The seven Cs of story structure

The characters are in a crucible. A catalyst starts the action and a chain of cause and effect leads to complications which build through a situation of crisis to a climax (where the hero faces catastrophe, the cataclysm), during which the main character is shown to have changed.

That’s my attempt at summarising plot or story structure. I’m not sure why I did it, or if it has any value. Perhaps you would care to be the judge of that.

• Character

• Crucible

• Catalyst

• Cause and effect

• Complications

• Crisis

• Climax: (catastrophe… the cataclysm).

• Change

Just be gentle with me when it comes to the mathematics– because there are, of course, 8 major Cs here (10 if you also include catastrophe, the impending cataclysm). But that didn’t fit the pun for the headline.

Stumble it!