I work for a library and every year we purge old magazines (we get first dibs, then whatever we don't want in old magazines, they're put out to the public to take for free) and I love grabbing The Writer magazine. I am looking at August 2013's edition and I found a great article by Minal Hajratwala about the five important structures for story telling - these structures are what hold the story together and keep the reader engaged:

1.) The loss is a gain and (2) the gain is that loss: fairy tales and their modern descendants, romance and horror, follow these archetypal structures. Non-genre writers can benefit from them, too, to create a narrative interest based on the reader's fervent wish for the character to come out ahead. Each type of story begins with a world changing event: the girl loses her mother, but eventually gains a "happily ever after" (Cinderella). How can this loss possibly be transformed into a gain? Or, what worm is hidden within this too-good-to-be-true apple?

3.) The Quest: a deliberate journey towards a goal or destination. The journey is exciting and adventurous, although difficult, It may be external, internal, or (usually) both.

4.) Emigration: Similar to the quest, this is a one-way journey, not a round trip. The protagonist may not begin intentionally. There is no return or, if there is, it's not a "homecoming" but a visit. An ache of nostalgia is a constant motif in most emigration stories.

5.) The answer to the question "Why?": this structure drives most narrative non-fiction (other than memoir, usually one of the above types), as well as some fiction (mysteries). It relies on the reader's intellectual curiosities: a need to understand the world, to solve a puzzle.

Of course, in the end, every book creates its own shape, just let your voice move freely!








The writer is the engineer of the human soul.

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