When you start out writing one of the most productive things you can do is study story structure. Seriously, using structure feels like a hack - doesn’t matter what structure you use, but having a structure will help you plan, execute and perfect your stories in record time.

Personally, I’m a huge advocate for three act structure and the story circle (more on that a little later). I also know plenty of writers who have had success with save the cat and five act structure.

Below you’ll find an intro to basic story structure principles. Toward the end of the blog I’ll introduce you to the aforementioned Story Circle. For my money it’s the most straightforward and simple story structure tool out there.

Alright, let’s jump in.

Why Some Writers Reject Structure

There's plenty of writers who claim that structure is limiting and dogmatic, discounting any benefits of using it. The core argument usually revolves around the idea that being beholden to a structure stifles story flow.

To me, this perspective fundamentally misunderstands what structure is. This view positions structure as a limitation; something you can opt in or out of, that ultimately restricts your options.

In reality, structure isn’t something you choose. It inherently exists in all stories. Understanding this will actually allow your ideas to evolve into stories more freely and more organically.

Joseph Campbell and the Secret Language of Stories

This idea that structure is present in all stories isn’t my idea (although I’ll endeavour to explain it the best I can). It comes from mythologist Joseph Campbell, building heavily off the works of Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Jung.

At the risk of being reductive, Campbell compared world religions and belief systems to see what their stories had in common. What he found was that almost all of them contain the same structure.

He called this ‘The Hero's Journey’.

The Hero’s Journey

Campbell broke down the hero’s journey into 17 distinct stages that act as story beats.

These are:
1. The call to adventure
2. Refusal of the call
3. Meeting the mentor
4. Crossing the first threshold
5. Belly of the whale
6. The road of trials
7. Meeting the goddess
8. Women as temptress
9. Atonement with the father
10. Apotheosis
11. The ultimate boon
12. Refusal to return
13. The magic flight
14. Rescue from without
15. The crossing of the return threshold
16. Master of two worlds
17. Freedom to live

The Problematic Parts of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey

If you're a woman or AFAB person you probably read the ‘women as temptress’ beat and cringed. This is very fair.

Without wading too much into the muck, I just wanted to acknowledge the problematic nature/ ideas inherently baked into the hero's journey. That doesn’t mean the hero's journey isn’t useful but it does mean we should keep Campbell’s prejudices in mind and throw out the problematic elements.

Simplifying the Hero’s Journey

Here are what I see as the three main useful take-aways from Campbell’s understanding of story:

1. Something Has to Pull your Protagonist Out of their World of Comfort
Something out of your protagonist’s control needs to happen that pulls them out of their normal, everyday life. Without this, there’s no conflict which means no story.

Campbell called it the ‘Call to Adventure’. In screenwriting it’s known as the ‘Inciting Incident’.

2. Your Protagonist Must Venture into the Unknown
All stories consist of two distinct worlds: the world of order and the world of chaos. Sometimes these are literal (think fantasy and sci-fi), sometimes they’re metaphorical.

The world of order is where your protagonist starts; it’s a world they know and feel comfortable in. The world of chaos is the strange new world they get thrown into. In order to conquer the world of chaos, change must occur.

3. Your Protagonist Must Change
All stories are about change. All of them.

In order to rise to the challenge in front of them your protagonist must change. They must adapt. They must get better, or sometimes, worse.

The notable exception to this is a flat arc, where characters fight to stay the same. This Is best on display in movies like Paddington or Gladiator. In the case of these stories, instead of the hero changing, the world around them changes.

Regardless, change is key.

Structure as Revelation

Returning to my core idea, Campbell didn’t invent anything. What he did was discover what was already there: the DNA inherent in the stories humans tell.

Modern narratives may have refined this formula. They have made it more sophisticated. However, at its core it is still largely the same.

This is why structure is so important. It reveals to us the beats all the stories humans tell possess. Structure is the ebb and flow present in all the narratives we have spent our lives ingesting.

When creating your own stories you can choose to embrace and honour these beats.
Alternatively, you can choose to subvert them, surprising your reader. The only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

This will leave your reader feeling unsatisfied. Like something is missing that they can’t quite put their finger on.

The Dan Harmon Story Circle

There’s a lot of storytelling structures out there, but I’m yet to find one more straightforward than the story circle.

Created by Dan Harmon, the story circle essentially streamlines Campbell's principles into 8 cyclical steps.

These are:

1. You
Your character starts in a zone of comfort and control-

2. Need
-but, something is missing from their lives. They need something.

3. Go!
So, they enter an unfamiliar situation to go after it.

4. Search
They encounter, and overcome trials until-

5. Find
-They finally find what they're looking for…

6. Take
..but,to get it they have to make a big sacrifice.

7. Return
Your character returns to their zone of comfort-

8. Change
- having been forever changed.

To get a feel for the story circle you can watch this quick tutorial by Dan Harmon himself.

The real boon of the story circle is its uncanny ability to break through writer’s block. This tool really does help you identify and address what needs to happen next in your story.

The Dan Harmon Story Circle, the Hero’s Journey and the Basics of Story Structure