THE WRITE STRUCTURE
"STRUCTURE STRUCTURE STRUCTURE.” John Wilder, screenwriter
Part 1: What is your story about.
1. Premise: Write your story as a one sentence premise. (For help, use our novel idea worksheet.)
2. Value: What value is your story about? (More on this article.) Options: Life vs. Death, Life vs. a
Fate Worse than Death, Love vs. Hate, Accomplishment vs. Failure, Maturity vs. Naiveté, Good vs. Evil.
3. 3 Plots: Great books often contain 2 or 3 Plots. Now that you know your main plot’s value,
what are the values of your internal plot and subplot?
1.Main Plot:
2.Internal Plot:
3.Subplot:
Arc: What is the shape of your story? Draw your story based on the rise and fall of your story
value?
Story Value
Opposite
Part 2: Write your story in six sentences.
1. Exposition: Introduce your characters and the setting.
2. Inciting Incident: What event or choice begins the movement of the story up or down, setting
values in conflict?
3. Rising Action/Progressive Complications: List the things that make the story more complicated as
it builds to a crisis.
4. Crisis/Choice: What difficult choice is the protagonist forced to make? It must be between two
good things or two bad things. List the two options.
Example: _____________ (protagonist) must make the difficult choice between _____________________
vs. _____________________.
5. Climax: The character’s choice plays out, leading to a climactic conflict between the two values.
6. Resolution: How is the protagonist’s world different after the events of the story?
Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 2
Part 3: Break your story into three acts. Write each act in six sentences.
Act 1
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Act 2
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Act 3
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 3
Part 4: Write each scene in six sentences.
Scene #1 - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Scene #2 - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Scene #3 - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 4
Scene #4 - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Scene #5 - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
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Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 5
Additional Scene Worksheets: Print as many copies as you need.
Scene #__ - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Scene #__ - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Scene #__ - Event:
Exposition:
Inciting Incident:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications:
Crisis:
Climax:
Resolution:
Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 6
Copyright © 2020 The Write Practice 7
