How To Write Stories #3: Advanced Story Structure

[Ryan Dave Jimenez]

The story structure we came up with in the previous topic is good enough that we can start drawing. However, you might want to expand it more so your story will have polish. Here’s a look at our current story:

 

Quote

 

Beginning
Takeji is a nerdy highschool boy. He’s quite tall and gets bullied for it constantly. This makes him want to quit school.

Middle
One day he meets a transfer student named Hayato who is also tall. Hayato shows him an NBA game. This motivates Takeji to learn the sport of basketball. With Hayato’s help he gets ready to try out for his school’s basketball club.

End
Takeji makes the cut and is accepted into the club. However, he also realizes how far he is from making it into the NBA. He has a lot to improve on first. This was only the first step of his long journey.

- Taken from previous topic

 

 

As previously mentioned, a basic story structure is composed of a beginning, middle, and end. An advanced story structure meanwhile has a

Beginning Beginning (that’s not a typo)
Middle Beginning
End Beginning

Beginning Middle
Middle Middle
End Middle

Beginning End
Middle End
End End

 

Confusing isn’t it? It will start to make sense once you realize what’s going on. We are just taking our 3 main parts (beginning, middle, end) and adding another 3 parts to each one. Beginning gets its own (beginning, middle, end) Middle also gets a (beginning, middle, end) and the same thing happens with End. Let’s see it in action.

 

Beginning Beginning
Takeji is a nerdy highschool boy. He’s quite tall and gets bullied for it constantly. This makes him want to quit school.

 

Middle Beginning
The bullies who usually give Takeji trouble are 4 boys from the school swimming club. Their leader is a boy named Kaiba. One day during gym class, Kaiba steals Takeji’s shoes without him noticing. He then hides it somewhere leaving Takeji no choice but to walk home on barefoot.

 

End Beginning
Because of this latest act of bullying, Tajeki no longer wants to go to school. He cries and begs his parents to let him drop out. He would start looking for work instead. His parents eventually give in and agree that in a week he would be stopping school.

 

Beginning Middle
On his last day, Takeji bumps into a transfer student named Hayato who is also tall. Hayato asks if he plays basketball. Takeji says he has never even heard of the sport. 
Shocked, Hayato shows him an NBA game.

 

Middle Middle
Lying in bed that night Takeji couldn’t sleep. He was thinking about the basketball game Hayato showed him. For reasons he didn’t know, he wanted to play basketball. The next day he shocks his parents telling them he wants to continue school. He then finds Hayato who agrees to teach him the game of basketball.

 

End Middle
While training, Takeji surprises Hayato by telling him he wants to try out for the school basketball team. When Hayato asks why? Takeji says he wants to make it to the NBA and play against the best players in the world.

 

Beginning End
Takeji and Hayato sign up for the upcoming tryout. There they meet 2 players from the school basketball team named Shinzo and Chinatsu. Shinzo is surprised as to why the nerdy Takeji wants to try out for the team. He then warns him that he would soon regret his decision.

 

Middle End
The tryout begins. Takeji and Hayato pass the first 3 cuts and are on the final one. The final cut pits aspiring members against the school’s basketball players. It’s an intense game as Shinzo matches up with Takeji.

 

End End
Takeji and Hayato make the final cut and are now official members of the team. Takeji also earns Shinzo’s respect. But deep inside Takeji knows he barely made the team and realizes he has a long way to go.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Ryan Dave Jimenez
fixed the formatting