaffold of the story. These Milestones must go in order, but the space between them can be greatly adjusted.
The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling structure that breaks stories down to their core elements. In its most basic form, the Hero’s Journey breaks stories down into three parts:
the Departure - their existing world & the action which causes them to leave
the Initiation - their experiences being thrown into this new world
the Return - how they’ve changed when they return home
The Hero’s Journey was originally outlined by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In this book, Campbell argues that all books and all heroes follow the same basic plot points. He also outlines a story structure that aims to categorize every story into a series of plot beats. These plot beats make up the Hero’s Journey.
HERO’S JOURNEY 3-PART STRUCTURE
1. The Departure
Every story starts with the main character living in their ordinary world. In the Lord of the Rings, Frodo starts out living his ordinary life in the Shire. We get a sense of who Frodo is, who the hobbits are, and what the Shire is like. In this stage, we’re just getting to know the characters. It’s important to establish a starting point for your world and characters. This doesn’t have to be too long. In fact, it’s best to keep it brief so that we can get into the action as soon as possible. But to appreciate a character’s growth, we need a sense of where they started out.
Critical Questions
Here are a few things to ask yourself when you’re setting up your story:
What kind of person is your character? What are their flaws?
Where do they live? Do they like where they live? Why or why not?
What does your character want, and why can’t they have it?
Asking yourself these questions will help you clearly establish your character and world so you’re ready to move on to the next part of the Departure, which is exactly what it sounds like. The Departure also includes a call to action, where someone comes along and convinces the main character to leave their established setting.
Examples
In the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf comes along and convinces Frodo to leave the Shire. This takes Frodo out of his established setting and propels him into a journey, which makes up the plot of the rest of the series. What’s the inciting incident that causes your character to leave their world and venture into a new setting?
It’s worth noting that this doesn’t mean that they leave their hometown—this is just where the plot starts, and we leave the established ‘normal’ behind. In a romance novel, this is where the character meets their love interest, for example. After the meet-cute, things are never the same for the main character, and the plot has formally begun. After the Departure, it’s time for the Initiation.
2. The Initiation
The Initiation stage is the stage where the hero, now removed from his regular world, is thrown into the new world and has to learn the ropes. In a romance novel, this is where the characters fall in love with each other. In Lord of the Rings, the Initiation stage, takes up most of the series, following Frodo through Middle Earth and taking the reader with him. In Harry Potter, this part starts when Harry gets to Diagon Alley, and both the reader and Harry Potter see the wizarding world for the first time.
The term ‘Initiation’ implies that this stage just includes that first exposure, but in fact, most of your plot will take place here. In Campbell’s full Hero’s Journey structure, this stage includes:
The Road of Trials Stage - where a hero must navigate a set of challenges or problems in pursuit of their goal or along their journey
The Meeting with the Goddess Stage - where a hero runs into someone who gives him a special token, knowledge, weapons, or items to help them along their journey
Woman as the Temptress Stage - where a hero is tempted to abandon their quest. Campbell describes this stage as a woman seducing the male hero from their quest, but this temptation doesn’t have to be seductive–maybe the hero is faced with homesickness, or they’re offered an easy out instead of having to face more suffering.
Atonement with the Abyss Stage - where the hero must confront the core of the conflict. In Star Wars, this is the final showdown with Darth Vader, where Luke learns the truth about his lineage. Lord of the Rings, this is when Frodo finally gets to Mordor and has to get the ring into the fire. In romances, this would be the darkest hour where a character experiences some conflict that threatens their relationship.
Apotheosis Stage - where the hero overcomes the Abyss, and their takeaway helps them fight in the final conflict. This might be quick–in Star Wars, Luke finds out that Darth Vader is his father and converts him to the light side in one sequence. In a romance like Pride and Prejudice, this is where Elizabeth learns that Darcy has actually been helping Lizzy’s family behind the scenes and saving their family from dishonor, all out of love for her.
The Ultimate Boon Stage - the climax of the story! The character finally defeats the villain, conquers their fears, and unlocks key information about themselves in the process. This is where the Death Star explodes, where Sauron falls, and where Darcy and Elizabeth finally confess their feelings to one another.
Again, we don’t need to include each of those story beats in our own work, nor do we need to have them in that order. Maybe a character is tempted away from the plot before facing a set of trials, and maybe the character is never tempted away from the plot at all. The thing all of these beats have in common, and the overall takeaway from this section, is that the Initiation is where the hero is plunged into the new, unfamiliar world and must learn to navigate that world and rise to its challenges (or fail!).
More Considerations
Keep these things in mind when you’re writing this stage:
What sorts of challenges does this new world bring to our character? Are those challenges exacerbated by the hero’s character flaws?
How will the hero overcome these challenges, or will they?
How Could the hero grow from these challenges, and how will that growth impact how they face future problems?
Will the character be changed forever by the Ultimate Boon? This is the climax of your novel and the place where all the character’s experiences and trials culminate, so it should have a big impact on them as a person, which builds on how they started out.
3. The Return
Phew! The hero has gone on the adventure of a lifetime. The Death Star is in pieces, Sauron is defeated, and Elizabeth and Darcy are in love. Now what? Novels have to have a resolution. We’ve seen the character in the place they started, and we’ve watched them grow throughout the Initiation. Now, there’s been a status quo change, and the story's world has shifted to a new normal. The hero will never be the same, and it’s important to show what this new normal looks like to really let the impact of this story sink in for the reader. The most literal version of this is to have your hero return to their starting point. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo returns to the Shire, but his experiences have changed and harrowed him so much that he can no longer fit in there. This impacts the reader because we see Frodo at the start, and we know how he used to fit in and love the Shire. But you might not have a character literally return to the exact place they started. Elizabeth moves in with Darcy since she marries him, and we see her in her new, happily married life, which is much more extravagant than the one we started out in.
HERO’S JOURNEY 12-PART STRUCTURE
(Another version using Lord of the Rings as an example)
Step 1 – The Ordinary World: The Lord of the Rings story begins, rather appropriately, in the most banal land in Middle Earth. The Shire is a pure ordinary world where nothing too much happens, and everyone lives without any idea that better or worse things exist outside its borders.
Step 2 – The Call to Adventure: It comes when Gandalf shows up in search of the One Ring. He tells Frodo a quest needs to be taken up but doesn’t give the full details.
Step 3 – Refusing the Call: This is about seeing what has to be done and deciding there has to be someone else. Frodo accepts part of the responsibility without understanding the rest.
Step 4 – Meeting a Mentor: Though Gandalf served as a Mentor in The Hobbit, Aragorn (as Strider) is the Mentor here, who brings the four hobbits together. The Mentor often brings insight, training, or purpose to a hero.
Step 5 – Crossing the Threshold: Reflects the hero facing a challenge and realizing they can make a difference. Frodo faces the barrow wraiths and rescues his friends. Later he survives the orc attack in Moria. Both thresholds show the power of gifts he received from Biblo but also hint at how friendship will play a role in his other tests.
Step 6 – Tests, Allies, and Enemies: This is a larger middle section of the Hero’s Journey, which winds through other elements. This step might not necessarily be a solid, definable moment but rather something that has been happening throughout the story until this point.
Step 7 – Approach the Innermost Circle: This is a great danger, if not the greatest danger, a hero faces. This moment in your story should be high tension (Frodo attempts to leave the group), with consequences impacting the plot points.
Step 8 – The Ordeal: The Ordeal is what takes place inside the Innermost Circle. In the wastes of Mordor, Frodo must hold out against the weight of the One Ring. It is a prolonged Ordeal but well within the idea of the step.
Step 9 – Seizing the Talisman: This is about gaining an object of power that will turn the tide for the hero. For Frodo, the specifics of the talisman are in his pity on Gollum. But this can come in other forms for your main character and other players in your story.
Step 10 – The Road Ahead: This takes the hero from the talisman to a final conflict. In this case, Frodo is betrayed by Gollum and nearly killed by Shelob, saved only by the friendship with Samwise. The consequences of Seizing the Talisman are usually a downward turn, comparable with Pinch 2 from the three-act structure.
Step 11 – Resurrection: Resurrection often involves a person or entity returning after being thought dead. Gandalf becomes a knight, Luke comes back with a mechanical hand, and Frodo fails to discard the ring and has to be attacked by Gollum. Frodo’s resurrection is being saved at the last moment by his previous good decisions, often, a resurrection succeeds because of past decisions by a hero and rarely the actions they take in that moment.
Step 12 – Return with the Elixir: Finally, the hero must return taking everything they have learned and accomplished back to the Ordinary World they once inhabited. This is often the last chapter, showing your main character returning to their life or beginning to create their new life.
Story Structure #3 - the 5 MILESTONES (using the Hunger Games)
Setup
Inciting Incident
1st Slap
2nd Slap
Climax
MILESTONE 1
The Setup: The story begins by explaining the reasons for the districts and why the Games exist and introduces Katniss as the protagonist. We know, rather quickly, that the world is dystopian and unfair, and we know the main character has the skills to make an impact.
MILESTONE 2
The Inciting Incident: It’s the kickoff to your novel's main plot and conflict. In this case, Katniss’ own sister is chosen to take part in the Games. A task she is not ready for and will likely not survive. That specific moment is the inciting incident because it leads to Katniss’s next decision. She volunteers to be the tribute. This sets the rest of the plot in motion while also anchoring the reader to the hero's motives.
MILESTONE 3
The 1st Slap: sets the stakes and introduces the larger plot. The 1st Slap is usually external, a factor within the world that must be overcome. The opening of the Games sets the stakes and shows the danger Katniss will face. The 1st Slap also makes good on the promise of adventure by putting the hero into the middle of a peril that they must escape. There is no turning back, only moving forward.
MILESTONE 4
The 2nd Slap: This takes us into the 2nd Slap. Here, we see things get worse, but we see hope on the horizon. In The Hunger Games, Katniss works out a plan to fake a relationship with Peta to get support from the outside, a means of survival. It’s a huge risk, but it offers hope. She must take the chance. Things go badly, of course, and the hope teeters her on ruin.
MILESTONE 5
The Climax: All of this creates the landscape for the final Milestone: The Climax. With the Games coming down to just Peta or Katniss, we go back to the events of the Inciting Incident and loop that motivation into how the hero wins. Frodo helps Gollum, who saves him in return (not out of good intent, but it gets us there). Katniss has a need to protect others, all her actions follow that desire. She sees a way to save Peta by threatening herself. This kind of character-driven resolution makes for a rewarding story and makes it easy to weave the details of your final victory throughout. Readers stay looped into the triumph because they root for the character because they like them, not because the plot says that they win. The secret to making a story work well is to make it come from within. A good reader can smell a setup a mile away. A good reader also loves to see a Milestone achieved.
Final thoughts on how to structure a story. With a clear story structure, readers can follow through the peaks and valleys, twists and turns, confident your roadmap will lead somewhere promising.
Reference: excerpts taken from blog posts by R.E. Vance and Gloria Russell, freelance writers for the Self-Publishing School.
John Truby’s 22 building blocks is more of a list of ingredients to make a great recipe rather than a step-by-step guide. There is some guidance here, but lots of this, especially in the first act, is about getting the fundamental elements down.
Beats
Act 1:
Self-Revelation, Need, and Desire: In the first act we learn about the protagonist’s inner psychology.
Ghost and Story World: We also learn about the world and something that haunts the protagonist.
Weakness and Need: We also learn about the protagonist’s weaknesses and what they need to feel fulfilled.
Inciting Event: This is the event that sets the story in motion.
Desire: This provides the opportunity for the protagonist venture forward for their desire.
Ally: Here they will meet an ally that will be invaluable on the journey.
Opponent and/or Mystery: But they will also meet antagonistic forces.
Fake-Ally Opponent: In addition to someone who seems like an ally at first.
First Revelation and Decision: This leads to the end of Act One where the protagonist makes a choice to venture into the second.
Act 2:
Plan: The protagonist sets out on a plan to achieve their desires.
Opponent’s Plan and Main Counterattack: But the antagonists fight back with their own plans.
Drive: Both the protagonist and antagonist fight each other.
Attack by Ally: The fake ally betrays the protagonist.
Apparent Defeat: But the protagonist fails and is apparently defeated.
Second Revelation and Decision: The hero realizes what they did wrong and is able to enter the third act with a renewed thematic knowledge.
Audience Revelation: The audience is able to understand how the hero went wrong and their relationship with the hero’s desire changes.
Third Revelation and Decision: The hero learns all they can and is now able to beat their opponent.
Act 3:
Gate, Gauntlet, Visit to Death: The hero makes a final sacrifice for their desire, going through the final test.
Self-Revelation: The hero realizes what they have been doing wrong and what they need to do to set things right.
Moral Decision: The hero acts on this new knowledge and makes a decision they would not have at the beginning of the story.
New Equilibrium: Things return to a relative state of normality. The protagonist returns changed.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
This method acts like a checklist for your story. If you’ve checked off most of the boxes in the first act then you know you have a strong foundation going forward.
There’s more structure here to work off than some of the other structures mentioned in this list. This list might work well for a writer who likes to plan a lot in advance.
Cons:
This structure may be too prescriptive for some writers as it does insist on elements that aren’t 100% essential to all stories such as the Fake-Ally opponent.
Unevenly paced. Though it does represent a lot of the groundwork that needs to be done in Act 1, this structure may not be useful to writers who struggle in the second act.
Difficulty Level: Medium
Use Case: Truby’s method is best paired with another structure, especially for beginners. If you’re more experienced the 22 Steps could prove very useful.
These 22 steps are from from Arc Studio, which collaborates with screenwriters on their story.