Maybe some books made you weep with sadness, while others had you laughing aloud to yourself at two in the morning. Maybe some books inspired you to pursue your passions, while others shattered your innocence. Maybe you read books that changed your life, and others that made no impression at all.
Keep books of similar size and height together to give your collection a clean, uncluttered feel. The goal here is to create straight, even lines with the tops of your books — no staggered mountaintop rows allowed. This method works best if you have a diverse collection of old and new books. You can define contemporary and classic however it suits you: living and deceased authors, books written before and after a certain date, or books published in specific time periods.
This is another way to limit visual clutter on your bookshelves. Keep your torn, tattered, and weather-faded books all in one place, and your books with beautiful, well-kept covers in another. Rising action : This second stage is where you introduce the primary conflict and set the story in motion. Each succeeding event should be more complicated than the previous, creating tension and excitement as the story builds. Climax : This is the turning point in the story—the point of the highest tension and conflict.
Falling action : In this stage, the story begins to calm down and work toward a satisfying ending. Loose ends are tied up, explanations are revealed, and the reader learns more about how the conflict is resolved. Although you can vary it slightly, your story should follow this basic structure.
The 3 Act, 8 Sequence structure is used by both authors and screenwriters alike to develop an engaging storyline. Sequence 2 — Predicament and Lock-In: Sets up the central conflict of the story and the main character accepts the call to action. Sequence 3 — First Obstacle: The character faces the first obstacles toward reaching their goal, building the tension and putting them at a point of no return.
Sequence 5 — Rising Action: Continue to raise the stakes for your main character, usually with a subplot of some sort that builds up to the main conflict. Sequence 6 —Biggest Obstacle: The main conflict or the highest point of tension in your story. This should be the most difficult moment for your character, so make it count.
Sequence 7 — Twist: Here, your character deals with the remnants of the main conflict or realized a new goal they have to achieve. As you can see, this narrative structure follows a very similar pattern as the basic five-element framework, but it can provide you with a little more information and guidance as you work to build out your plot.
The second component to creating a narrative structure is the process of how your main character will develop and change from the beginning to the end of your story. While a good story will have both a plot and character arc, most are driven primarily by one or the other. On the other hand, character-driven stories will feature more emotional arcs.
These stories aim to answer an internal question, such as J. Many stories that seem plot-driven on the surface have very strong character arcs running through them.
As long as your character has a strong desire or motivation to drive them , and that motivation plays a role in the plot, you have a character arc. Ultimately, character-driven narrative structures fall into three categories: positive, negative, and static.
Positive narrative arcs are when throughout the story, the main character overcomes a flaw, fear, or false belief and ultimately becomes a better person by the end. Negative narrative arcs occur when the main character holds some sort of flaw, desire, or false belief that ultimately leads to their downfall. As you can see, these character arcs easily fall in-line with the plot narrative structure.
Some books even tend to have multiple characters experiencing different character arcs on top of the plot structure. First, try to decide if your story will be mostly plot-driven or character-driven.
If you feel stuck, use these questions to help you figure it out:. This exercise is merely to help you understand which of the two takes precedence in your story—not which one you follow and which one you ignore.
Often, the decision between a plot-driven or character-driven story will come down to personal preference. Which is most appealing to you? When your focus is on plot, you should pay special attention to the events that will occur in your story. Plot-driven narratives are exciting, action-packed , and fast-paced. They compel the reader to keep reading just to find out what will happen next.
When writing a plot-driven story, make sure all your plot points tie together seamlessly to create a full narrative structure. Character-driven narratives tend to focus more on internal conflicts than external ones, such as the internal or interpersonal struggle of the character s. Finally, at the end of every writing project, spend a few minutes filing your work so you can find what you need, when you need it. Bryan Collins helps writers become authors. Get his Writing Prompts for free and kickstart your writing today.
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