"It's impossible to know all of them … but be aware of the most common ones, and how to analyze and use a data structure in the context of what you're trying to do," Wengrow said. If the peaks are all near the beginning with none left for the end, they’ll tell their friends the ride was boring. Sometimes people burst into tears in the middle of an otherwise innocuous conversation, or suddenly reverse their course through the library. It’s an internalization. Structure is nothing more than a way of looking at your story material in an organized fashion that’s both logical and dramatic. As an example, letâs look at Harry Potter and the Philosopherâs Stone (or Sorcererâs, if you have the American version instead of the British). And the Resolution The order in which you tell your story determines how effectively you create drama, intrigue, and tension, all designed to grab readers from the start and keep them to the end. But when was the last time you saw an office drone on the subway reading The Metamorphosis? Structural engineering is crucial because it directly impacts the safety and durability of buildings and structures. If you have too many peaks without enough gentle bumps, people will throw up. This applies not just to the flight speed of un-laden swallows, but also to fiction. View mdellert.author’s profile on Facebook, View @MdellertDotCom’s profile on Twitter, View michaeldellert’s profile on Pinterest, View Michael Dellert’s profile on LinkedIn, The Wedding of Eithne (Signed Print Edition), The Wedding of Eithne (Amazon Print Edition), Spectacular Settings: The Hills of the Cailech (WEP Entry). A solid foundation is essential. There are two important plot points. What is story structure? Hagrid, of course, tracks him down and reveals all to Harry with the famously quote âYer a wizardâ. This is intentional. Conversely, we often see actions that warrant, indeed demand a reaction, and yetâ nothing happens. This is the first game-changer as the event that rocks your main characterâs world. That might require some internalization presented to the reader, like so (internalization in bold): “Joe grabbed the hot pan with his bare hands. In this lesson for students in second or late first grade, teachers help students explore the concepts of beginning, middle, and ending by reading a variety of stories and charting the events on storyboards. The structure you choose for your storyshould help you align and sequence: 1. They want you to deliver on the promise that you set up in Act 1 and made them chase through Act 2. It seems nearly impossible for the human being to resist becoming enthralled with their own power, and that’s usually when bad things happen, and the need to keep those things under wraps takes over and wreaks havoc. Harry gets his own wand, meets the wizarding community, runs into antagonist Draco, locates Platform 9 ¾, travels to Hogwarts, makes his first true friend in Ron, gets sorted into Gryffindor, has magic lessons, and rides his first broomstick. “Structure is a selection of events form the characters’ life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse the specific emotions and to express a specific view of life. The two interrelate, but they’re not quite the same. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Harry fights bravely and is successful in preventing Quirrell from taking the stone. Keeping the audience on the edge of their seat is crucial for any narrative to work properly. The metal you build your track from has to withstand the weather and heat. Harry discovers the three-headed dog guarding the mysterious package from vault 713, fights a troll on Halloween, nearly falls off his broomstick in his first Quidditch match, learns of Nicholas Flamel, anonymously receives an Invisibility Cloak, stumbles upon the Mirror of Erised, realises the existence of the Philosopherâs Stone, and suspects Snape of trying to steal the stone. We’ve compiled six tips and strategies for teaching story structure in ways that help boost reading comprehension skills. Still, they persevere to save the Philosopherâs Stone, using their wits and friendship to bypass the magical security measures. Ultimately, Harry must progress alone and he ventures onwards to battle the villain. After taking to the skies to get Nevilleâs Remembrall back from Draco, Harry is reprimanded by Professor McGonagall (and is subsequently made Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team! Surprisingly few people know what makes a good story or know how to explain it. Can the workings of luck, coincidence, fate, destiny, and happenstance have a place in your work? You need to understand structure in the larger elements, yes. Well, that makes perfect sense, now doesn’t it? Thankfully, it’s easier to fix the broken structure of a story than a roller-coaster. Don’t believe me? Actions must be externalâ that is, something that can be witnessed if the transaction were on a stage. Geography deals with the study of landforms and the natural phenomena on Earth. For example it is structural engineering that allows for an accurate estimation of safe weight maximums on bridges, the storm force winds a warehouse or facility can withstand, or the magnitude of tremors a skyscraper can endure during an earthquake. The structure makes all the difference in creating a narrative that is poignant and satisfying. If the character picks up a hot pan with his bare hand and doesn’t drop it, despite the evident sizzling of his own flesh? We’ve all heard the scientific maxim that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. They function right now in the story, at this instant â the thrust that requires a parry, the question that requires an answer, the lightning bolt that makes Charlotte jump out of her shoes as she contemplates that locked door. And structure has nothing to do with “cornflower blue in all the nineteens.”. The 3-Act Structure. Story structure is the key to a great script. To begin with, you need to understand how the same structural principles work on a line-by-line level in your writing. The next level of the story structure pyramid is plot points. These three elements are the base of the pyramid on which an engaging novel is built. In complicated exchanges, have you provided the reader with an explanatory internalization? Why should we study it? Reactions, too, must be external and physical. Structure in fiction is necessary for two reasons: The story structure is internal, as opposed to the form of the story, which is external. Thankfully, it’s easier to fix the broken structure of a story than a roller-coaster. 2. The reader will lose faith in your writing, and lose interest in your story. “A story event creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character that … It will take some care and patience, but the result will be worth it. Once you’re good at this as a writer, you can make most anything happen in your story. To make sure your story holds up. Both are made of wood, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same. Much of your plotting from chapter to chapter has to deal with this kind of juggling of events so that one thing leads logically to another, cause-and-effect fashion. But Act 2 needs to keep your reader turning the pages. '” That’s an example of an external reaction that connotes the surprise Bill felt internally. I grew up with the series and the first five books have loose pages from the number of times my sister and I have reread them. A good roof keeps the rain and snow out and the heat in. It is, in essence, half of your novel. For every reaction, have you provided an immediate, external reaction? It's not a formula, it's a guide. Book: By Jay Asher. Probably not recently. As with the office building, if the form of your story is a mammoth 100000 word epic, but your structure is only enough for a 65000 word romance, your story will fall in upon itself. Harry convinces the Dursleys to let him tag along to the zoo for Dudleyâs birthday, where he somehow frees a bored talking snake by making the glass vanish. For your character to fall ill, you must first establish the background (stress, exhaustion, exposure), then provide the more immediate (present story time) cause, before your character can suddenly succumb to the flu, the plague, or the walking zombie rot. But underneath most forms lies the same structure, the same unchanging principles, and the same creative laws. Developing a structure or framework for your writing will ensure that the most important points are covered at the appropriate point in the writing. And now, one final clarification. Inciting Event: Clay receives the tapes and begins listening, then goes to his friend Tony’s place and steals his cassette player. But in real life a person might fall ill for no apparent reason. He refused to let the scalding pan go, even though he could hear the sound of his own flesh sizzling.”. The truth is that a thorough understanding and use of fiction’s classic structural patterns actually liberates you from worrying about the wrong things, allowing you to concentrate your imagination on characters and events rather than on such stuff as transitions and moving chapters around, when to begin or open a chapter, whether there ought to be a flashback, and so on. And if it doesn’t, if there is no structural reason for the storm, if it doesn’t somehow advance your plot, then it’s just one of those damned things. Teaching students story structure—how to identify the structural components of a text and how those different elements interact—is a great strategy for increasing reading comprehension, close reading skills, and retention. I don’t think there is any one reason. But that’s just the rule. Novels are told from first-person and third-person (and more rarely second-person), and from omniscient points of view and limited points of view, or follow the stream-of-consciousness through one or many characters’ thoughts. Actions must be something on the stage in the story “now,” something that could be seen or heard or otherwise perceived with the senses of the audience if you were to put the exchange on a theatre stage. You must show the reactions. The first plot point separates… Your readers need structure so that they can understand this story they’re reading, and. This is where, after receiving a flurry of mysterious letters Uncle Vernon refuses to let Harry read, they find themselves in a little shack on a rock way out at sea. Act 1 sets up your storyâs world and characters in a kind of teaser for what is to come. We want visitors, so let’s try and avoid a situation where they’re trying to pull themselves out of the rubble of our weak story foundation. A story, whether it is a short story, a fictional work or a nonfiction one, must be organized according to some structure. But this is a technique best used with care. Sure. Sentence structure matters, no matter who you are. Harry and his friends are awarded house-points for their efforts, securing the win for Gryffindor in what is Harryâs best moment in life so far. Given such seemingly random meaninglessness in real life, people grow cynical, join the bad guys, or just plain give up. And there, you can see how well Rowling has structured the first book of the beloved Harry Potter series. Because honestly, yes, even the most basic action-reaction exchanges require some kind of internal messaging in the mind and body of the receiving character. In a screenplay, if you concentrate on the structural sequence of the story, you are 90% of the way to success. The story structure is internal, as opposed to the form of the story, which is external. All you have to do is figure out what caused it. Stories tend to start at the beginningâan admittedly good place to start. Your email address will not be published. General readers just won’t find it credible or interesting if it doesn’t. Your pacing should drive onwards with calm moments in between scenes of high tension for your characters to reflect and your readers to breathe. Youâve likely heard of the 3-Act structure of storytelling: Or as anyone can usually explain it: The Beginning, Middle and End. If it's important to know what you did, what happened to you, where you came from, etc, it's also important to know why other things are the way they are-- to give more context and meaning to our lives. This is most certainly a new incredible situation as Harry learns about the world that was hidden from him his whole life. And once you’ve had that particular thing happen with good reason, your next plotting step becomes infinitely simpler. The rule is that you present the internalization to the reader when necessary (between action and reaction) to make an otherwise incredible exchange understandable and believable. 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