Although non-fiction is the focus of Practicing The Write Stuff, I’ve made no secret of the fact that one of my goals is to generate enough income from 2 to 3 hours work a day - and no more! - to free myself up to write/finish a slew of fiction projects that I’ve dreamt up down the years. Chatting with a buddy, I tallied all the projects I have planned on bits of paper, in scrivener docs, and locked in my subsconscious….and I reckon I’ve got a million words of fiction to write. And I’m not getting any younger.
Now there’s an obvious correlation between story models and writing fiction. It’s less obvious for non-fiction writers. But there are multiple benefits for non-fiction writers in knowing and understanding story structure. And this will serve as an introduction to set up a more detailed look at the different story structure models out there. And there are plenty.
#1 What Is A Story Structure Model?
Story Structure Models have been with us since Aristotle’s “Poetics.” And his theories still cast a giant shadow on story structure even now. Aristotle broke down stories into Beginning, Middle and End. And also said:
The beginning is not preceded by anything and leads to something else.
The middle naturally follows the beginning and leads to something further.
The end follows from what went before and does not lead to anything else - it provides closure.
Stories in the western world, and the story structure models they are based on, tend to be built on this linear type of story structure. Though in the 2020s, there are many more story structure models to draw from. (More on those in Issue #28)
But that doesn’t tell us exactly what a story structure model is though. There are two parts to understanding this.
The first part is ‘story structure.’ Here’s a definition of story structure from Wikipedia:
Story is a sequence of events, which can be true or fictitious, that appear in prose, verse or script, designed to amuse or inform an audience. Story structure is a way to organize the story's elements into a recognizable sequence. It has been shown to influence how the brain organizes information. Story structures can vary culture to culture and throughout history. The same named story structure may also change over time as the culture also changes.
The second part is the ‘model’ - which is the vehicle you use to arrive at the sequence of events that make up the story. Some of the story structure models out there - that you may have heard of - include The 3 Act Structure (a more contempoary version of Aristotle), The Hero’s Journey, Save The Cat and so on. More on these in Issue #28 - though I’ll anticipate that issue by saying that there’s no one definitive model that you should use (though you might find a model that resonates with you), and that you can create your own model by blending the best features of different models to create your story structure model.
#2 Why Story Is Important (1) - It’s How Humans Experience The World
This Issue and Issue #28 will list a bunch of books that you can explore to learn more about the different topics in story telling - and reading is often a writer’s favourite procrastination activity!
The first two books that I’m going to recommend if you want to learn more about the brain science of storytelling:
The Science Of Storytelling by Will Storr.
The Science of Screenwriting: The Neuroscience Behind Storytelling by Paul Gulino and Connie Shears.
Before Will Storr published The Science Of Storytelling, it was a one day Guardian masterclass. Which I took back in June 2017.
Here’s the one fact that stood out for me from the masterclass: the sensory data that humans collect in day to day activities (e.g. sound, visuals, smell, etc) goes through the part of the brain that deals with story before it gets to the part of the brain that makes decision.
So even if we don’t consciously know it, we think in story. If I presented you with a bunch of random facts, you’d try to make a pattern out of them. The likeliest pattern you’d use is a story.
This goes back to the evolution of humans as a species. The earliest cave drawings: they are stories. Of hunts or similar events. The Gods and Godesses of ancient Greece (or Rome or Egypt or any similar culture) were stories that reflected how those people viewed their worlds. Same goes with the religions that dominate world culture to this day.
Or move forwards to contemporary times. Look at the massive body of what is known as ‘conspiracy theories.’ They are no more - or no less - than a bunch of connected or unconnected facts that have been woven together into narratives. E.g. there are conspiracy theories on the JFK Shooting, the 9/11 bombings, the Moon Landings, or a tragic accident like the death of Princess Diana. That’s just scratching the surface.
Bottom line: humans communicate in stories. Humans like to believe everything is causally related.
#3 Why Story Is Important (2) - Story Is A Psychological Model Of Human Improvement And Change
All story structure models chart the way that humans change.
In most mainstream fiction and film - “happy ending” stories - that growth is to a higher level. Sometimes that change is implied. Sometimes it’s obvious.
Stories can also chart the descent of characters and act as warnings. For example, in the Godfather (film and book) Michael Corleone’s journey is from a military veteran innocent of crime to the Godfather of the Corleone family. Or in Breaking Bad, Walter White’s character from being a low paid chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer to a drug lord who used his chemistry background to manufacture methampethamines.
Those are fictional examples. And in these cases, the characters undergo change - and the telling of their story serves as entertainment for the reader/viewer.
For non-fiction writers though, the primary reason that readers read your writing is to find or learn about change for themselves. That could be to learn how to deal with money (e.g. The Psychology Of Money by Morgan Housel), to learn how a maverick billionaire thinks and acts ( e.g. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson), to live longer (Outlive by Peter Attia) or to learn how to negotiate (Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss).
So you should view your non-fiction writing as a way to guide readers on the path to change. Your readers - even if they don’t read fiction - are familiar with story structure because they’ve been exposed to it via TV, Movies and even songs.
Here’s what Steven Pressfield has to say about applying storytelling principles to non-fiction writing in his book Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh*t:
This is the shape any story must take. A beginning that grabs the reader. A middle that escalates in tension, suspense, stakes and excitement. An ending that brings it home with a bang.
And:
That’s a novel, that’s a play, that’s a movie. That’s a joke. That’s a seduction. …it’s also your TED talk, your sales pitch, your Masters thesis, and your 890 page true saga of your great-great-grandmother’s life.
Note that he doesn’t differentiate between fiction or non-fiction. If using storytelling principles in your non-fiction is the strategy, using story structure models to execute that strategy is the tactics.
#4 Why Story Is Important (3) - People Remember Stories Better Than Facts (And People Remember How A Story Made Them Feel)
This sub-section starts with a simple exercise:
Make a list of your three favourite songs.
Next to the song titles, write down what that song evokes for you. Is it a memory? Is it a place? Is it a person?
Write down next to each song when you last heard that song playing. And order your list accordingly….move the song where the time between now and when you last heard it is greatest to #1.
Now hum the melody of that song. Sing any words you remember out loud. Then write them down.
Most people who do this can write down 85 to 90% of the lyrics. For sure, they may get some of the lyrics muddled up or the wrong way round.
The reason this is the case?
Most song lyrics are a compressed story. The songs that are meaningful to you have a special place in your memory in the way that, say, algebra rules from school don’t. The words of the song - the story - not only have their own meaning, but they are attached to melody (and implied harmony).
As a truism, stories are more memorable than a list of facts. If those stories have an emotional impact on the reader, they are exponentially more memorable.
With non-fiction, it can be harder to give the reader an emotional jolt. But if they get results from your writing - i.e. they get change - that should lead to some kind of emotional reaction. Satisfaction perhaps. Or a sense of accomplishment. The greater that reaction is…the more likely they are to remember it. And remember whose writing led to that.
So story structure can help make your non-fiction more memorable.
#5 Why Story Is Important (4) - It Aligns The (Right) Reader With The Writer
Story structure can help align the kind of readers you want to reach with your writing. And exclude the kind of readers you don’t want to reach.
There’s an old copywriting saying - attributed to Robert Collier - that says:
Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer's mind.
If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader.’ and ‘conversation’ with ‘story’ we get this powerful statement:
Enter the story already taking place in the reader’s mind.
Some examples:
Imagine you write about weight loss. Rather than writing about weight loss in general, write about it specifically in story terms. E.g. how a bride needs to lost 5kg before her wedding in 10 weeks. Or how a guy needs to lose 1kg in 10 days for an operation. Knowing those scenarios gives you an idea of the story going on in those reader’s mind.
Imagine you write about injury prevention and injury management. What you write about will be different for swimmers than it will be for track athletes. Or injury management for musicians will be different again.
Or imagine you write for writers. The stories in their head - and if they’re anything like me there are thousands floating around! - will vary depending on what kind of writer they are. Copywriters will be different from short form writers (e.g. Twitter/X).
Talking to the kind of people you want to write for is a great way of identifying some of these story threads. And will help make your content more accessible and more memorable to those people while excluding people who it’s not relevant for.
The Ride Out
Applying story structure to non-fiction is something that few of your competitors do, so if you can work out how to do it then the appeal of your writing will increase (provided that you know what audience you want to write to and your stories are directed at that audience segment). Will Storr’s book - mentioned above - is a good starting point. (The Status Game is also a good read.)
And as you learn more about story structure models, you can examine your favourite writer’s work and see what (if any) story structure models they use. Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh*t by Steven Pressfield will also give you a 30,000 Overview on applying fictional techniques to non fiction.
Issue 28
In Issue 28 we’re going to look at a number of story structure models. The important thing to note is that there’s no story model that’s implicitly the best. What you may have to do is try out a bunch of story models and see which one - if any - resonates with you. That’s part of your job as a writer - if you can find a model that resonates with you that you can use to reliably apply story structure to your non fiction…that will make the task of writing infinitely easier.