If you’ve read my post on revising with a plan, you know I’m a big advocate of using story structure and plot beats to whip your story into shape. Guide post moments like the inciting incident, midpoint, dark night of the soul, and climax can help your story reach its full potential, but are those moments the end-all be-all of writing? It’s time to examine the pros and cons of using story structure.

The Cons

• Overthinking the story
• Promotes the inner editor
• Predictability

I don’t know about you, but I’m more of a pantser than a plantser when it comes to first drafts. My inspiration comes from setting a half-fleshed out character in a world I thought of approximately two days ago and seeing what happens. I keep writing because it lets me explore this new world I’ve created. Sometimes I have a vague idea of where the story ends, and sometimes I get to 50k and realize that I need to wrap this up sometime in the next 20k or so. Absolutely nothing in this drafting method sets me up to actually use story structure as I write.

In fact, I shut up that voice telling me that I need to write the First Plot Point next, or that I’m approaching the Climax scene. Why? Because then I spend all my time thinking about how this or that potential scene fits into the overall story structure instead of writing until I hit upon the gold that this story is actually supposed to be about. In short, I overthink it. Instead of shaping my story into something that follows basic story rules, I tend to shape story rules into something that looks like a story. All the originality? Yeah, that got replaced by the fact that I have to move to act two now, so we’re going to change the setting for absolutely no reason other than my plot beats told me to. 

Speaking of that little voice that tells me to adhere to these plot beats while I’m drafting, it sounds almost exactly like that voice that tells me my sentences are too repetitive and I need to go back and fix them all before I can write the next scene. Maybe that’s not exactly what your voice tells you. Maybe your voice is obsessed with punctuation, or character development, or making sure your setting is as detailed as possible. The point is that your inner editor should not be allowed to take over your writing, and plot structure is an insidious way for it to do that. Instead of focusing on everything that’s wrong with your novel (from sentences, to plot beats), you should just be writing your first draft. Leave editing for later.

And last, but one of the points I hear most often, is originality. Story structure, especially those structures which include some concept of plot beats like the ones I mention at the beginning of this post, can come off as unoriginal. We’re twenty five percent through the book, so it’s time to provide a setting change. Oh, look. Seventy-five percent? It’s about time for the main character to lose everything, only for them to learn some wonderful lesson and beat the bad guy for real this time. You give me any fiction book in the library, and I can guarantee you that I could open to specific parts of the story and tell you where that fits in the plot beat list. By writing to that same beat sheet, you are emulating every single one of those books. 

So what does that mean when you’re writing your story? Should you just throw out plot structure in the name of originality?

Hate to break it to you, but plenty of writers have tried that, too. You see fewer of them on the shelves, because fewer of them actually made it through the traditional publishing process. 

Originality is dead. Every idea has been written. Maybe not in the order you’ve written it, maybe not with the spin you put on it, maybe not with the same combination of world and characters, but it has been done before. The same goes for every plot. If you look at stories from a structural level, they’ve all been written before. Does that mean you should just quit writing now? If your idea has already been written, should you throw up your hands and walk away?

Hardly.

You could start re-writing The Hobbit in your own words, with a different protagonist (still the underdog, though), in a different world, for a different age-range, and I would still read it. In fact, I have! One of my favorite stories in middle school was a story about a kid from a quiet town who ran away from home to join an adventuring party on their quest to slay a dragon. On their way, they faced all sorts of bad guys—including a troll that turned to stone. Sound familiar? 

The first book of M.L. Foreman’s Adventurer’s Wanted series, Slathbog’s Gold, has very similar plot beats to The Hobbit, but I still loved it. The story was written for a different audience (aka, 14 year olds), it had a few different plot points, the MC was actually a wizard, and it was brilliant! 

If you want to see what I’m talking about for yourself, you can grab the book by clicking the amazon affiliate link below.

My point is that originality really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The basic structure of a story is found everywhere. Don’t worry about following in the footsteps of all the writers who came before you when you use structure to its fullest.

The Pros

• Fulfilling Reader Expectations
• Creating a Cohesive Story
• Figuring out Where Your Story Went Wrong

I’ve gone through the problems with story structure, so it’s only fair to go through the things it can help you with, too. 

I’m going to start with something that connects inherently with that whole rant on originality, earlier. Readers expect this structure. They’ve been programmed to want it. Almost every story they consume has this structure.

You might be wondering why adhering to reader expectations is a good thing. Isn’t subverting those expectations what a plot twist is all about? And yes, that’s fine if you subvert reader expectations once or twice. It’s a great comedic base, it can inject some feeling of newness into the story. Do it too often, or on too large a scale, though, and you will leave your reader unsatisfied or confused. 

As a writer, your job is to set your reader up for success, not to mislead them.

Think about it. What if you were reading a story, and the MC is trying to decide if this guy is just a friend, or a love interest. Then, out of the blue, in the middle of the story, it turns out that the MC actually murdered this guy’s younger brother when she was a kid—except, you had no idea that the MC was a murderer, or that this guy even had a younger brother. Now the MC hates this guy, and this guy is trying to kill her.

Wouldn’t it be so much better if that played out more like this:

You know that the MC is running from the dad of the kid she accidentally killed years before. The MC finds this guy hiding from someone who used to be close to him. Through the story, you find out that this guy’s dad went a bit insane after an accident. You also know that this guy has a younger brother, but he is reluctant to talk about that. When you hit the middle of the story and find out that the MC actually murdered this guy’s little brother and made his dad go crazy,

it makes total sense! In fact, the reader can probably see it coming, like a trainwreck in slow motion. If your reader figures it out in advance, they probably feel a bit vindicated. They also just spent at least a chapter imagining all the things that are inevitably going to break when these two characters finally figure out who they’re sitting next to. Talk about tension!

My point is that it’s important to be predictable when you’re writing your story. Give the readers what they want. Give the readers the same formula they get when they watch movies, TV shows, read books, etc. Don’t give them everything. If they can read the first chapter of your book and then tell you exactly what happens through the whole story, then maybe you’re being a little too predictable. For the most part, though, story structure gives you plenty of wiggle room to give your readers a bit of a surprise.

Using story structure also provides a cohesive story. If you’re truly using the plot beats correctly, then you’ve got a hook which ties into the inciting incident, which ties into the midpoint, which ties to the Dark Night of the Soul, which ties to the Triumph. It lets you tie character development through use of theme directly into your plot, and leave your reader feeling satisfied at the end. 

More, story structure can be a template to show you where your first draft wandered a bit off course (see my post on Revising With a Plan). If your inciting incident doesn’t really tie into your climax (either on a character development level, or on a thematic level), then you know that either your inciting incident or your climax have a bit of a problem. The same goes for all your other plot points. They should each tie to each other in a definitive way and, if they don’t, you need to re-think some things on a structural level.

Can you see a theme with all these pros of using story structure? They’re all tied to using it as a revision and editing tool. Similarly, all the cons are about the problems that occur when you use it for your drafting. 

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use story structure when developing your story. When I decide to plants my novel more than pants it, story structure is absolute gold for helping me put my outline together. Just don’t let it be an excuse for getting your inner editor involved during the drafting process. When you’re done, let story structure be another tool in your inner editor’s tool belt, and use it to revise your story into a masterpiece that readers will enjoy. 

Like any other tool, story structure can be a blessing when used correctly, or a curse when used incorrectly. Coming up, I’m writing a series on what each of these plot points are and how to employ them in your story. 

Have you used story structure plot beats before? What was your experience with them? Leave your answers in the comments.