Stories are made up of distinct parts, or units.
Stories are composed of many units, each of which fits into the next like a Russian nesting doll. We need to examine those units to understand how stories work.
The smallest unit of a story, called a beat might be only a few words or a few sentences long. The beats combine to create scenes, which combine to create sequences. Sequences combine to build acts and subplots, and finally, the global story unit, within which all the other units live and interact.
In this book about First Principles, we’ll look primarily at the global story unit and one of the smaller units, the scene. Although we’ll dig into these two most important units of story here, it’s worth knowing a little about each of the other units before we begin.
The smallest unit we study is the beat, a term taken from the performing arts. Actors break down scenes into beats as they explore how their characters change throughout a play or film. A beat is defined by an identifiable change in behavior. Often, it’s a brief moment when one character realizes the choice they are making is not working. They’re not getting what they want, so they change their tactics. Although it’s important for writers to look carefully at each beat in certain critical scenes, most of us shouldn’t get distracted by the beats until we’ve produced a well-crafted manuscript in all other respects.
The next unit of story is the scene. This micro unit is the key to every story that works. Sometimes they’re short—a fraction of a chapter—and sometimes long, but in each scene the characters experience movement from Point A to Point B. In a scene that works, a change representing a shift in what we call a universal human value takes place. We’ll discuss these human values more below.
In both the macro unit of the global story and the micro unit of the scene, we intuitively sense the beginning, middle, and end. And as readers, when we reach the end of a scene, we have the feeling that something has resolved, and it’s time to move on to a new bit of action.
The unit of story called a sequence is built with two or more scenes and also has a beginning, middle, and end. Sequences are about critical moments that we sum up in phrases such as “catching the killer,” “practicing for the big performance,” or “courting the princess.” They include a change more significant than what’s in a single scene but not the explosive change that happens in an act—the next unit in the nesting doll of story.
In the unit of story called the act, the protagonist’s life is changed permanently. Not only do the events provide a feeling of resolution for readers, but they also leave us wanting more.
Most novels and films also contain subplots, units of story that amplify or comment on the theme or counterbalance the global story with irony.
The macro, or global, story unit is the whole enchilada. The total experience from start to finish.
We all know what we can expect from a global story when we see a book cover or movie poster because the images are designed to convey that feeling of “horror” or “love” or “war” instantly. The moment we see the iconic movie poster for Jonathan Demme’s film, The Silence of the Lambs, based on the novel by Thomas Harris, we know what we’re getting. Actress Jodie Foster’s face is ghostly, her dark eyes glow, and her mouth is covered by a mysterious insect with a skull across its thorax that foretells death. We sense that a battle between the forces of good and evil will happen in this story—the mark of a classic thriller.
Why do we bother dividing our stories into all these units?
As writers—and as humans—we can’t see both the forest and the trees at the same time. We can’t analyze, edit, and polish our macro, or big picture story elements while also analyzing, editing, and polishing our micro, scene-level details. We need to move back and forth so we can see our stories in all their complexity—and tackle the problems one at a time.
The primary tools we use to tackle problems at the global level are the Story Grid Foolscap and Editor’s Six Core Questions, the Four Core Framework, and the Story Grid Infographic. You’ll find more about each of those in the chapter on Story Grid Tools below. The most valuable tool for analyzing stories at the scene level is the Story Grid Spreadsheet, also explained in the Tools chapter below.