I'm pretty sure I've seen this, may have even written about it, but it was fresh to me today. It seemed to simplify the idea of Story Structure for me... after all I am a Pantser.
I was going through material for authors, and I came across this awesome concept teaching by MaryCarrollMoore.com; called The W Storyboard Structure (here).
I made this infograph to help me understand it.
- 1st Trigger Event (>Enter The Problem)
- 1st Turning Point (>Problem Recovery)
- 2nd Trigger Event (>Problem Worsens)
- 2nd Turning Point (> Problem Resolution)
- Climax > Resolve
1st Trigger Event (>Enter The Problem)
Introduce your Characters normal life, and then interrupt that life with a chaotic event.This event introduces a specific, problem. You can set up two problems, one minor and one major, but they need to be specific, felt from the start, and resolved at the end of the story.
This event forces your character to leave normal life. He/She cannot return to normal life until after the Resolve, if ever.
The resolution need not be what he/she wants. More on that later.
This event forces your character into reaction, a low point, and all hope will seam lost.
The following events are your character(s) reacting to the event(s) they encounter.
1st Turning Point (>Problem Recovery)
An event with conflict.This is the lowest point so far. The reacting is complete, and there is nothing left to react to. No direction, no guidance. There is an action hole.
Enter: Hope.
Some new event/conflict introduces new insight, ideas, help/assistance... and a new direction/path is lit for your character.
The character is not trying to solve the problem, not yet. The character is trying to understand the problem better. All actions taken from this point to the next point are taking each next indicated step to understand the problem.
2nd Trigger Event (>Problem Worsens)
The character has been climbing into hope, trying to understand the problem. Hoping for an answer that will eventually lead to a solution.Enter: Roadblocks
An event causes the character to loose that momentum, and slide back down a hill of defeats. They will keep loosing momentum until they fall to the very bottom of the hill.
2nd Turning Point (> Problem Resolution)
The Rock Bottom.All hope of solving this problem is gone. All efforts that looked like they would help only made things worse.
At this point, the character is resigned to his/her fate.
Enter: Hope
Then something happens to make your character hope again. A new angle, new solution, new idea, new path, something he/she hadn't thought of yet.
It's not a solution to The Problem, not yet. But it's a solution to the current pit, and it gives the character a new path to follow, trail to hunt down.
This is your character's climb back up.
Climax > Resolve
But, this problem may never be solved.
The resolution may be that your character needs to learn to adapt and live with this problem. (Permanent injury, loss of a job/wife/child, etc).
Or it may be that your character can return to his/her life, but there is a soul-wound left from these events.
The final scenes are a natural reaction to the events of the entire story, and they allow the character/reader to breath a sigh of relief... for now.
Post Credits Scene:
One final scene sets up a new issue, a new trigger event... and story two will be under a different set up covers.
Darrell
