5 Story Structures Every Novelist Needs to Know

In last week’s blog post, I talked about how to incorporate outlining into your novel-writing process, even if you’re a pantser.

This week, I’ll be answering a slightly different question: what kind of story structure should you use in your novel outline?

The honest answer is that it depends. There are countless shapes a story can take, and certain ones might suit your writing process better than others.

So, we’ll be looking at 5 popular story structures so you can decide which one to use for your novel.   

Why Does Story Structure Matter?

Every story contains a sequence of events. First this happens, and then that happens, and so on.

But the purpose of writing a story isn’t just to describe the sequence of the events exactly as they happened. As a writer, your job is to give meaning to that sequence of events.

What makes us care about the things that these characters are doing? Which events are important to them, and why? What does this story focus on?

“Story structure”, also called “narrative structure,” is a term we use to describe the way we arrange the events in a story to bring out connections and meaning.

Understanding how story structure works, and using that knowledge in your writing process, can help you craft a novel that resonates with your readers and feels cohesive and whole.

5 Popular Narrative Structures

There are dozens of narrative structures that writers use to compose their stories. Let’s look at 5 popular ones that are particularly useful to know.

1. Three Act Structure

The three-act structure is one of the most common story structures in mainstream Western stories. Watch any modern Hollywood movie, and it probably follows this story structure.

The three acts in the three-act structure are often referred to as Setup, Confrontation, and Resolution. You start by setting up the characters and their goals, then you introduce a core conflict for them to overcome, and finally, you show them overcoming that conflict and growing as a result.

This is one of the most intuitive story structures to use when you’re writing a novel, because we’re used to thinking about stories in three parts. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, so it feels very natural to divide your stories into three.

It’s useful if you’re looking for an intuitive outlining method that doesn’t feel too prescriptive or formulaic. Within each act, it still gives you a lot of freedom to decide what should happen in your story.   

2. Four Act Structure (Kishōtenketsu)

Kishōtenketsu is an East Asian story structure that works very differently from most Western stories.

That’s because it doesn’t rely on a core conflict to drive the story forward, the way most Western stories do. Instead, it follows characters who experience a series of events, which eventually leads to a twist in the third act that fundamentally shifts the story.

The four acts are ki (the introduction), shō (the development), ten (the twist), and ketsu (the conclusion).

This narrative structure originated in ancient Chinese four-line poetry. You’ll also commonly see it in Korean literature and Japanese storytelling, including anime movies like My Neighbor Totoro and Your Name. Kishōtenketsu is a fantastic option to try if you want to create a story that is less conflict-driven than the ones we usually see in the West.

3. Freytag’s Pyramid

Freytag’s Pyramid was developed by Gustav Freytag, a German novelist from the 1800s. It’s one of the oldest official story structures out there, and it’s still commonly taught in high school English classes.  

This structure consists of five steps: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In this story structure, the climax occurs in the middle of the pyramid, unlike the climax in more modern plot structures, which usually falls around 90-100% mark.

Freytag developed this story structure by looking at stories in classical literature, such as Shakespearean plays. So, if you want your story to have an old-school feeling, this might be an interesting option to play with.

4. The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is a twelve-step story structure made famous by Joseph Campbell in a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell claimed that these twelve steps can be found in heroic stories from mythologies around the world.

The twelve steps are split into three parts: Departure, Initiation, and Return. Essentially, a hero leaves his ordinary world to follow the call of adventure, undergoes various trials and tribulations, and eventually returns home after having completed his quest.

This narrative structure is a useful one if you’re writing about a story with an individual hero who goes on a journey. You’ll often see this structure used in fantasy and science fiction, though it can occur in other genres as well.

5. The Save the Cat Beat Sheet

The Save the Cat beat sheet is a story structure developed by Blake Snyder. It was originally made for screenwriters, but it can be used by any kind of writer. There’s also a book called Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody that you can check out if you want to see how this works for novelists.

Save the Cat includes 15 story beats, which makes it one of the most detailed options in our list. It even tells you the location where each beat should occur within your story.

So, if you’re looking for an outlining method that will give you detailed guidance about what should happen when, Save the Cat is a great option to consider.

Don’t Be Afraid to Mix and Match

When it comes to story structure, there’s no one-size-fits-all option. Every writer has their own preference, and some writers even use a different structure for each book they write.

The narrative structure I used for the novel that got me my literary agent, for example, is actually a different one from the one I’m using for the novel I’m drafting now. It’s always okay to mix and match.

What’s your favorite story structure? Let me know in the comments.

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I’m Hannah Yang, and I’m a full-time author. Every Monday, I publish a new blog article about writing craft tips, my writing process, or my journey to publication. Share this article if it resonated with you, and subscribe if you want to see more!