He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled

5 Story Shapes That Will Change Your Book Forever

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Let’s talk about plot.

Plot? What’s plot?

You know. It’s the way a story moves from beginning to end.

And you think that is going to help writers?

Yeah.

I mean, everybody talks about plot.

Sure they do.

They do.

But is it the most helpful way to talk about a story?

I think so. What, you got a better one?

What about story shapes?

What in tarnation is a story shape?

Oh, my dear, dear friend.

If this is about triangles and rectangles and tomfoolery like that, I leave that to the 5-year-olds.

Do 5-year-olds write the best-selling novel of their generation? Do 5-year-olds write screenplays that make you weep? Do 5-year-olds write graphic novels that you read until the binding wears out?

Not my 5-year-old.

I’ve got 5 story structures to help you structure your novel, and you won’t wanna miss a single one.

1. The Freytag Pyramid

Have you heard of the Freytag Pyramid?

Everyone’s heard of that.

Remind me what that is.

It’s a 5-part structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

You mean the de-now-ment?

It’s French. You only pronounce a third of the letters.

Sounds like a perfume brand.

You’re not wrong.

It simply means the resolution of the story. So the Freytag Pyramid looks weird. Must be super rare, right?

Oh, yes, super rare. The only ones who use it are ones you’ve never heard of: Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet.

But how’s it work?

In the exposition section, the Montagues and Capulets are feuding, and Romeo and Juliet are slated to marry other people. Then the action rises when Romeo falls in love with Juliet, and then they marry in secret. The climax, or turning point of the story, is when Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo kills Tybalt. Then the action falls toward the ending, with Romeo killing himself because he thinks Juliet is dead, and Juliet killing herself because Romeo is dead. The resolution, or denouement as the French would say, is that the two grieving families end their feud.

That seems easy, but I feel like I would screw it up.

You probably would. I mean—

Let me give you 3 tips to help you out.

  1. Don’t take too long on the exposition. You want to get to the inciting incident, which happens just before the rising action, as quickly as possible.
  2. The climax happens in the middle, not the end. For Freytag, the climax is the turning point after which you can’t go back.
  3. This story shape works best with tragedies. If you’re writing a happy ending, you might wanna choose a different shape.

What are you doing on the roof?

It’s a common position of teaching, lecturing the thousands who yearn to hear my instruction.

It’s just me.

Look, do you want to learn the second shape or not?

2. The 7-Point Plot Structure

The second shape is the 7-Point Plot Structure. It’s simpler than some of the other ones we’ll discuss, but it works fantastically.

I love the snake shape. Can we call this one the snake?

No.

Please?

Hard pass. More undulation than serpentine anyhow.

Hmm?

A good story to understand the 7-Point Plot Structure is Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

You start with a hook. This is the premise of the story — Luke Skywalker works on his uncle and aunt’s moisture farm on Tatooine.

Here is plot 0.1. Luke chases after R2-D2, meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, and hears Princess Leia’s distress call.

And here is the first pinch. Luke doesn’t want to help Obi-Wan, but then Imperial soldiers slaughter his family.

At the midpoint of this story, he teams up with Han Solo to rescue Princess Leia.

The second pinch is key. Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan, Luke’s mentor, which is devastating.

And in the second plot turn, which is the climax, Luke attacks the Death Star and destroys it, just like bullseyeing womp rats back home.

The resolution is the medal ceremony, and it’s a happy ending.

What’s the difference between a pinch and a plot point?

Great question. Pinch points are outside events that force your character to take action. Plot points are actions that your character takes.

I think I got this.

I appreciate your confidence, but here are 2 very common mistakes:

  1. Forgetting character arcs. These are just as important as plot arcs. For instance, Han Solo is a rogue and an anti-hero, but he proves he’s a decent guy by coming back at the last second to save Luke.
  2. Missing the subplot. Don’t forget to include a subplot in your story. Luke’s journey to learn the Force is one of the strongest subplots in Star Wars.

This is all amazing stuff.

Oh, I know. Let’s move on to the third story shape, the Snowflake.

3. The Snowflake

Oh.

The advantage of the Snowflake is that it’s the most natural and organic way of structuring a book.

You start by writing a single-sentence pitch that captures the story in a nutshell.

Ooh, I’ll try. When a young orphan discovers he’s a wizard, he’s whisked away to a magical school.

I think that’s been written.

Next, you expand the sentence into a full paragraph. It’s a good idea to have it be 4 parts: 3 disasters and an ending.

Next, write a paragraph answering these questions for your major characters:

  1. What does this character want, and why?
  2. What stops this character from getting what they want?
  3. How does this character change by the end?

But where does the plotting happen?

Character journeys are plots. But to make it feel more plot-centric for you, take that paragraph and expand it into a full page. Include all the obstacles in your hero’s way, and include the ending. And once you’re done, you have an outline for your book.

I think I was close.

You sure were.

4. The Story Embryo

The 4th story shape is the Story Embryo.

Why are you in a hammock?

It’s embryonic, like I’m in a womb. Get it?

For the Plot Embryo, you start at You and you progress clockwise around the circle. For this example, let’s use Harry Potter.

I’ve heard of him.

  1. You. Harry is an orphan living in a world of Muggles.
  2. Want. He learns he’s a wizard and wants to be trained.
  3. Go. He goes to Hogwarts.
  4. Search. He adapts by learning magic, makes friends, finds a mentor.
  5. Find. He joins the Quidditch team and finds success.
  6. Take. He comes face to face with Voldemort.
  7. Return. He returns to the Muggle world.
  8. Change. Harry’s now confident knowing his wizard powers.

This is my favorite so far. I think I’m gonna use it.

You like it because you’re a Potterhead.

5. Save the Cat

Now it’s time for the fifth and final story shape. This one is called Save the Cat.

It looks like a rollercoaster.

To the untrained eye, yes.

And why is it called Save the Cat?

That refers to a good act that the hero does at the beginning of the story. The hero could give money to the homeless, help an old woman cross the street, or save a cat.

Mm, I’m more of a dog person.

In that case, I guess we’ll skip this one.

No, wait. I’m interested.

Hmm. I thought so. And you won’t regret it. This is the most detailed story shape we’ve covered so far, with over 15 separate parts. Now, Save the Cat was originally written for screenwriters, but it works just as well for novelists. And the story example we’re going to use for this one is The Matrix.

  1. The opening image. This is a cursor blinking on the screen, a symbol that reality is controlled by computers.
  2. Set up. We see Trinity bending the rules of physics and agents chasing after her.
  3. Theme stated. Neo is told he looks tired and needs to unplug. The whole movie is about plugging in or unplugging.
  4. Catalyst. This is also known as the inciting incident, and this is when Trinity tells Neo that he’s in danger.
  5. Debate. This is when the hero doubts whether he should go on this journey. This is when agents come to Neo’s building, but he doesn’t take Morpheus’s advice to escape.
  6. Break into 2. This is when your hero chooses to go on the journey. Neo chooses the red pill instead of the blue pill.
  7. B story. A subplot is essential. The subplot in The Matrix is about Trinity and Neo’s love story.
  8. Fun and games. Stories should be fun. Here, we see Neo training in martial arts and jumping off skyscrapers.
  9. The midpoint. This is when Neo goes to the Oracle to see if he’s the One.
  10. Bad guys close in. The team is betrayed by Cypher, and agents capture Morpheus.
  11. All is lost. Morpheus is being tortured by agents to reveal the location of Zion.
  12. Dark night of the soul. Neo and Trinity realize they have to kill Morpheus.
  13. Break into 3. Neo instead decides to save Morpheus, which seems impossible.
  14. Finale. Neo takes on the agents and wins.
  15. Final image. Neo flies like Superman.

Won’t my story seem formulaic if I shove them into this shape?

You would think that, but they won’t. Save the Cat is a little bit prescriptive, but it will give you an excellent outline for your story.

I just have one final question. Will I write better if I get a pipe, glasses, and a newsies cap?

Obviously.

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Related posts:

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