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Architecture of Story Handout

·      Beginning

• Where are we, who is everybody, what’s happening?
• Inciting Incident.
• What’s the problem?

·      Middle

• Things get worse. 
• We see what happens as the problem isn’t resolved.
• Send your hero up a tree, and throw rocks at him or her.

·      End

• The problem resolves.
• The question is answered.
• Usually, a perceptual change occurs.

Three Narrative Arcs

·      The Physical Arc

• Every single thing that is done and said.
• The least important arc.

·      The Emotional Arc

• Actions are the consequence of character’s motivation.
• What do your characters want?
• Why aren’t they happy, and what do they believe they need to be happy?
• How do your characters change or not change
• Still not as important as…

·      The Intentional Arc

• Why are you telling this story?
• What is its gift?
• Where will you leave your reader?

Contrast.

• Everything is more easily perceived against its opposite.
• If you are writing about peace, you will probably spend most of your story depicting war.
• Contrast also teaches us what we love and what we want to create.

Bio and Links

William Kenower is the author of Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion, and is the Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine, an online magazine for writers and dedicated readers. His video interviews with hundreds of writers from Nora Ephron, to Amy Tan, to William Gibson are widely considered the best of their kind on the Internet. 

He also hosts the online radio program Author2Author where every week he and a different guest discuss the books we write and the lives we lead. 

To learn more about William, go to williamkenower.com.