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Story structure

Story structure or narrative structure is the recognizable or comprehensible way in which a narrative's different elements are unified, including in a particularly chosen order and sometimes specifically referring to the ordering of the plot: the narrative series of events, though this can vary based on culture. In a play or work of theatre especially, this can be called dramatic structure, which is presented in audiovisual form. Story structure can vary by culture and by location. The following is an overview of various story structures and components that might be considered.

"Dramatic Structure" redirects here. For the 1973 book by Jackson G. Barry, see Dramatic Structure: The Shaping of Experience.

Definition[edit]

Story is a sequence of events, which can be true or fictitious, that appear in prose, verse or script, designed to amuse or inform an audience.[1] Story structure is a way to organize the story's elements into a recognizable sequence. It has been shown to influence how the brain organizes information.[2] Story structures can vary culture to culture and throughout history. The same named story structure may also change over time as the culture also changes.

Spring myths are , that is, stories that lead from bad situations to happy endings. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is such a story.

comedies

Summer myths are similarly fantasies such as Dante's Paradiso.

utopian

Fall myths are that lead from ideal situations to disaster. Compare Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear and the movie Legends of the Fall.

tragedies

Winter myths are ; for example, George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ayn Rand's novella Anthem.

dystopias

Linear narrative is the most common form of narration, where events are largely portrayed in a chronological order telling the events in the order in which they occurred.

disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique where events are portrayed out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern.

Nonlinear narrative

refers to a work where the linear narrative is driven by, rather than influenced by, the user's interaction.

Interactive narration

is a form of fiction in which users are able to make choices that influence the narrative (for example, through alternative plots or resulting in alternative endings) through their actions.

Interactive narrative

Graphic narrative[edit]

A simple graphic narrative, such as in comics, has four stages: an introduction of the characters and a description of a situation; the introduction of a problem, unexpected opportunity, or other complication into the situation; a resolution in the form of a partial or complete response to the problem by one or more of the characters; and the denouement, the aftermath of the response that makes clear the success, partial success, non-success, or uncertain success of the response. This fourth stage may also show how the original situation has changed due to what has taken place in the Complication and Resolution stages of the narrative.[24]


In a simple narrative, the four stages appear in order. That is, the sequence of the telling or presentation follows the chronology of the told. In a more complex story, the order of the telling may vary. For instance, such a story may begin with the Denouement and then present the Situation, Complication, and Resolution in a flashback. But this is not the case with a simple narrative.[25]

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

List of story structures

Narratology

as the basic unit of narrative structure

Narreme

Non-narrative film

Rising action

Rule of three (writing)

Screenwriting

Suspense

The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers