5. The Essentials Plot Structure
Heyo writers! Are you feeling stuck on how to structure your story? How to edit that saggy middle? Don't worry, you're not alone! Plot can be one of the most challenging aspects of writing a story, but with the right tools and techniques, it can also be one of the most satisfying.
Disclaimer: This blog contains a few links to books. They are affiliate links, on which I might earn a small commission. They are great books, but you do not need them to understand the contents of this article! Onwards we go!
Two popular plot structures that we will be looking at:
Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" 15 beat method
We'll explore the beats/steps of each method, distill it down into Reece’s Essentials Plot Structure, analyse some popular stories to show how this plot is applied in practice, then talk about writing some actual stories! It might look like a lot to remember, but hang in there, my Essentials method is so EZ PZ, after a couple uses even we outliners will be able to pantzer our way through some books and have something solid come out on the other side!
First up, let's talk about Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" 15 beat method.
This method is based on the idea that in order to hook your audience, you need to make them like the main character right away. Snyder calls this moment "saving the cat," and it's usually written directly into the first scene, which often includes all 4 of the first beats as well, depending on the story. Here are the 15 beats:
Opening Image: A visual representation of the protagonist's life before the story begins.
Theme Stated: The underlying message or moral of the story is explicitly stated.
Set-Up: The background information and context of the story is established.
Catalyst: The event that sets the story in motion and propels the protagonist into action.
Debate: The protagonist struggles with whether or not to pursue their goal.
Break into Two: The point of no return, where the protagonist fully commits to their goal.
B Story: A subplot that provides additional context or develops secondary characters.
Fun and Games: The main plot progresses and the protagonist experiences a series of challenges and successes.
Midpoint: A turning point in the story where the stakes are raised and the protagonist's fate is uncertain.
Bad Guys Close In: The antagonist's efforts to stop the protagonist become more intense.
All is Lost: The protagonist experiences a major setback and believes their goal is unattainable.
Dark Night of the Soul: The protagonist reaches their lowest point and must confront their own flaws.
Break into Three: The protagonist finds a new resolve and a new approach to achieving their goal.
Finale: The climax of the story where the protagonist achieves their goal or faces their final challenge.
Final Image: A visual representation of the protagonist's life after the story ends, showing how they have changed.
If you have read my article on Powerful Prose and Seizing Scenes (which you should have if you’re in my Writing Course), you might notice a pattern in the above beats.
Points 1 through 11 look like a ‘Scene’ with:
1 through 5 acting as the Goal
4 through 8 acting as the Conflict and
9 through 11 acting as the Disaster
Points 12 through 15 look like a ‘Sequel’ with
12 acting as the Reaction
12 through 14 presenting the MC with Dilemmas and
14 and 15 presenting the MC with an ultimate Decision
So yes. A plot is just one big scene. I will call this 1-2 punch the Story-Consequence. Chaining these together results in a book series, which itself will be like a… you guessed it, a big scene. The first couple books will go from goal to disaster of the big, series level problem. And the next couple books will deal with that problem by coming to terms with what has happened (reaction) and then making big decisions. This is what makes the last few books/movies in a series feel so epic - such big, consequential decisions start being made, creating immense hype for the final installment. So with that deep understanding of story, let’s take a look at John Truby’s 22 step story structure, and pick out the little diamonds in it to refine out Essentials plot.
John Truby's 22 step method
If you’d like to look deeper into this structure, I’ll make an article dedicated to it soon. You may check out John Truby’s book here as well, but for now all you need to know is what I point out in bold.
Self-revelation, need, and desire
Ghost and story world
Weakness and need
Inciting event
Desire
Ally or allies
Opponent and/or mystery
Fake-ally opponent
First revelation and decision: Changed desire and motive
Plan
Opponent’s plan and main counterattack
Drive
Attack by ally
Apparent defeat
Second revelation and decision: Obsessive drive, changed desire and motive
Audience revelation
Third revelation and decision: Changed need and desire
Gate, gauntlet, visit to death
Battle
Self-revelation
Moral decision
New equilibrium
The important bits
Ghost = Character’s deepest ‘why’ (Check out my Character Design article for details)
Story World = Worldbuilding (Check out my Worldbuilding article for details)
Inciting event = Catalyst from Blank Snyder’s Kill the Cat.
Self-revelation = When you make your character face their deepest ‘why’ head-on or burn.
In the Character Design article, I said the self-revelation is when the character accepts their deepest why and grows out of it, or it consumes them entirely (they become a villain or lose the fight)
For Plot, all you need to know about self-revelations is to make your scene such that this grow or burn hangs on a clear decision (this decision thing shows up everywhere, hey?)
For example: Jen is in shock after one day finding her ‘positive vibes’ father had hung himself. She spends the next few days going to school like normal, being happy-go-lucky, and comes home that afternoon only to ask her decaying father ‘Will he please come down now?’
Story World/Worldbuilding: Modern school life in the suburbs
Ghost/Why: Father says that if you have an optimistic outlook, everything will work out, so every hardship in her life to date is bottled up behind this false optimism
Inciting event/Catalyst: Father committed the ultimate pessimistic act, suicide.
Self-Revelation: One needs to have a balanced outlook on life, experiencing both the ups and downs. Jen accepts her father’s death and lets authorities in to take the body down.
2 more key points from John Truby
1. Moral Decision:
This is the last thing that happens in your story. This isn’t found in every story, but is present more often than not. It includes another decision by the main character (MC), this time a more thematic one.
In the Character Design article, I said the story’s themes came from our character’s deepest whys. Here is Jen’s deepest why and the theme we proposed for her story:
Deepest Why: her world view has been turned on its head. The man who had taught her to be optimistic has taken his own life.
Theme: False optimism can help one to cope sometimes, but it’s not a long-term solution to serious issues. Another one could be ‘how our worldview shapes our identity’
Moral decision for this theme: Jen seek professional help regarding her coping mechanisms and the father she thought she knew.
This helps hit our theme home and, more importantly, shows that while the self-revelation changed our character, change is a process and this process will persist after the story. It gives the story more consequence (as all hard decisions do), more meaning, and makes the characters lives feel more real no matter how fantastical our stories are.
Tie-in note: The Moral Decision happens during Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat’s ‘Closing Image’
2. Designing Principle:
This is the single most important part of your plot design. It is your compass, keeping you on course, it is your glue, keeping your story from falling apart. Luckily it is explained in a single word: the Spin of your story.
You know how everyone says all stories have already been written. Well, let me tell you something. We authors might be unwittingly rehashing stuff we’ve never seen, but I bet we’ve got a Spin on one of those rehashed stories you’ve never heard before.
Write out your spin, stick it on the top of your monitor, and look at it constantly while writing.
Example of a Spin:
Rehashed story: Kid with boring life befriends dragon and becomes hero
Skyward: Kid branded as coward finds A.I Fighter Jet with a sentience complex and becomes brave hero
‘Spin’ pun intended, if you know, you know (otherwise read Skyward, what are you waiting for?)
How to create a Spin: Just like you want to create characters who pique interest, you want to create stories that pique interest. This weight is carried by your spin. Elements you can use to come up with interesting spins
Irony - if you a writing a story with known tropes, use irony to twist the tropes and surprise your reader
Characters/Stories dealing with unconventional problems for their Upbringing/Peronality/Age/GenreWhatever.
Characters/Stories dealing with unconventional themes like moral grey areas, controversies, taboos, sins, and vices. This one is self-explanatory. Just be careful how you approach and frame these themes. Know what you’re getting yourself into before you publish.
Reece Naidu’s Essentials Plot Structure
The Story
The Consequence
That’s it.
No joke.
The last time you told your buddies about this cool or funny thing that happened at school or work, you told a STORY, then delivered the CONSEQUENCE or punchline—the interesting part, the, ‘so what?’ the reason the story was worth telling to begin with.
An event is only a story if it has consequences, whether that be a dumb joke punchline or a powerful thematic resolution.
Let’s zoom in to understand what’s happening under the hood, then we’ll condense it into the Essentials.
1. The Story
Establish a character’s everyday life showing their whys and hence the story’s theme, endearing them to the reader via a save the cat moment, hinting at your Spin on this type of story, and sprinkling in some of your Worldbuilding
Quickly introduce a CONFLICT that disrupts the everyday life and makes character act (gives them a GOAL or forces them to act on a goal they had been sleeping on)
Bring their endeavors towards that goal to its knees with a DISASTER that makes the goal feel unattainable, like all is lost.
2. The Consequence
This is a dark time for your character. Their REACTION to the disaster makes them start facing their whys head on. Subplots and side characters’ arcs can start closing here, giving the character new insights and hope. Simpler stories make the MC grow out of their deepest why here, and the MC takes their newfound strength to defeat the enemy in the climax.
Most stories leave the biggest DILEMMA for the peak of the consequence, the final, climactic battle. There, they must overcome their why or burn.
The Consequence DECISION is a two step process. One the climax decision above to overcome the why, and then the resolution’s Moral Decision to drive home the theme and consequence of your tale.
Zooming back out, here is what we get:
1. Story
Everyday life showing character’s whys and theme, Interesting Spin, and Worldbuilding
Endearing-animal saving/self-sacrificing into Disruptive conflict that forces character to strive towards a goal
Character acts towards goal until disaster strikes and all seems lost
2. Consequence
Reaction: Character feels down, doesn’t know how to act, their whys holding them back
Subplot and side characters help character understand their whys better or see the goal in a different way, presenting a Dilemma to grow or stay the same
Newfound strength makes character take final act towards goal
Dilemma: Villain forces character to face their whys and win or burn (Whys Decision)
Everyday life, showing character make Thematic Decision, close curtains.
Conclusion
With these essentials, you can tell any story, long or short. The same ideas apply to this as did to the Powerful Paragraphs and Seizing Scenes. You can leave out and imply some of these elements, but the order remains. Even if you take a snippet of the DISASTER and put it at the start of your story for quick en medias res interest, the structure still stands. It is not a formula. It is how events that matter transpire in life, it is causality, it is the human condition on paper.
Putting what we know about paragraphing, scene writing, and plotting together, we see that they are all in essence units of the same thing, just a different size. Stimuli-Reaction, Scene-Sequel, Story-Consequence
So now that we know more about story and writing than 99% of humans alive, let’s break down a story using the Essentials method so that you can study other stories as well as write your own. There will be examples for you to do after the one below—so pay close attention!—as well as model answers.
Example 1: Disney’s Lion King
1. Story
Everyday life showing character’s whys and theme, Interesting Spin, and Worldbuilding
Spin: Lions are leaders who care about animals and order, Theme: The circle of life and the responsibility of leadership to maintain it, Worldbuilding: Pride rock is shown at the start with the animals gathering to observe the new lion cub, Simba. Everyday life: Simba is shown having fun and being told he will be king one day. He thinks he strong and brave enough to be king already (Why? Because he is young and naive).
Endearing-animal saving/self-sacrificing into Disruptive conflict that forces character to strive towards a goal
Save the cat: Simba returns to save Zazu from Hyenas in elephant graveyard. We see some bravery from Simba, even though ultimately his father saves them all. This fact subtly bothers Simba, which leaves him vulnerable to the villain’s manipulation, which leads to Mufasa’s death (conflict) and Simba running away like a coward when Scar tells him to.
Character acts towards goal until disaster strikes and all seems lost
Subplot characters Timone and Pumba help Simba heal and grow, taking a break from thinking about being king by exploring an alternate theme of ‘hakuna matata, or no worries for the rest of your days. A reprieve from the ‘brave lion’ he had naively thought he was, the brave lion he had failed to be. But a ghost from his past finds him and tells him that Scar is king, the circle of life is out of balance, there’s no food or water, so he needs to come back
2. Concequence
Reaction: Character feels down, doesn’t know how to act, their whys holding them back
Simba is forced to face the past. He was not ready to be king then, and only made things worse.
Subplot and side characters help character understand their whys better or see the goal in a different way, presenting a Dilemma to grow or stay the same
Timone and Pumba vs Nala present Simba with a decision: Life of no worries vs his responsibilities. Mufasa’s ghost (or Rafiki’s illusion) tells Simba to remember who he is: son of Mufasa, 1st in line, the true king
Newfound strength makes character take final act towards goal
Simba decides that he has to go back
Dilemma: Villain forces character to face their whys and win or burn (Whys Decision)
Simba sees the destruction Scar has brought, so confronts him (this story has its main dilemma prior to the climax, the big climax reveal is instead Simba finding out and forcing Scar to admit to the pride that he killed Mufasa)
Everyday life showing character make Thematic Decision, close curtains.
Simba is presented with the option to kill Scar or let him live. He decides not to be a murderer like Scar and tells him to run, as Scar had told him. This decision of mercy shows that Simba is a good leader, like his father.
We then see that under Simba’s rule, the Pride Lands is restored to the lush greens from the start of the story, and we close mirroring the beginning by showing Simba’s son being presented on Pride Rock to animals of the kingdom. That’s the circle of life.
And that’s it! Here are some examples for you to try!
Example 2: Netflix’s Arcane (Or any story you know)
Example 3: Your own Story (Something new or something you’re trying to edit)
You can download the Essentials Template and more by signing up to my Newsletter below!
The example model answer is available at my Patreon, where you can get direct feedback from me on your answers. You can also ask me questions about these plot structures directly! Check it out here!
Happy writing!
Reece Naidu
