How to Plot Your Novel Using Dan Harmon's Story Circle
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Dan Harmon's Story Circle: channel101.wiki...
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This is a really interesting method, I never thought about it before. In particular Give the Character what they think they want, only for them to realize, what they wanted doesn't actually solve the underlying problem, for which they will have to dig deeper. It's super analogous to resolving our own psychological issues. 10/10
congrats, you’ve just summarized story circle
Very useful! I just finished plotting a novel two days ago, but I realize now that I've always subconsciously been plotting with a story-circle structure in mind. It definitely helps to have a more robust visual representation of it though. Thanks a lot!
Yes! Me, too. I’ve been working on my novel and it follows this. It just came out that way. Wow!!
This structure is so interesting to me because I find it extremely relatable. Watching this video has helped me to make sense of my own life. I went through a period in my life that lasted a few years that I didn't understand and just felt very lost (I see it as levels 3-4 in the structure circle). Those years were particularly difficult in my life, a period of confusion, hopelessness, fear, and anxiety. Looking back and thinking of it in this sense is very refreshing since I feel like I have made enormous progress and would say I'm slowing making my way from level 5 to level 6. Anyway, my point is that this video taught me a much greater lesson than I had initially come here for. So thank you ❤️
Coming back to this and your Plot Gardening book as I’m fleshing out the rest of the plotting to make my garden ready for the writing!
I remember learning about this in my grad school screenwriting class. Never gets old!
Thank you so much for this! I found the story circles in Plot Gardening and they have really helped me work through some challenges in my current WIP. I ended up doing one for each of my five major POV characters and it was great to hear you say that you do multiple circles for multiple story lines. Dan Harmon's blog and your info as well have been a treasure trove of information as I work through this challenging book. It's made it so much better!
Thanks for explaining it with something like Star Wars. I haven't seen that film for decades but it's so embedded in pop culture that I completely remembered each plot point as you covered it. Good way to use a relatable analogy.
I figure it's the universal creative language at this point =)
This is a really great breakdown of this process.
Great to see the hero's journey/story circle with a working example. Makes it clearer for me. Thanks :)
This is why so many people are convinced Ferris Bueller's Day Off is really about Cameron Frye.
Katrice Metaluna haha, or it was just a badly plotted movie.
That’s because it IS about Cameron Frye. If it were a novel, it’d probably be written from his perspective.
@@bunglermoose definitely would be written from his perspective.
Thank you for this.
What I (personally!) find fascinating is the "angles" within this wheel. You can build up tension by playing the segments back and forth.
I'll try to explain as this comes to me.
You mention at about 7:33 that Step #5 is the protagonist finding what they really need. This plays against Step #2: where they go on this adventure because of something they thought they wanted (or did want, but events have overtaken them and circumstances have changed).
Got to thinking: What if you take an equal sized step the other way? The symmetry at Step #8 would show them getting some closure, and it mirrors #2, thanks to hindsight and growth. Can't help but think this might be a perfect place for a well-nuanced plot twist, and a final gauntlet throw to the character(s).
So the idea of angles and symmetry piqued my interest. If you reflect around Step #2, the hero's enlightenment of Step 5 complements the reflected angle of Step #7: normality is in sight, but they're returning with a completely different worldview.
If you reflect the same angle around Step #8: it contrasts the epiphany of Step 5 against the naïve Step #3, when they got out their depth in their first place!
This.... 135° symmetry seems to play with hindsight, foreshadowing, and the juxtaposition of motivation/payout with respect to the "reflection" number. Seems like a neat way to park insight into useful places.
I wonder if it plays out with all 135° angle trios?
Is this making any sense?
Is it? I'm stream-of-conscious'ing now.
Gets me thinking: how to 2-4-6-8 play out? Whom does the protagonist appreciate?
A thought. A long, long thought.
Very interesting.
Most fascinating thing I've read all day. I'd love to read a longer-form version with more detail.
Vogler's 'The Writer's Journey' also puts Campbell in ways writers can use easily.
I hadn't heard of The Writer's Journey. Thanks, Richard. That's another beer I owe you.
The Writer's Journey is a great book. Unfortunately, it's not available on Kindle though.
Try www.AbeBooks.com
Chris Vogler's 'The Writer's Journey' is a wonderful book for writers. It was initially penned for screenwriters, and so very thoroughly explains story structure, characters, etc. It can be used with any genre.
Thanks so much for all your writing videos Chris! Been going through them all! You have inspired me to finally go for it in planning out and world building and plotting my first fantasy novel, you have helped give me tools and more confidence to just go for it through your content and resources on writing! Been along time tabletop D&D DM and player who has read fantasy, and have always had a desire to embark on writing my own. Thanks @Chris Fox!
This is great. I've seen several other videos on this, but having the examples really helped me to fully comprehend. Thank you so much for this.
Really helped me figure out the organization of events my story needed to take. Thank you.
The part about the story circle that throws me is always the want or need. The movie that best explains it to me is The Wizard of Oz. Dorthy wants to go back home. That's her overall goal, but to complete that goal she has to find the wizard. It's basically set up as a step one to complete the overall goal. The goal that's completed in meeting the goddess is when she meets the wizard, who then sends her on her trials to face the witch. But the overall goal is to get home doesn't come until the end. It's a physical need vs emotional need or a external need vs an internal need. The physical need might get resolved in step 5 but the emotional need isn't resolved until the end. But also the emotional need has to inform the physical need.
Excellent explanation of this system!
I've watched this a few times and it has helped me plot out the story I'm writing. I know I shouldn't start big, but seeing as I am doing this for fun and not career. I'm going to tell the story. I'll check it after its finished and edit it down. Split it if I have to. Thanks for the idea and inspiration!
Joumey, Retum, Supematural, rTansfomation??? What incredible font is this, and how can i use it to ruin my own circle of ideas?
Yeah there's some insane keming on these diagrams.
Oh god I hate and love both of you 😂
thanks man. this was a gold nugget.
This is great. It correlates well to what I use which is a combo of the Dan Wells 7 Point Story Structure and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat Beat Sheet. I use the beats as large tent poles to hold up my story like a structure skeleton and then flesh each chapter out from there knowing where each story point goes. I'm going to study this and fold it into what I've got. It's a great visual to break it all down quickly and easily and I love how you said you can use it for each character. That's brilliant.
This video was very helpful in helping me sort out my plot for my novel. Thank you!
Your head is like directly in the center of the video. This is great.
Great summary, thanks Chris.
“Hero’s Joumey”
That’s not what it says, just what it looks like.
I read tech mage yesterday, and was just wishing an author would put up a video explaining story structure in their book, and here you were lol. It's fascinating reading your plot of how you thought the book would go, when I've just read the finished version.
It's interesting going back and watching this having written so many more books using the structure. I'd be curious to hear what you think of the evolution through the series. Tech Mage was really rough, and both Void Wyrm and Spellship were as well. It wasn't until War Mage that things really clicked, but since then my understanding has grown a lot. I'm writing my Epic Fantasy right now, and just released a new video on the story circle =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites I have that queued up to watch next! I'm looking forward to reading the next one so I'll let you know.
Serious food for thought. Thank you for sharing.
The circle itself, and the explanation on the website you've linked, doesn't involve the Hero's Journey. My main problem with it is that there's not enough conflict.
I think this can be perfectly combined with the anagram system, which tells more about how the character will deal with what is trown upon him, without taking away the creativity of the writer to come up with believable yet surprising choices for their characters to do.
Could you elaborate on the "anagram system"? I tried Googling "anagram plot system" just now and got no relevant results on the first page.
Second that!
@@jameshood790 Haha, I now see it was a typo. Judging by the fact that my original post was made around 3 years ago I can say that I meant 'Enneagram' instead.
You can. Google that and you'll get plenty of results.
Interesting. Here I thought I'd heard about every plotting structure known to man. Always more to learn. :)
How would you use this for a series? I guess I'd assume each installment had its own circle. But how many times can you transform the same character?
Great question - I had the same one!
Well: there's a few ways. 1) your series could follow multiple characters. For example: you have five protagonists and each of them gets a hero's journey. They could all participate in each other's adventures (remember, the protagonist never walks alone: other characters can be hanging around without it being their story), or they could have those adventures before finding each other at the end. 2) your series could transform a single character in multiple ways. You start off with a real screwball of a protagonist, who has many obvious flaws. Work on one of those flaws in each story. 3) a single hero's journey could stretch over multiple stories. Each step on the journey might be a story in itself. This is most appropriate for transformations that are bigger than the hero, him or herself. Society or world-level transformations, happen less quickly. It takes 3 stories for Frodo to transform the world of Middle Earth, not one. But he hasn't been through three separate heroes' journeys. Where you see this the most often is TV series though. A season will have many stories to tell: one, two or three episodes long. But at the end of the season they will all come together, and it will be obvious they were all part of a longer hero's journey. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is perhaps the most obvious example, as genre-savvy characters often point out what part of the hero's journey they're on.
Enter Doctor Who.
What other ones are good? I’d like to learn about story telling.
Every episode of the series should follow the structure on it's own. Every story changes the hero slightly but it doesn't fix all of their flaws. The next episode, the character is changed from the last episode but is tested by something else, another story. Every episode of a series the character goes through a trial. "Community" is the perfect example of how to transform a character slowly using this story structure, and even that show unravels a lot of it's ensemble cast a bit too much. "Rick and Morty" is Harmon's newer show, and the characters go through changes over certain seasons, but the characters don't get too unraveled like in "Community" because they tackle very specific problems based on what Harmon wants to convince the audience, rather than just trying to entertain. A lot of the time, you can be an artist and decide what you want to teach the audience and make it so that your character doesn't understand that specific thing, then use a story to teach your lesson to the character. Or, in the case of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," make your characters terribly resistant to change (Everyone's insane/despicable, with entertaining results/relief comedy), or, like in "Catch-22," make most of the characters incapable of change so that the main character is always confronted by chaos (One sane man versus an insane world/superiority comedy). It really depends what type of series you want to make.
This looks pretty interesting and helpful. Going to give it a go tomorrrow!
Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try it with my next novel.
Thanks for this, its really helpful and I've used it to outline my novel
Thank you! This was extremely helpful
I used the heroe's journey for one of my characters, while the other group of characters have a three act structure. That was fun, although I'm not sure anyone who read it noticed
No offence to fans of the masterpiece, but does anyone know of any story circle/three act structure resources that deal with less action-orientated plots e.g. something like Gone Girl/Lolita/A Clockwork Orange/End of the Affair/Animal Farm/1984/Rules of Attraction/American Psycho
TheConversation
I get the feeling you may not particularly like the show Rick and Morty, but to see Dan Harmon's use of this in his own work brilliantly analyzed, along with Dan Harmon's comparison of movie structure to television structure, as well as many connections to other popular cinema and television and some interesting insight into story structure, check out "How RICK & MORTY Tells A Story (The Ricks Must Be Crazy) -- Wisecrack Edition" right here on TH-cam.
The reason I bring it up is because you were asking for a different framework for your story structure that would fit the difference of genres that you're interested in compared to this (if I understand you correctly). This video actually begins tackling the subject by quoting Harmon, its creator, as saying "Every story, from The Odyssey to your standard fart joke, follows eight simple steps," (although they may be paraphrasing) of course referring to The Story Embryo he came up with. So, at least in his mind, this is relevant to all genres since the concepts it deals with are so fundamental.
Oh, and if you do check it out, do yourself a favor. Skip to 1:44
Unless you mean plots that don't revolve around conflict or something else and I misunderstand
That's very kind of you, thank you for your extremely comprehensive reply. I will definitely check it out
Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night...
Daniel C. Harkins Jr.
Exactly! This guy gets it
Thank you so much! Haha been binge reading about outlining and I think I may be overloaded by it, but it was so helpful to read about Aran and gives me ideas about how to link other outlining tools together to suit my own purposes.
It's been a great pleasure discovering your channel and I'm quite excited to see your other videos for Preptober (eek almost NaNoWriMo!)
Stopped the video at 10:58, cause I am currently reading tech mage
As i was watching the diagram of the hero's journey n tried to imagine a story i know...my brain goes "Pride & Prejudice".....
now i dont know i i feel.....
I love how helpful these videos are... but the head space caused by the camera angle drives me NUTS.
I've since learned how to frame a video, but some of them are pretty bad =p
These videos are really helpful thank you
Did anyone notice that Nara is Aran backwards?
What if you start the story in the middle?
Aran and Nara-I assume Nara is Aran’s mirror double by their names, an as yet unexplored part of his psyche which is not nice, since Aran thinks he is nice/the hero/the good one. Not everyone is willing to see the bad inside oneself-I’m not talking about being evil at which you can be very good-just being kind of lousy at who you think you are. It was easy to change Nara from bad to good because she is not self conscious, but Aran has a hard time fitting in because he remembers at least in part who he is and thinks he’s right about it. Together, Aran/NaraExperience
Excellent video Chris. am curious to see how you set the story under the 3 Act structure. I've seen you using the 3 act structure in your other video.
I just ordered your plot gardening book. Is the story circle included in it?
Please use a larger font.
So helpful, thanks so much!
Really helpful method. :D
Great help! Thanks!
Thank you. Very helpful.
Usually, I can make characters and dialogue but I always have trouble making a plot. Especially one that's not too stereotypical. :)
This is an awesome video. Very helpful. =)
Chris, trying to get my arms around plotting, and I've got a quick question about Dan Harmon's story circle. When I plan the ending, is it typical for the return and change to kind of be grouped closely together? I mean, typically each section of the journey has scenes separating each spoke of the wheel (there's quite a bit of real estate between Go and Find). But I don't see how there could be between Return and Change, without just extending and possibly slowing down the ending.
I really struggled with this part. A lot. Some of the spokes are wider than the others. Change is generally one of the shortest, while Road of Trials is the longest. What I didn't understand, and now do, is that Change encompasses part of what I thought was the return. Change is demonstrated that they have changed, so if we're talking Return of the Jedi that's still in the middle of the action. Vader tosses Palpie down the shaft, beginning the change segment. He has demonstrated that he is different, as Luke has demonstrated the same by refusing to give in to anger, and hatred.
Changed begins the moment your hero says...no I'm not the old me. I'm not doing this like I would have at the beginning. I am doing it the right way, and I am going to win. To contrast the return for Luke began the moment the doors slid open, and Vader presented him. Take & Pay was turning himself in to his father.
Does that help at all?
@@ChrisFoxWrites That's very helpful. I struggle with endings, and have to actually visualize the medal scene from Star Wars Episode 4 to try to show an end to this story (a book in a greater series). I see what you're saying. I guess the 'change' isn't a scene as much as it is a process. It may be declared somehow at the end, or during the return. The return is actually not a ceremony either, but is the act of coming full circle and using your new found knowledge to face an old demon (like the playground bully that harassed you at first, gets thrown in a dumpster when you catch him picking on another kid). Anyway, I think I get it now (thanks for the Star Wars references, they help a lot to get the idea's to sink in).
Holy fuck..... this is how I write & plot novels lol. I think I might be doing something right.
(not with a circle, but just the flow of how a good story is told)
Campbell is the god of myth. Harmon is the god of TV. This makes sense.
At the 11:40 Mark is that not the ghost in the machine or The God who shows up and saves the main character who is a prisoner on the starship
Very helpful!
How does one use templates like this without a story becoming predictable? or even having it structured in a predictable way?
Would this work in the horror genre? How do you like plotting this as compared to Save the Cat plotting?
It depends on the type of horror. If you have a survivor at the end, then yes you can absolutely use a story circle (or multiple story circles). I think Save The Cat is great, and really see this as simply another way of solving the same problem.
Thanks Chris for the info! I'm having a hard time understanding the Save the Cat beats from Break into Two through Bad Guys Close In. I'm taking at a look at the story circle link now and it seems clearer. Hoping I can find some examples of how the circle breaks things down for movies like Save the Cat does.
Squirrel Attackspidy you should check out The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne. It's a little complicated but it's awesome, and he uses Silence of the Lambs as his main example.
Thanks Zach! I'll definitely check it out. Always good to see what other plotting structures are out there! :)
How would one go about dividing each part of the story circle into chapters? Is there a specific way to do it or is it more of an organic process that coincides with the flow of your story?
Doctor Strange didn't use this as a template but rather as a direct prompt.
Agreed.
Shame trying to find the Scrivener documents ends in a cercular process of signing up and going to the fist page of your blog rather than ever getting the docs. But, I guess that is how it goes, huh? LOL
Immediately after signing up you should get an email, which may have gone to your junk folder. One of the things it provides is a link to the Scrivener docs at chrisfoxwrites.com/scrivener
excellent video Chris. how do you put it under the Act I, II and III? As I've seen in your other videos?
I may be over complicating things, but do you try to match your word count for each section? For example, for an 80,000 word novel, would you try and make each of the 8 sections approximately 10,000 words? I'm struggling with this on the project I am working on.
In practice I've found certain sections are longer than others. Road of Trials seems to be the longest, while Meet the Goddess is the shortest. They do average out to roughly 8-10k for me though.
do u draw this circle before writing (after got the idea/premise) or after writing, for evaluation or somethin' ?
I liked this, can you give some examples about stories that break this cycle? that would be super interesting
The horror genre will often use a different cycle entirely, especially if they're killing every character. However, even many horror movies use it. You'll often have a single survivor who has been changed by their experience, and returns to their normal world. Movies that don't use it include Hellraiser and The Thing.
You will also see romance deviate from this model, as they're more about building toward a happily ever after. Those stories don't have any change in the protagonist, or very little. Take a look at say Romancing the Stone.
dude, you are awesome, you earned a subscriber
I recall the main character undergoes some character development throughout the course of the movie. It's not a particularly deep plot, but there is an arc there. Though if anything it seems like such line of thought in the case of Romancing the Stone would be confusing moral/point and plot structure. Just because the character doesn't change doesn't mean the story can't have a classic plot structure. Otherwise by that definition half the classic action films like SPEED would count as "unusual plot structures" simply because the hero has little personal growth. Hmm, I'll have to think more about these actual definitions...
Hi Chris, thank you for this. I'm just wondering if you still currently utilize this method to plot your novels. Thank you!
The General Lee appears!
if one has multiple PoV, do you make more than one then?
I do! I make a Story Circle for each major character, and I do a new one for each sequel.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Awesome, and I want to thank you for making series like this. it is really helpful for a newbie writer and I'm really thankful for your answer! Cheers from Sweden ♥️
Hey Chris, thanks for sharing! How much prep had you done before you filled out the story circle? Did you fill it out what you showed us in one sitting? Just curious what you felt you needed (if anything), before you could do that exercise. :)
I did a pitch A, and some world building documents. This is also a futuristic mirror of my fantasy world, so I have a lot of backstory from that. I think to use the Story Circle, you first need to understand the hero's world.
Spoken like a true DM!
I know this video is a year old, but question. What if your character can't have what they want? Or fail to attain it?
Then you're writing a tragedy.
Then what the character gets is a proper understanding of why they can't or shouldn't have it.
A new writer here.. I'm curious about television and that changes to the protaganist (per episode) are supposed to be minor and usually its the full season of a Television show where we see a major change (if at all) in our characters. Curious to hear how this circle theory could apply to an episodic structure for the character or plot arc? Also, this still seems like character is driving plot here versus plot driving story.. I suppose you could write plot or character arcs on the basis of scenes that are pivotal and fit them into that sector of the wheel making it a hybrid approach.. its still a little foggy how to use this in practice but overall great to see visually. Also how does this differ or help generate the outline. do this first or outline first?
The idea that a protagonist shouldn't change much from episode to episode is an artifact from the 1990s and is no longer accurate. Consider Stranger Things, BSG, Game of Thrones, or any other long running series. They've become true ongoing stories with heavy character growth.
Even shows like Community, which might be exactly what you're looking for, still show gradual change despite not having a singular arc. When done right, the plot and character arc are indistinguishable. =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites Thanks for this great reply.. actually was thinking science fiction episodic shows whereby characters typically change very little bit but require a whole season to get to a climax of change.. Characters learning and having experiences along the way.
still waiting on the notes on description. Would love to get your sources
Here you go! I'm adding it to the description too. This is from Dan Harmon:
channel101.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit
Hella-helpful! Thanks! ;)
I can't find any plot developing videos on writing tragedies, apparently nobody writes those anymore. 😅
There's plenty out there on tragedies. There are even Star Wars videos analyzing Episode 2-3 from the perspective of developing a tragedy. Just need to do a little digging =)
Chris Fox thank you!
Is this covered in your Plot Gardening book?
Yep. I have two chapters devoted to the Story Circle, and one to the 3 act structure =)
What about Negative Change Arc?
I write commercial fiction. People, in my genre at least, are not in to tragedies. They don't want to watch someone slowly disintegrate and regress as a character. Their own lives are hard enough. They want to see someone triumph and grow.
So you started with your protagonist waking up as an amnesiac? Yeesh.
Execution is everything. It's a well known trope, but people have loved it. Tech Mage is enormously popular, because I started with tired tropes and turned them on their head.
Any reviews I could check out?
Sure! I'm not faulker or anything, but I'm proud of the book. Here's the link to the Amazon page, with a decent number of reviews for only having been out three weeks:
www.amazon.com/Tech-Mage-Magitech-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0758QQ1X1/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Ah yes...The infamous Trope-A-Dope Maneuver...;-)
"early in the 20th century"?!
why would you line up your camera shot like this?
Tom Sharman because he's a writer. Why are you a giant douche?
Frankly speaking, all the explanation from Star Wars just distracts me as a person who did not watch and don't like it much (and is not a English native speaker/listener). I have watched it and just feel lost in a lot of information that I don't understand. Examples from several different sources would be more helpful. But I am sure that it would help a lot of SW fans, as well as Chris Fox's books readers.
Star Wars is arguably the most well known story in the world, and the video is already 15 minutes long. I always have to make trade offs when recording a video, and it's impossible to use examples that will make sense globally. I do the best I can =/
@@ChrisFoxWrites I'd say the Biblical stories, Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood are more well-known. I know lots of people who don't like sci-fi and have never watched Star Wars. I have rewatched this video a year later and I still don't get it because I don't know the references. I'd love if people used some other references, not just Star Wars, when they explained Story Circle :( Not only about you, I've watched several related TH-cam videos... The other videos of yours are really helpful.
@@Selyidar Asking us to remake videos using other stories is definitely an option. Another option is watching Star Wars so you understand the videos. That second option doesn't require a TH-camr to produce another video, and is much more likely to occur. I wish I could go back and do another Story Circle video, but my time is limited. Where I live Cinderella is fairly well known, but not nearly so well known as Star Wars. Little Red Riding Hood and most biblical stories would get blank looks from people.
your video needs an illustrator, nice job
Your face needs an illustrator. Seriously, though, I agree. One day I'll have the resources =)
I really appreciate this video, but you totally messed up the second half of that Star Wars story. You skipped a bunch of steps, then went back, but didn't really align them well, even though the story DID follow that arch. Sorta lost focus. Anyway, the video as a whole was very helpful. Thank you. Sorry for being anal.
Thank you so much! Haha been binge reading about outlining and I think I may be overloaded by it, but it was so helpful to read about Aran and gives me ideas about how to link other outlining tools together to suit my own purposes.
It's been a great pleasure discovering your channel and I'm quite excited to see your other videos for Preptober (eek almost NaNoWriMo!)
Excellent video Chris. am curious to see how you set the story under the 3 Act structure. I've seen you using the 3 act structure in your other video.
It lines up seamlessly. The first doorway is Go. Meet The Goddess is the midpoint. Take & Pay is the second crisis, and so on.
Thank you for replying so quickly. i see both my comments did register on this video even though i kept getting error message.