Start here

Begin with a question about a story you know. This short route gives you enough vocabulary to read it more closely.

A first route through the ideas

1. Learn what story structure describes. Separate events from the order in which a work reveals them.
2. Meet the dramatic functions. Ask what a character does before deciding what kind of person they are.
3. Try A New Hope. See a complete mapping, including the places where labels overlap.
4. Read the limits. Keep interpretation distinct from a universal claim.

You can stop at any point and follow the related reading. There is no required order, score or completion target.

Four introductions

• What Is Story Structure?

  Structure is the arrangement that lets us follow a story’s events, anticipate consequences, and discover what those events mean.

• Why Do Stories Share Patterns?

  Shared patterns can have several explanations: transmission, recurring human problems, cognitive habits, and the choices made by an analyst.

• Media & Story Types

  A plot changes when it is spoken, performed, filmed or played. The medium helps determine what an audience can know and do.

• What This Site Will and Won’t Claim

  We teach a vocabulary for reading stories. We do not claim that every good story follows one pattern or that a useful interpretation proves a universal law.