Triangle of Structure

Sarah (Sally) Hamer is eternally fascinated by people and how they ‘tick’ and works hard to incorporate individual idiosyncrasies to create living, breathing characters in her many works of fiction. She writes in many genres—mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, medieval history, non-fiction—and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of beginning and advanced creative fiction writing and screenwriting at Louisiana State University—S for over ten years, she also is a book coach, with many of her students and critique partners becoming successful, award-winning authors.

Hello to all you intrepid travelers on the Road of Expression Through Writing! It’s a crazy road, full of ups and downs and obstacles galore. But it is VERY worth all the trouble! I promise!

This class is designed to help you cut through some of the blather that rules the internet—we are inundated with vast volumes of “how-to” do this or that and, in fact, Google provides us with millions of articles, blogs, and videos on how to structure a book.

I’ve seen the Hero’s Journey divided up into sixteen, eighteen, and even one-hundred twenty sections, each with a detailed explanation as to what we interpret Joseph Campbell to have meant. Don’t misunderstand—I love Campbell and Vogler and Save the Cat and all the rest.

But, when I’m teaching a room-full of beginning writers how to structure their book, the glazed eyes tell me I’m giving them too much information.

So, I’ve created a simpler and easier way to understand how that structure works, using just the three “major” points: the Inciting Incident, the Reversal, and the Black Moment. (I’ll use other names too, but these will be the main ones.)

1. Intro and background—What is Structure?

- How plot works

- How to build a strong, viable, fascinating plot through simple steps

2. Goal, Motivation, Conflict

- The basics of creating characters who people care about

- Filling scenes with tension, so the reader will turn the page

3. The Hero’s Journey

- Old as time, this journey is the basis for every story

- Breakdown of how it’s done

4. Inciting Incident

- The first point of the Triangle—the starting point for the story

5. Reversal

- Now, it’s personal! How to move the character from reactive to proactive

6. Black Moment

- The sacrifice and rebirth of the character’s goal

7. Pulling it all together

- Using all three points of the Triangle to build the story around

8. Wrap Up

- Making sure you got it!

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