How to Use Narrative Structure in Your Writing

Narrative structure—which incorporates storyline and plotline—is the organizational framework of a story. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. When all three of these story sections are individually compelling yet also work well in concert with each other, the resultant narrative is smooth and compelling.

Over time, novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters have developed specific ways to frame a narrative. These narrative techniques vary in how they present a sequence of events, but each framework has proven to be a useful tool for writers. Here are five particularly powerful templates for a story’s plot structure:

1. 1. Linear plot structure: In a book, play, movie, or TV episode with a linear plot structure, events are presented in chronological order. This doesn’t mean characters can’t recall the past—for instance, the main character might recall the past in a flashback—but any non-chronological elements are clearly identified as such. The majority of fictional works use a linear plot structure. Writers like Dan Brown and Margaret Atwood use linear plots to great effect.
2. 2. Nonlinear plot structure: In this story structure, plot events are introduced outside their chronological sequence. The first scene of a nonlinear book or movie might actually be the last thing that happens chronologically. Stories told out of order can confuse an audience at first, but they can be quite rewarding when the story reaches its denouement and plot threads are tied together. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is a famously nonlinear story. Writers like Joyce Carol Oates and William Faulkner are similarly acclaimed for nonlinear narratives.
3. 3. Parallel plot structure: In a parallel plot structure, multiple storylines unfold concurrently. Sometimes they intersect—as in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities—and sometimes they do not—as in Nathaniel Rich’s The Mayor’s Tongue.
4. 4. Circular plot structure: In this structure, the story ends where it began, as events eventually lead back to the imagery, event, or actual scene that launched the tale. Circular plot structures exist in all levels of writing, from Cynthia Rylant’s Long Night Moon to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.
5. 5. Interactive plot structure: In an interactive plot structure, the story adjusts to the whims of the reader or viewer. One such example is the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children’s books, where readers experience varying storylines depending on which page they turn to.

Stories that adhere to three act structure typically start with a period of exposition followed by an inciting incident and a turning point. After this first act, the second act follows the character’s journey through a midpoint crisis to a second turning point. The third act builds to a climax and culminates in a denouement. This is a popular way to tell a particular type of story that theorist Joseph Campbell termed “the hero’s journey.” The inciting incident is a call to action for the story’s main character, who will then—via the story’s rising action and climax—rise to the role of a hero.

A Fichtean Curve is a narrative structural device that employs three principal components: rising action, climax, and falling action.

1. 1. Rising action: The Fichtean Curve immediately drops its main character into the rising action. Character development, world building, backstory, and exposition all occur as the rising action builds to a climax. This structure manages to do all this by pitting the protagonist against a series of crises. Each crisis functions as a key plot point—a call to adventure or inquiry or heroism that the main character may initially resist but ultimately accept. Typically the final crisis serves as the turning point that shifts the main character’s course of action.
2. 2. Climax: The climax of a Fichtean Curve falls approximately two thirds of the way through the story. The protagonist has reached a point of no return such that they must either confront the core conflict head-on or face the consequences of failure. In a traditional Fichtean Curve narrative structure, the protagonist will prevail, which then leads to a falling action.
3. 3. Falling action: This section of the story ties up loose ends and answers any questions that may linger from the beginning of the story. Most importantly, it completes the protagonist’s character arc, establishing what may be a new normal going forward. If, by the end of the story, the main character exhibits a different personality or point of view, it must be established by this point in the narrative arc.

Seven-point story structure is a variation on Campbell’s classic “hero’s journey” film or novel structure. Created by the author Dan Wells, the seven-point fiction writing process should start with you deciding how you want the narrative arc to end and then building backward. Once you’ve figured out the end, you build a plot structure that provides a satisfying path toward that end. Seven-point story structure templates contain the following key touchpoints:

1. 1. An opening hook: The hook draws in the reader and has them invested from the very first chapter.
2. 2. Plot point one: This is effectively an inciting action. Think of the tornado sweeping Dorothy into Oz, where she’ll meet close allies as well as a wicked witch.
3. 3. Pinch point one: This is where something goes wrong for the protagonist, such as when Harry Potter inadvertently locks Hermione in the bathroom with a troll.
4. 4. Midpoint: The midpoint is where the protagonist changes course. In a hero’s journey tale, this is where the main character accepts a call to duty, such as in Star Wars when Luke agrees to take on Darth Vader and the menacing Death Star.
5. 5. Pinch point two: The second pinch point is another setback for the protagonist—often where all seems lost—like in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo is assaulted by Gollum in Mordor and temporarily succumbs to the ring.
6. 6. Plot point two: This is where obstacles are overcome in a climax, like James Bond letting Agent 006 fall to his death in Goldeneye.
7. 7. Resolution: The resolution is where the main character’s arc comes to an end and a new normal is established.

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