Resources For Writers Obsessed With Plot Structure
I haven’t been posting much lately because I’ve been working relentlessly on creating the ultimate story plot structure outline tool. In the process, I’ve looked at almost every article, video, and image related to plot structure on the internet. It has been a slow, painful process slogging through the slush pile of advice out there. So, to save other aspiring plotters time researching, I’ve compiled all the most useful content I’ve found into the list below. I’ll be adding more items to this list as I find them.
Feel free to leave a comment with links to your favorite writing resources. If you’re totally obsessed with plot structure, send me an E-mail and let’s talk.
Videos Of The Hero’s Journey and Dan Harmon’s Adaptation:
Videos On Hollywood-Style Plot Structures:
Film Courage Interviews:
Kurt Vonnegut’s Formulas:
Character Development Arcs:
Writing 101: Four W’s For Character Development
How The Antagonist Affects Character Arc
The 3 Types of Character Arc — Change, Growth, And Fall
The Eggshell Hero — How To Build A Story Upon A Dramatic Character Arc
Plotting And Structure:
How To Brainstorm Your Story Idea Into A Working Concept
The Yes-But Method of Deepening The Plot
Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit
Story Structure: 10 Simple Keys to Effective Plot Structure
Story Structure With Michael Hague
7 Point Plot Structure Story Mapping Template
How To Add Subplots To Your Story
Subplot Ideas: 5 Tips For Writing Better Subplots
Conflict:
Writing 101: Internal vs External Conflict
The Inner Struggle: Guides For Using Inner Conflict That Make Sense
Building Your Core: Internal And External Core Conflicts
The Internal Conflict Formula That Generates Plot Points And Strengthens Them
Goals, Conflict, Tension, And Stakes
Lists For Brainstorming:
Top 100 Traits And Behaviors Of Personality-Disordered Individuals
The Master List Of Virtues (pdf)
What Is The Classification Of Character Strengths And Virtues?
Wikipedia Articles You Should Read:
Software:
List of story writing software #1
List of story writing software #2
List of story writing software #3
Inklewriter (CYOA writing)
Quest (CYOA writing)
Twine (CYOA writing)
Ginko (Lists and notecard organization)
Mindmeister (Mind mapping)
The Plot.io (Storyboards)
Frameforge (Storyboards)
Boords (Storyboards)
46+ Popular Story Structure Graphs In One JPG:
Click here to enlarge the image below.
Articles About Story Structure By The Wise Sloth:
Screenwriting For Movies:
- Comparison of film script plot structure outlines
- A basic Hollywood movie plot outline template
- How writers can use the psychology of motivation to create believable characters
- How to tie the purpose of a story to the hero’s goal
- 12 steps fictional characters must follow to accomplish a goal
- What is a beat in screenwriting?
- How to combine beats into beat chains
- How to add multiple storylines when writing a movie
Screenwriting For TV:
- A basic Hollywood sitcom episode plot template
- Advanced sitcom plot template for stories with multiple protagonists and subplots
Short Stories:
- Basic short story formula plot template
- Extended short story formula plot template
- 6 short story formula plot storyboards
- 8 simple formula plot templates
- The Mechanic: A parable about how to tell a story
- How to write a story
Erotica:
Choose Your Own Adventure:
- 7 choose your own adventure templates and prompts
- The 36 Adventures of Captain Buigardo: A choose your own adventure formula plot template writing prompt
Movie Plot Break Downs:
- Master spreadsheet of all movie break downs (on Google Docs)
- Comparison of 9 movies act structures (On Google Docs)
- American Beauty
- Avatar (Spreadsheet)
- Avatar (Text)
- The Avengers
- Back to the Future
- Bladerunner
- Good Will Hunting (Spreadsheet)
- Good Will Hunting (Text)
- Inception
- Jurassic Park
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Snatch
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
TV Plot Break Downs:
- Avengers Assemble S01E05: Blood Feud
- Twilight Zone S01E01: Where is Everybody
- Perry Mason S01E5: The Case of the Sulky Girl
Free Story Prompts:
