Breaking Down Story Units for Novels

writing
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When it comes to structuring your story, I would first start with the four signposts from each Throughline, and then the Story Drivers. So you might have:

OS: Past - Progress - Future - Present
MC: Doing - Learning - Obtaining - Understanding
IC: Conceptualizing - Being - Becoming - Conceiving
RS: Subconscious - Preconscious - Conscious - Memory

With Five Story Drivers, weaved together it might look something like this:

  1. Initial Story Driver
  2. Past
  3. Doing
  4. Conceptualizing
  5. Subconscious
  6. Second Story Driver
  7. Learning
  8. Progress
  9. Being
  10. Preconscious
  11. Third Story Driver (Midpoint)
  12. Future
  13. Conscious
  14. Becoming
  15. Obtaining
  16. Fourth Story Driver
  17. Memory
  18. Understanding
  19. Conceiving
  20. Present
  21. Concluding Story Driver

Right there you have an awesome story. But it might be a tad anemic when it comes to fleshing out a two-hour screenplay (and even moreso if you’re writing a novel). So you’ll want to break down those individual Signposts into the Sequences that lie underneath.

For screenplays, and most stories, I suggest only doing the Overall Story Sequences. These are the sequences found in the Plot Sequence Report. The other Throughlines I only look at if I need to “cheat” and I can’t come up with something on the spot that feels right. If you’re nearing a deadline, the Sequences become your best friend. :slight_smile:

So, if we take the PSR for the Overall Story Sequences we get:

  • Past: Approach, Self Interest->Morality, and Attitude
  • Progress: Prerequisites, Strategy->Analysis, and Preconditions
  • Future: Senses, Conditioning->Instinct, and Interpretation
  • Present: Wisdom, Skill->Experience, and Enlightenment

What you do is you REPLACE the instances of the Overall Story Signposts with these Sequences. In the first Structural Act you will now have THREE beats of Past: Past in terms of Approach, Past in terms of Self-interest to Morality, and Past in terms of Attitude.

Your structure might now look something like this:

  1. Initial Story Driver
  2. Past in terms of Approach
  3. Doing
  4. Past in terms of Self-interest to Morality
  5. Conceptualizing
  6. Subconscious
  7. Past in terms of Attitude
  8. Second Story Driver
  9. Learning
  10. Progress in terms of Prerequisites
  11. Being
  12. Progress in terms of Strategy to Analysis
  13. Preconscious
  14. Progress in terms of Preconditions
  15. Third Story Driver (Midpoint)
  16. Future in terms of Senses
  17. Conscious
  18. Future in terms of Conditioning to Instinct
  19. Becoming
  20. Future in terms of Interpretation
  21. Obtaining
  22. Fourth Story Driver
  23. Present in terms of Wisdom
  24. Memory
  25. Present in terms of Skill to Experience
  26. Understanding
  27. Conceiving
  28. Present in terms of Enlightenment
  29. Concluding Story Driver

From there you might add an extra beat or two from the Main Character Throughline or the Relationship Story Throughline - whatever feels right for your story.

I’ve also found that as you get closer and closer to the end - these beats tend to weave tighter and tighter with each other, especially in comparison to where they began in the first Signpost.

With this approach you end up with 28-32 STRUCTURAL story beats from which you can start to write a treatment/master outline or even the story itself. You’ve kept the perspective of Author consistent throughout the structuring process.

Plus, it’s a ton of fun.

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