THE STORY PARADIGM
Every story can essentially be broken down via the structure I’m about to provide you. It’s broad, so it’s not perfect. But in the same way if you were to describe a person and you might specify –height, weight, eye color, hair color, body shape, skin color, sound of voice, any defining marks – this is a way to define a story. And if you noticed how personality, which is the most
important aspect that draws us to a person, was left off my list, you’ll see that the most important part of a story—its uniqueness — is left off this list.
THE STORY PARADIGM
7 QUESTIONS TO ANSWER ABOUT ANY AND EVERY STORY TO
DETERMINE ITS STRUCTURE
1) Who is your protagonist?
2) What do they want?
3) How do they take action to get it?
4) How does it meet with conflict?
5) How does it build to a climax?
6) What’s the resolution?
7) How is character change created (if any)?
For further clarity:
1) Protagonist means main character. Who is the hero/heroine?
2) Every story focuses on a main character’s primary want. The driving question of any story for an audience is based in will they get it? And when they do or don’t, it’s how we know the story is over.
3) If you want something, you go after it. (Or else you don’t really want it, do you?)
4) Conflict is what creates actual doubt as to whether a main character will achieve their goal. Will the hero/heroine overcome the conflict? And it’s the guessing for an audience that keeps a story interesting.
5) A story inevitably builds to a point that will provide an absolute answer as to whether the main character achieves their want or not. This point will determine the win — or the lose.
6) The direct result of the climax. Did the main character get what they want? Win or lose? Somewhere in between? What did the climax cause?
7) Almost all stories involve character change. In fact this is what drives them. Otherwise why tell them.
