Story Structure

A couple years ago, Darcy Pattison did a series of blog posts entitled, 30-Days to Stronger Picture Book.  If you are writing a picture book, there are some great mini-lessons in these archived blog posts. And if you’re not writing a picture book, many of these posts apply to longer stories also. Studying picture books is a great way to understand everything from story structure to character.

One of the Picture Book posts was Check Your Picture Book’s Story Arc. Darcy posted the following Narrative Arc Formula, which I think also works great for all types of stories. Give it a try and see how it works for you!

Narrative Arc Formula

This is a story about ______________________________

Who more than anything else wants __________________ (Alternate: Who more than anything else fears_________________)

But can’t get it because of these complications:

1.

2.

3.

UNTIL (climax/resolution) _______________________________________.

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