A story is about a character or characters who desperately wants something and pursues a goal through a series of actions and outcomes that escalate to the climax of the story, and the eventual resolution of the story. In simple terms — this chain of cause and effect events is the ‘plot’ of a story.

When I first started to study story-telling I had an image of story in my head that the plot of the story had to be a linear sequence of events over time. The ‘Hero’s journey’ is such a plot structure. The Hero starts the story in his/her ordinary world, until the call to adventure (or catalyst/inciting incident) disturbs his world until eventually he/she is forced on to a quest to solve the problem.

There is nothing wrong with the ‘hero’s journey’ structure, which I have covered in past blogs, and combines the plot elements and some ‘character arc’ elements in one sequence of events. But both Christopher Vogler (in “the Writer’s Journey”) and Michael Hague (in “Writing screenplays that sell”) have emphasised the need to consider the hero’s ‘inner journey’ as well. It’s a parallel series of changes that takes place in the hero’s character over time that leads to his or her transformation (the hero’s character arc).

It’s only natural that any major plot point, such as a major set-back, defeat or loss of an ally will have a profound effect on the emotional state of the main character. Therefore the outer journey (or Plot) and the inner journey (usually related to the ‘theme’ of the story) are linked closely together.

But there is another way of looking at a story structure in terms of an ‘A’ story (basically the action in the ‘special story world’) and a ‘B’ story (the main character in his own familiar world). The ‘B’ story starts well before the A story and includes all the back story of the character. Although the reader or audience will see very little of this except in some initial scenes and perhaps in some flashbacks.

Breaking the story down into two story lines is helpful in two ways. First, it means that obvious gaps in either story line become visible. And second, it shortens the length and complexity of one long story line.

Again both the A story and B story may have sub-plots around relationships in the story. Pulling these sub plots out and analysing them as separate story lines is a way of controlling them and ensuring each is complete.

One of the tools I love to use to develop is ‘Plottr’. It’s graphic system that allows you to map out scenes visually along a time-line or time-lines. I also use Scrivener as my primary writing tool, which means I can write scenes in any order and move them about easily. (Please note: I have no financial interest in either of theses products. I just find them useful.)

The point I am making is that you don’t have to write in a linear way. You can write scenes in any order you like. The reader/audience will only see the final product, when you have pieced it all together.

Does this mean I always write in a non-linear way. No. But I will have done a lot of work on the planned list of scenes in Plottr before I start writing. When I know my scene structure I will write with the flow. And if it’s not working I will modify the planned scene list.

Thinking in terms of an ‘A’ story and ‘B” story I find helpful. It works in movies and it works in novels. But have you noticed that in episodic structures there are usually three story lines. Take a typical episode of “Blue Bloods”. You will find that the episode will consists of three short stories, each about two main characters that are spliced together so that each story line is resolved by the end of the episode. It’s a structure that works well and holds the interest of the audience.

So, if you’re a writer do you use one linear story line structure to write your story or do you find the A/B structure helpful?