There are more ways to structure a story than I find useful to think about. It’s something that when I was a young teen I thought I had under wraps because when I read the Hero With A Thousand Faces I understand every step and could identify every step in my own writing. I thought that was the end all be all of story structure because it applied to literally everything I’d ever seen. Then I came across the wealth and variety of different structures and saw how the rest of them didn’t come close to encompassing every story I’d ever seen, but more concisely related to smaller subsections of storytelling. I’ll be blunt, this rocked me pretty hardcore. It made me question myself and my ability to tell stories for years. It was as if the flood gate of information that poured in just overwhelmed me and made me understand that everything I knew was a drop in the bucket of the reality of the situation.
For a long time that anxiety has plagued me. In recent years I have done more research than writing because of it. It drives me to write these articles, and to find the best information for organizing writing at the comparable atomic level. I understand this isn’t necessary for everyone. Really it isn’t. If anyone has ever made you feel that way do your best to ignore them. Everyone can write differently. Different methods exist for a reason, but there are certain methods and tools that are just so basic they deserve our undivided attention. To this end I present you all with the Story Circle, a tool created by one of the greatest modern artists Dan Harmon.
Dan Harmon Story Circle Simpsons
The story circle is based on Joseph Campbell’s A Hero With A Thousand Faces. If it isn’t something you are familiar with I suggest you at least look up YouTube videos of his interviews on the subject. They are very informative. If you are super into mythology then the book itself is an indisputable and great resource for understanding how mythology and religion trace back to similar roots, but I digress. Those are topics for my Fantasy writing series. Where the hero’s journey formula is a good generic scaffolding for a story Dan Harmon’s story circle is a tool that builds upon and simplifies it into a formula that gives us scaffolding, built in character arcs, and all in a form that can be used as a fractal to weave incredibly complex stories within stories.
In this blog I am only going over the structure itself and not all of its uses. If there is some interest I will go over the various ways you can apply this formula in later posts. But for not I’ll be working on combining this with the previous articles I’ve written on character development, and scenes and sequels to write a story for you all so you can see what it all looks like when assembled into a short story. For now though, let’s dig into the meat of the story circle and see why it is important to understand even if we elect not to use it.
The story circle consists of eight parts.
1: A character in a zone of comfort
2: But they want something
3: They enter an unfamiliar situation
4: Adapt to it
5: Get what they wanted
6: Pay a heavy price for it
7: Then return to their familiar situation
8: Having changed
Something I hoped you notice about the way these are labeled is that each of these steps is a summary instead of a typical label. I believe there’s a reason for that even if Dan Harmon doesn’t come out and say it himself when he discusses it. I think that reason is so that you can look at the list above and know what goes into each spot without having to think much about it. After all I haven’t even begun to explain what happens in each section and I bet you already have a solid idea of how it all works. Don’t you feel smart? You should. And if you don’t quite get it yet that’s fine. You’ll get it soon enough.
Another way Dan Harmon gives us to thing about is:
1:When you
2: Have a need
3: You go somewhere
4: Search for it
5: Find it
6: Take it
7: Then return
8: And change things
Each of this points fits into a corresponding point of a circle like the one pictured below.
The points correspond into two worlds. The overworld which is the world of light and life. It’s the world where life, order, and consciousness rule. It’s the place where your character feels at home because it is where their life just normally exists. Some call it the mundane world, but I think that cuts it short and gives us the wrong impression. Just think of it as your character’s normal reality and you will do fine. The second is the underworld which is the domain of darkness and death. This is the world where your hero faces challenges they never saw coming. It’s where their world gets turned upside down by the insanity that is the rest of the story. They meet their road of challenges head on, they enter the belly of the whale, they meet the goddess and take what they need, and then they lose something for it. This is the strange world dominated by death, the unconscious, and chaos. It’s the sagging middle of the story but it is some very important.
This is the visual structure of it all, and I think for most of us that says more about the structure than I can accurately describe. But before I move on there is one thing I would like to stress. When it is laid out like this it looks as if each segment is equal in length. It’s not the case. Usually the underworld segment takes up more space than the overworld. The brief introduction. The first five or so chapters of a novel and the last few chapters with the climax make up the overworld. The other majority of it takes place in the underworld. Where yours fits in may vary dramatically compared to others, but rest assured for almost all great writing the beginning and end that is the overworld makes up the minority of the story.
Now that the set up is over it’s all downhill from here. I’ll be briefly describing each segment from here on out. This is where you really need to take notes as this is the part you will need to reference the most often.
1: A character in a zone of comfort
This is the section where you focus in on and define who is the main character of the story. You use this section to let the reader know who it is they need to care about and show them in their normal world. The quicker you relate to the reader who it is they’re supposed to be in the head of the better.
2: But they want something
This is the section where we start to show that things aren’t perfect. In a romance this is where we see that the character is single or needs to find better taste in men and will soon be single because of it. In Star Wars this is where Luke sees the princess as a hologram. In your generic fantasy this is where we here about the king’s men massing to destroy your farmboy’s village and slaughter his family. This is where we create your hero’s need to move the plot forward. The goal of the story is introduced here. It doesn’t have to be the end goal of the story just what motivates your hero to get moving toward it.
3: They enter an unfamiliar situation
This is where we cross that threshold into the underworld. It’s where we begin to see that contrast between the hero’s normal world and the rest of the story. If we’re with out farm boy this is where the king has decimated his village while he was away. If this is Star Wars this is where Luke has just found out his aunt and uncle were murdered and Ben Kenobi gives him the chance to leave and join the rebellion. If this is your Urban Fantasy story this is where your hero comes face to face with the realization that zombie, faery, werewolves are eating taxi cab drivers and they are the only one who can stop them. Point is this is where there is no turning back. You have just crossed the major threshold and it needs to feel like that.
4: Adapt to it
This is the part we know best as either the corny training montage that we should avoid or as the road of trials. Seriously, do not training montage. Just don’t. Do, however, give your hero a series of trials that they must face, fail, and repeatedly learn from. This is where you can shape your hero for the change they need to make to take down the villain in the end. You get to reveal the character flaw you are addressing and really make them suffer for holding onto it until they start to learn to let go.
5: Get what they wanted
At this point in Star Wars, Luke has rescued the princess and learned that he needs to take charge of his own destiny. It’s here where he really learns that he needs to believe in himself and his own abilities because we all have a role to play and none of us can afford to be second fiddle when the universe needs us at our best. In a quest story this is where you have broken into Hades’ vault and stolen the stone of rebirth or some other mystical artifact and now need to escape. Point is it’s almost just what it says you get what you want, but it’s also where your hero finds out what they want isn’t what they need. Sure they have the artifact, but does it do them any good if they die because of it?
6: Pay a heavy price for it
This part is one of the most deceptively complex of the entire process. Every goal has a price to be paid when you get it. In Star Wars this is where old Ben gets struck down. In our example with the hero descending into Hades’ vault it’s where the love of his life sacrifices herself so he may escape and save their village. The loss here is personal. It gives the hero the kick in the pants they need to iron out any wavering conviction they had about the real goal they need to be after and sends them careening into it full force.
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In a sense this section is a second road of trials. Facing loss and steep opposition your hero must use what they learned in the first road of trials to survive and reach the overworld once more. This is where things get truly difficult and your hero must show that they are quickly mastering the change the needed to take down the big bad at the end of the story which is now fast approaching.
7: Then return to their familiar situation
This is what I like to think of as the climax before the climax. It’s where your hero absolutely must escape the underworld and they aren’t even about to just let them out. The big buddy’s henchmen are willing to pull out all the stops to keep your hero where they want them. This leads us to the end our circle and to the final showdown where our hero must show that what they have learned and sacrificed is enough to take down the villain and restore the world to working order again.
Burnout game free download for pc full version. 8: Having changed
Things are tough here. Your hero, your cast of heroes and the friends they made along the way now must use what they sacrificed for and the lessons they learned along the way to defeat the villain. Your character who refused to kill anyone and focused on redemption earlier needs to prove they understand some people can’t be saved and kill the villain. The one who went into it thinking that torturing innocent merchants to weed out the bigger corruption finally understands that he’s been played all along and that his boss is the bigger corruption. What’s more they take steps to eliminate them while showing mercy. Whatever character change we spent the story focusing on needs to take center stage. Sometimes this even means our hero needs to fail and the friends they learned to rely on over the course of the story need to step up and save the day.
They call this the master of both worlds because this is where the character proves they have what it takes to survive in both worlds and thrive because of it. The character has changed and this shows us that through cycles of failure and perseverance that we can overcome any odds, at least as long as our opposition remains stagnant.
This section finishes off our story and shows the world returning to normal. The big event is now over and the day is saved or at least salvaged. A lot of bad stuff happened along the way but through the power of character change the world is confident it won’t happen again, and if it does, and it inevitably will, they can remain confident that the hero can become the change they need to save them all.
I hope you can see why I consider this to be among the most basic story structures to there. It’s applicable to any story I have ever seen and can at the very least be used as a guide or prompt when you’re stuck and need a kick to remember what content should be where you are in your story.
If you need any clarification on any of the parts feel free to drop me a comment below and I’d be glad to help.
Do you have a favorite story structure? Is there a template you think is better than this? Let me know. I’d be glad to hear your opinions and maybe even learn a thing or two in the process.
Posted byMurder in 'Utopia, | Marxist Fiction4 years ago
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This is taken from Dan Harmon's Channel 101 post, found here, and it is one of the many great ways to look at story structure which might help you follow China Miéville's advice on novel structure for beginners, found here. Now back to Harmon:
Storytelling comes naturally to humans, but since we live in an unnatural world, we sometimes need a little help doing what we'd naturally do.
Draw a circle and divide it in half vertically.
Divide the circle again horizontally.
Starting from the 12 o clock position and going clockwise, number the 4 points where the lines cross the circle: 1, 3, 5 and 7.
Number the quarter-sections themselves 2, 4, 6 and 8.
[Image of the circle]
Here we go, down and dirty:
Start thinking of as many of your favorite movies as you can, and see if they apply to this pattern. Now think of your favorite party anecdotes, your most vivid dreams, fairy tales, and listen to a popular song (the music, not necessarily the lyrics). Get used to the idea that stories follow that pattern of descent and return, diving and emerging. Demystify it. See it everywhere. Realize that it's hardwired into your nervous system, and trust that in a vacuum, raised by wolves, your stories would follow this pattern.
I will talk in greater detail about this pattern in subsequent tutorials.
Next article:Story Structure 102: Pure, Boring Theory
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Dan Harmon Story Circle Podcast
Daniel James Harmon[1] (born January 3, 1973) is an American writer, producer, rapper,[2] actor, and podcaster. Harmon created and produced the NBC sitcom Community, co-created the Adult Swim animated series Rick and Morty, and co-founded the alternative television network/website Channel 101. Harmon published the book You'll Be Perfect When You're Dead in 2013.[3] He also hosts a weekly podcast, Harmontown.
Early life[edit]
Harmon was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from Brown Deer High School in Brown Deer, a suburb of Milwaukee, and attended Marquette University. He briefly attended Glendale Community College. He would later use his experiences at the school to form the basis of the show Community.[4]
Career[edit]Early career (1996–2008)[edit]
Harmon was a member of ComedySportz Milwaukee, alongside Rob Schrab, a member of the sketch troupe The Dead Alewives. They produced an album, Take Down the Grand Master, in 1996. Harmon frequently appeared at Milwaukee's Safehouse free comedy stage early in his career. A notable routine was a song about masturbation.
Dan Harmon Story Circle Worksheet
Harmon at a panel for Community at PaleyFest 2010
Harmon co-created the television pilot Heat Vision and Jack (starring Owen Wilson and Jack Black) and several Channel 101 shows, some featuring Black, Drew Carey, and Sarah Silverman. He co-created Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program and served as head writer for several episodes.
Harmon portrayed a highly fictionalized version of Ted Templeman on two episodes of the Channel 101 web series Yacht Rock, a satirical history of soft rock, featuring stories about Templeman's collaborations with The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald and Van Halen. He was the creator, executive producer, and a featured performer in Acceptable.TV, a Channel 101-based sketch show airing for eight episodes in March 2007 on VH1. He and Rob Schrab co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-nominated film Monster House.[5] He is credited with writing part of Rob Schrab's comic book series Scud: The Disposable Assassin, as well as the spin-off comic series La Cosa Nostroid.
Community (2009–2012; 2014–2015)[edit]
In 2009, Harmon's sitcom Community, inspired by his own community college experiences, was picked up by NBC to be in its fall lineup. Harmon served as executive producer and showrunner for 3 seasons until May 18, 2012, when it was announced that Harmon was being terminated from his position on Community as a result of creative conflicts between himself and Sony executives.[6] On June 1, 2013, Harmon announced that he would be returning to Community, serving as co-showrunner along with Chris McKenna;[7][8] this was confirmed by Sony Pictures on June 10.[9] NBC cancelled the show after its fifth season in May 2014,[10] after which Harmon announced on June 30, 2014 that Yahoo! had renewed the series for a 13-episode sixth season to air online on Yahoo! Screen.[11]
Harmontown and HarmonQuest (2011–present)[edit]
On May 23, 2011, Harmon began hosting a monthly live comedy show and podcast at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood called Harmontown. After his firing from Community, the show became weekly. The show is co-hosted by Jeff B. Davis. Notably, Harmontown has featured a regular segment where the hosts played an ongoing campaign of pen-and-paper role-playing games, first Dungeons & Dragons, and later Shadowrun, with the help of show Game Master Spencer Crittenden. The segment inspired the Seeso original animated series HarmonQuest. The show has featured guests, such as Kumail Nanjiani, Curtis Armstrong, Bobcat Goldthwait, Mitch Hurwitz, Aubrey Plaza, Eric Idle, Greg Proops, Jason Sudekis, Zoe Lister-Jones, Ryan Stiles, as well as Harmon's then-wife, podcaster Erin McGathy.[12] Harmon and Davis took the show on tour in early 2013, broadcasting from Austin, Nashville, Somerville, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, Rhode Island, and more. The tour became the subject of a documentary produced by director Neil Berkeley that follows Harmon, Davis, McGathy, and Crittenden. The documentary, also called Harmontown, premiered at the Austin Film Festival SXSW on March 8, 2014.[13][14]
Rick and Morty (2013–present)[edit]
Harmon and co-showrunner, Justin Roiland, began developing ideas for an animated show during Harmon's yearlong break from Community.[15] For its fall 2012 season, Adult Swim ordered a 30-minute animated pilot from Harmon and Roiland. The pilot, Rick and Morty, is about the adventures of a brilliant but mean-spirited inventor and his less-than-genius grandson.[16] The show premiered on December 2, 2013 and was renewed for a second season.[17] The series' third season concluded in October 2017. Harmon voiced the recurring character of Bird Person.[18] In May 2018, Rick and Morty was renewed for a further 70 episodes after Harmon and Roiland came to an agreement with Adult Swim.[19]
The Sirens of Titan (TBA)[edit]
It was announced that Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan would be made into a television series and would be adapted by Dan Harmon and Evan Katz.[20]
'Story Circle' technique[edit]
Harmon has invented a storytelling framework referred to as the 'Story Circle.'[21] He began developing the technique in the late '90s, while stuck on a screenplay. He wanted to codify the storytelling process — to find the structure powering movies and TV shows. 'I was thinking, there must be some symmetry to this,' Harmon told Wired. 'Some simplicity.'[21] While working on Channel 101, Harmon found that many of the directors he was working with claimed that they were unable to write plots for television shows.[22] This caused Harmon to distill Joseph Campbell's structure of the Monomyth into a simple, circular eight-step process that would reliably produce coherent stories.
The story circle supposedly can be applied to all stories. Harmon uses it whenever he's writing a new story, saying 'I can't not see that circle. It's tattooed on my brain.'[21] The circle is divided into eight segments, each representing a stage of the plot. A character is introduced, wants something, enters a new environment, adapts to that environment, achieves their goal but encounters problems as a result, leaves that world and changes as a result. The steps are as follows:
Joseph Campbell's structure of the Monomyth is the main influence in Harmon's technique. In a blog post detailing the second sector of the circle Harmon explains, 'The point of this part of the circle is, our protagonist has been thrown into the water and now it's sink or swim. In Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell actually evokes the image of a digestive tract, breaking the hero down, divesting him of neuroses, stripping him of fear and desire. There's no room for bullshit in the unconscious basement. Asthma inhalers, eyeglasses, credit cards, fratty boyfriends, promotions, toupees and cell phones can't save you here. The purpose here has become refreshingly - and frighteningly - simple.'[23] The Monomyth has been adapted for screen and television writing before, most notably by former Disney developmental executive Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Harmon has noted this book as an influence on the embryo technique, as well as the work of Syd Field.[23]
Harmon states that this circular structure of storytelling can be applied both to film and TV, suggesting in a Channel 101 blog that only the final intentions are different. 'A feature film's job is to send you out of the theatre on a high in 90 minutes. Television's job is to keep you glued to the television for your entire life. This doesn't entail making stories any less circular (TV circles are so circular they're sometimes irritatingly predictable). It just means that the focus of step 8 is less riling-things-up and more getting-things-back-to-where-they-started,' he says.[citation needed] Harmon has used the Story Embryo technique extensively throughout projects such as Community[24] and Rick and Morty.[25] In an interview on Collider writer, Adam Chitwood said, 'The show [Rick and Morty] debuted in 2013 to a serious degree of anticipation, as it marked a new animated venture for Community creator Dan Harmon, but it was the marriage of Harmon's adeptness for structure and character and co-creator Justin Roiland's insanely creative/sometimes insane mind that made Rick and Morty much more than just another animated TV series for adults.'
Fans and critics have retroactively applied Harmon's Story Circle to other shows, such as Breaking Bad.[26] Harmon's technique has been adopted by Irish sitcom writer Graham Linehan, the creator of shows such as Father Ted, The IT Crowd, and Black Books. In an interview with the Telegraph, Linehan said: 'Whenever I write for television, I plan the story on whiteboard wallpaper in my office, using a system created by the American writer Dan Harmon, saying, 'It's remarkably simple: a character wants something; they enter a new world and adapt to it; they get what they want, re-enter the old world and change.' The great thing about it is that once you have an idea for one bit, the section opposite comes naturally, as do the ones on either side, and so on. It's basically a distillation of the 'hero's journey' idea, but it's undetectable and applies to any ideas, big or small.'[27]
Awards[edit]
In July 2009, Harmon was nominated in two Emmy categories for his part in writing the Oscar telecast: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, the latter of which he was awarded for 'Hugh Jackman Opening Number' at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.
Personal life[edit]
In 2011, while writing the character Abed for Community, Harmon discovered he might have Asperger syndrome.[28]
In December 2013, Harmon proposed to his girlfriend Erin McGathy.[29] The two married in November 2014.[30] They announced they were divorcing in October 2015.[31]
In 2016, Harmon started dating Cody Heller.[32]
Controversies[edit]Misconduct[edit]
On January 2, 2018, Dan Harmon alluded to misconduct from himself towards other people. Megan Ganz, a writer who worked with Harmon on Community responded, naming herself as a victim in said misconduct. Harmon responded by attempting a dialogue with Ganz, wherein he attempted to apologize, and though Ganz said she appreciated his gestures, she declined to forgive him.[33] After the exchange, Harmon made a lengthy apology on his podcast Harmontown where he went into detail about his wrongdoings which included making advances on her and then mistreating her after she turned him down. Ganz said that she felt vindicated by the admission and accepted his apology, urging her Twitter followers to listen to this episode of Harmontown, and calling it a 'master class in how to apologize', ultimately forgiving him.[34][35]
Baby doll video controversy[edit]
In 2009, I made a 'pilot' which strove to parody the series Dexter and only succeeded in offending. I quickly realized the content was way too distasteful and took the video down immediately. Nobody should ever have to see what you saw and for that, I sincerely apologize.
—Dan Harmon[36]
In July 2018, Harmon received criticism when a controversial comedy skit from 2009 resurfaced. In the video titled 'Daryl', which was intended to be a parody of Dexter, Harmon acts out a rape using a baby doll as a prop. Vox reported that the video was circulated on 4chan by alt-right users as part of a coordinated attempt to discredit public figures with leftist viewpoints.[37] Harmon apologized for the video, while multiple sources associated his decision to delete his Twitter account with the backlash.[36] Adult Swim released a statement criticizing the video, but they appeared satisfied with Harmon's apology.[38] Talking on Harmontown in February 2019, Harmon revealed that he had deleted his Twitter account prior to the backlash, in response to Disney's firing of James Gunn for some jokes that Gunn had made in his tweets years ago. Harmon argued that this is what actually provoked 4chan users to target him, having assumed that he was trying to hide something from his past.[39]
Filmography[edit]Film[edit]
Television[edit]
Web series[edit]
Bibliography[edit]Story Credits[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
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