Building a Story

By georgelthomas on 30 Jun 2017 • ( 3 )

In my post about Story Structure, I talked about the six main elements or structural points I use on Freytag’s Pyramid.

Here are those points with a brief description (as I understand them) of what they are:

Exposition
This is the setup of the story where the characters, setting and central conflict are introduced. The groundwork for the story is laid here.

Inciting Incident
Your story kicks off here as your main character responds to an event that starts them off on their journey.

Rising Action
The story should become progressively more dramatic as tension rises and conflict builds. You’re moving the story towards its climax.

Climax
This is the most exciting part of the story where the central conflict comes to a head.

Falling Action
Here is where you show the aftermath of the climax. Things are calming down, and all loose ends of the plot are tied up.

Resolution
This is the end of your story where all conflicts are resolved. The fate of your characters should be known here too (did they win or lose?) so as not to leave the reader with an unsatisfying end.

This is just the way I use these points. There are many other ways to get from A to B as far as plot and structure and lots of different people use the structural points in lots of different ways and have their own definitions for what is supposed to happen within each of them.

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Until next time,

George