The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

by Martha Alderson

Flashbacks, especially early in a story, create time disorientation.

Each scene delivers more tension and conflict than the preceding scene and builds with intensity to the story’s climax.

The protagonist’s internal conflict or fatal flaw reveals what she needs to achieve internally in order to gain the goal of the primary plot.

One technique to create depth in a story is to provide several thematically tied goals throughout the story—a romantic goal, a mystery goal, a personal goal, a political goal, a dramatic action goal, etc. Each of these creates a subplot.

At their core, stories are about character transformation. The crisis serves as a slap in the face, a wake-up call, the moment when the character becomes aware of life’s deeper meaning. Life takes the protagonist by the shoulders and shakes her until she sees life and herself as both really are.

The crisis changes her and—this is extremely important—thus destroys all roads leading forward as well. The protagonist is now trapped; both the way back and the path forward are closed. The only choice open to her is to change who she is at her core. Only by doing this will she find her way.

Events in real life often seem to occur randomly and make no sense. The Universal Story is satisfying because it gives these events structure and suggests causes for them. When we read stories in which causes are clearly traceable to effects we gain insight into how to control life by the responses we make. In other words, the Universal Story gives us hope for handling our personal lives.

cause and effect within scenes allows you to seamlessly lead the reader to each major turning point by linking the cause in one scene to the effect in the next scene. This sequencing allows the energy of the story to rise smoothly. If the sequence breaks down, scenes come out of the blue, and your story turns episodic. The reader becomes disconcerted.

Make a list of the attributes and knowledge the protagonist does not have at the beginning or middle of the story and must acquire, relearn, or rediscover in order to prevail at the end of your story.

Without cause and effect there is no plot. Without a sense of unity and causality, scenes are simply episodic occurrences. The tempo and intensity of a story becomes strident and discordant, chopped into bits and pieces.