The 4 Pillars of Story Structure

4 patterns seen across great stories

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The storyteller is both an Artist and Engineer. An Engineer to construct worlds, plots, and characters. An artist to breathe life into them.

Recently, I’ve thought a lot about the Engineer side of that equation. How do you design a good story? Why do some structures work when others don’t? Well, from what I can tell, it comes down to 4 components.

Architect Frank Gehry says, "Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness."

The same is true of writing.

But what makes stories timeless? Sure, it’s the art of the storyteller. That extra sauce. The perfect word, gesture, description in the perfect place. Though looking through the books I re-read, the movies that last well past the theater, there’s also 4 structural components that great stories tend to nail.

  • Conflict

  • Causation

  • Progression

  • Transformation

Let’s talk a bit about each.

The 4 Pillars of Story Structure

1. Conflict

Conflict is the engine of your story. It’s you (or your protagonist) versus… something. What can that something be? 

You’ve got loads of options, but I break them into 3 broad buckets:

  • You vs. Others

  • You vs. Your Beliefs

  • You vs. External Factor (Time, Money, Tech, etc)

Conflict creates tension, and tension keeps readers turning pages. It makes them ask, “What happens next?”

A line I try to keep in mind: The more your protagonist struggles, the more satisfying their eventual triumph is for the audience.

2. Causation

A story isn’t a bunch of random events tossed together.

“Sara goes to the store and then Sara sits at a red light and then Sara gets mad at another driver.” Event 1 and then Event 2… and so on.

Real life may play out like this, but stories can’t. Great storytelling is intentional. It doesn’t wander. It builds upon itself.

You need linkage between those events – Causation. Each event in a story flows naturally from what came before, like a line of dominos falling one after the other.

Here’s the best explanation of story causation I’ve found (it’s less than 3 minutes):

You may also enjoy my friend Dan’s explanation of the difference between a story, anecdote, fable, etc here.

3. Progression

You want to create a visual in the mind of your reader to show progression.

Let’s say your story centers around running out of money. Throughout, you can signpost progress. “I have $10,” “Now I have $7,” so on and so forth.

This creates a visual ticker in the mind of your reader. They can see that number getting lower as the story continues.

A good tip is to search out numbers in your story. How can you show the change in those numbers? A few examples to get you thinking:

  • Katniss faces 23 other contestants in the Hunger Games, but only 1 contestant comes out alive.

  • Harry has to hunt down and destroy 7 horcruxes.

But what if you have zero numbers? Try to create a visual with any kind of map. 

If you can tell your reader “I’m here” and “I want to go there,” they’ll visualize points A and Z. Then you update them when you’re at points F and M along the way and they’ll see you getting closer to your goal.

4. Transformation

Transformation is the soul of your story. It’s what gives it meaning.

Often, I think of this as the “SO WHAT?” 

You had all this stuff happen, but what’s different now? Be it internal to a character or external to your world, something changes.

Pull that change out, latch onto it, make it a focal point of your story. Remember, these changes don't magically happen. They're earned through your story's events.

To wrap it up: Conflict sets the stage, Causation keeps it moving, Progression shows your readers how far they've come, and Transformation gives it all meaning.

Whether you opt for some version of the Hero’s Journey, Story Circle, or any of the 1000s of other story structures out there, they’ll be built on those four pillars.

Have an awesome weekend,

Nathan

PS. This is a tiny sliver from the upcoming V2 of my Storytelling: Zero to One course. If you’d like to join the waitlist for that, tap here.

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1. StoryWork. If you want a practical way to improve your storywriting in less than 25 minutes daily, check out StoryWork (350+ students).

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