--- title: Story Structure description: Story structure is the framework used to organize narrative events into a cohesive plot. Learners will understand how to sequence beats, manage tension, and apply various structural models to build a satisfying narrative arc from beginning to end. category: literature-writing subcategory: creative-writing difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/story-structure --- # Story Structure Story structure is the framework used to organize narrative events into a cohesive plot. Learners will understand how to sequence beats, manage tension, and apply various structural models to build a satisfying narrative arc from beginning to end. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 1 Courses • 4 Websites • 1 Papers ## Courses ### 1. Aaron Sorkin Teaches Screenwriting Master dialogue like Sorkin! Learn his screenwriting secrets for crafting compelling conversations that captivate your audience. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.masterclass.com/classes/aaron-sorkin-teaches-screenwriting **Tags:** screenwriting, dialogue, aaron-sorkin, intention-and-obstacle, rewriting ## Papers ### 1. The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes **Author:** Andrew J. Reagan, Lewis Mitchell, Dilan Kiley, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds Peer-reviewed study applying sentiment analysis to 1,327 Project Gutenberg novels, finding six recurring emotional arc shapes. Tests Vonnegut's story-shapes claim with matrix decomposition, clustering, and supervised learning, and relates arc type to download counts. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0093-1 **Tags:** emotional-arcs, sentiment-analysis, narrative-structure, computational-literary-studies, story-shapes ## Books ### 1. Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story **Author:** John Yorke Yorke, a former BBC drama executive, reconciles three-act, five-act, and monomyth models into a single shape and argues why narratives take it, drawing on psychology and examples from Macbeth to Mad Men. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1468310941?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** story-structure, five-act-structure, screenwriting, narrative-theory, dramatic-writing ### 2. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting **Author:** Syd Field Syd Field's widely used screenwriting textbook, taking a script from initial concept through character, structure, scene construction, and dialogue to a finished draft. Readers learn to shape a story idea, outline acts and sequences, and lay out pages in standard format. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0440576474?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** screenwriting, screenplay-structure, story-structure, character-development, dialogue ## Websites ### 1. How to Write a Movie — Craig Mazin (Scriptnotes 403 transcript) **Author:** Craig Mazin Transcript of Craig Mazin's argument that structure cannot be imposed by beat sheets but emerges from a character's relationship to a central dramatic argument. Includes his critique of common script diagrams and worked examples. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://johnaugust.com/2019/scriptnotes-ep-403-how-to-write-a-movie-transcript **Tags:** screenwriting, story-structure, dramatic-argument, character-arcs, theme ### 2. Dan Harmon — Story Structure 101–106 (Channel 101 Wiki) **Author:** Dan Harmon Dan Harmon's essay series laying out his eight-step story circle, a compressed adaptation of the monomyth built for short-form television. Six installments move from the basic circle to act breaks, character need, and pilot construction. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit **Tags:** story-circle, story-structure, monomyth, television-writing, screenwriting ### 3. Aristotle, Poetics (Butcher translation) **Author:** Aristotle The earliest surviving analysis of dramatic structure, defining plot as the arrangement of incidents and introducing reversal, recognition, and unity of action. Butcher's translation, complete and free, in the MIT Internet Classics Archive. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html **Tags:** aristotle, poetics, dramatic-structure, tragedy, classical-literary-theory ### 4. scriptmag.com Script Magazine is an online publication for screenwriters featuring craft-focused articles, interviews with industry professionals, and practical resources like sample scripts and market news to help you write, develop, and pitch your projects. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://scriptmag.com **Tags:** websites, personal-development, communication --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/story-structure