In this article, Larry Brooks discusses writing from an outline vs. writing from the seat of your pants. His argument is that both are feasible, providing you have your story architecture in mind. Unfortunately, although the article was good, he didn’t explain what he means by story architecture or how to develop one.

Which got me to wondering, what exactly does he mean by “story architecture,” and how does a writer know she has one?

I did some digging on his site and found this page, where he does a ten part series on story structure. Here are the 4 parts he uses, but I’ll leave it to you to head over to his site to read through the whole series.

1. Set up: Establish the stakes
2. Response: React to the problem
3. Attack: Main character begins to fix things
4. Resolution

Channel 101 also has an interesting article about story structure. If you’re familiar with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, then some of Dan Harmon’s stuff will sound familiar to you. Dan says there are eight steps you need to cover. I like this description best because his descriptions are great, yet succinct. Definitely head over and read these now; I’ll wait.

1. You
2. Need
3. Go
4. Search
5. Find
6. Take
7. Return
8. Change

You might be more comfortable with the three act structure, described here.

1. Setup
2. Confrontation
3. Resolution

I’m sure you’re picking up on the theme here. Whether you know the whole layout before you start writing, or if you write it and then rework it later, your story will probably follow this basic pattern.

1. Setup: Introduce the character and setup the situation
2. Conflict: The character has a problem, tries to fix things, often makes matters worse, and eventually gets it right. Or not.
3. Resolution: Wrap up loose ends, answer lingering questions, etc.

Of course, if you’re writing something that’s non-traditional, then your story might not follow this, and that’s cool too. Write what you want. As long as it works, do it, I say.