# Study of Story Structure What do we mean by the “structure” of a story? It’s not the story itself; it’s the form or “shape” of the story. It’s not the water; it’s the glass! You know those forms you have to fill out at the doctor’s offices? The structure is the form itself, not your own personal answers to the questions. Feel free to think of your own metaphor for this! Meanwhile, check these out: - From “Prior Probability,” here’s a [visualization of the logic of storytelling](https://priorprobability.com/2017/07/13/visualization-of-the-logic-of-storytelling/). - Reedsyblog offers us “[7 Narrative Structures All Writers Should Know](https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/story-structure/)” - Here’s a Blurb purporting to answer the question “[What is Story Structure?](https://www.blurb.com/blog/what-is-story-structure/)” - This looks like a pretty good [summary of the fundamentals of story structure](https://writingcooperative.com/fundamentals-of-story-structure-e199f131a891). - Here’s a fun one: “[The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations), first proposed by Georges Polti in 1895 to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance.” - Finally, a perennial favorite, “[Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rv1N7it4qbyh1aPG5Y5Ws9WxCCCwQClx/view?usp=sharing)” (VIDEO) Want some more videos about different aspects of the concept of structure? Here you go: - What is the [difference between a story and its structure](https://drive.google.com/file/d/13R2g-rs7oDM9kdSy82lS0BpY8N9eMW6D/view?usp=sharing)? (VIDEO) - Here is a [longer discussion about structure](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rZ6Qq8iSL7Vz4upTqvgQjQ0FBi8OA9Ho/view?usp=share_link)—how to identify it, what we’re doing with it, etc. (VIDEO) - Learn to [recognize parallel structure](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PpCdiGZvLssilksP07rE6sGTXBii-3tT/view?usp=sharing), a fundamental technique that sometimes goes unnoticed but can make a huge difference in how writing is perceived. (VIDEO) - Don’t limit your awareness to the “macro” structure of a whole story; also be aware of and experiment with [structure at the sentence level](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vxrZmfWL9jusRnLHGOwuEAtRi8y13DvQ/view?usp=share_link) too (VIDEO) Now that you know so much, why not try your hand at [[analyzing story structure]] or [[emulating story structure]]? 🤩