Story Beats. After a lot of
research I have come up with my own Story Beats. I find that I learn best by
manipulating ideas until they are my own.
This is by no means the only way of looking at it but it is my way. These plot points need to show up in every
story. They move the story along. Placed at the wrong spot in the story or
worse, out of order and they can ruin it.
Imagine an Inciting Incident that
happened on page 200. Or shudder thinking about a climax on page 20 followed by
a 200 page denouement. Imagine a Dark Moment happening before the start of the
journey. A story has to flow; we know it when we see it. Things have to happen
in the right order at roughly the correct periodicity. Too much in between and a
reader skips ahead to get to the next important plot point.
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The Story
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Act I
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Boy Finds Girl
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Intro
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Opening
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The Character, situation
"Before"
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"In a galaxy far far
away. A long time ago"
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Page 1-3
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Setup
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A young farm girl runs
away from home
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Page 1-3
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Inciting Incident
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Theme Stated
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The event that changed
the course of the Main Characters life
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Good vs Evil, Coming of
Age, Man against Nature
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Page 1-20
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Catalyst
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House Falls on Evil Witch
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Page 20-40
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Start Journey
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Debate
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How do I get home
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page 40-60
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Act II
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Boy loses Girl
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New World
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Change Playing Field
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How are things different
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Hogwarts
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Page 60-100
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B Story
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Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion
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Page 60-100
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Fail, Regroup, Fail
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Fun & Games
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The meat of the story.
Attempt to solve the problem
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Fight Empire
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Page 80-160
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Midpoint
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Go after Voldermort or
let others do it
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Page 150
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Bad guys regroup
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Flying Monkeys
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Page 140-180
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Dark Moment
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All is lost
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Darkest before the dawn
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Hans taken away
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Page 160-200
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Dark Moment
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Luke, I am your Father
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Page 180-220
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Act III
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Boy Gets Girl
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Forces come together
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A&B Combine
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Bring subplots together
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Ron wins at Wizard Chess
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Page 200-240
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Climax
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Climax
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Protagonist changes so that
they can win
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Kill Voldemort, Tap Ruby
Slippers,
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Page 240-280
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Denouement
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Final Image
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Restate theme. Impact of
the change
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19 years later, Harry
says goodbye to children at train station
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Page 280-300
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Super helpful! Thanks:-)
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I took you advice on Scrivener! With these 2 helping out I have come to realize that I am going to have to change a lot of my book already! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the blog by the way! Good Job and please keep writing in it.