Experimental Structures

Setup.

Inciting incident.

Plot Point #1.

Confrontation (midpoint).

Plot Point #2.

Climax.

Resolution.

...or something like that.

From the time I first started studying "how to write a story," the 3-act structure (or conservative variations thereof) has been seared into my writer's soul, with charred results. Now of course the 3-act structure and its conservative variations are gold. They're tried and true and they're what all* the literary agents and readers are looking for. Quest, conflict, conquer. The blueprint of a tidy story. Readers expect it and successful writers deliver it.

But what if the tales you need to tell aren't so tidy? What if your narratives simply cannot be hammered into a numbered box? Are you doomed to be an unrecognized writer? Maybe. The vast majority of stories do seem to fit neatly into conventional structures, but conventional structures do not neatly fit every story. So learn the rules, break the rules, and advance the art. No one can teach this... like every story, every writer is a unique potential rule-breaker.

*Not all. And this is how writers' revolutions are spawned.