You have to remember that story structure exists just in case you don't know what to write. You shouldn't force an existing story into any kind of structure. Trust your sense, and remember that storytellers always beat writers. Always.
E.A.Deverell has explained it all very nicely: Plot Structure by Lady Writers
She has done a very thorough job by collecting all the story structures she found in one place, and explaining them a little as well.
She has a nice plotting tool called "One Page Novel"
It is based on the idea of that you start at the ending.
You write the beginning as sort of a mirror image of the end.
Then you write the middle point, called "shift", which is about the shift (duh) of the MC from the person they were in the beginning to the person they are going to be in the end.
then you write the trigger, or the inciting incidence, which kicks the MC on the road of changing
The Quest tells about "giving" them what they need to become the person they will be in the end - they will meet the necessary people, they will learn the necessary skills, they will be met with events that force them to change their thinking, attitudes, priorities and all that.
After that you'll write The Power, which is sort of the mirror image of The Quest - whereas in The Quest the character was pursuing what they THOUGHT they needed and wanted, in The Power they are using what they KNOW they need and want.
After that you write The Bolt, which is sort of what is needed to happen to kick some sense to the MC, to shake off the illusion of control, knowledge and confidence. At that point the MC will be deceived, distracted, diverted, the plans they made during the Quest phase are spoiled, foiled and destroyed, proven not to work, because they were built on false premises. Think that this is what leads you from The Quest to The Shift. This is what makes them realize what they need to realize to be able to shift.
Then you write The Defeat, which is the "all is lost" moment. The story forces the MC to sacrifice something to burn away the illusion that made them lose in The Bolt. This is The Phoenix moment. You will die, a painful, horrifying death, you will be hanged from the meat hooks at Underworld and skinned alive, you have to shed your armor and be completely naked to the meat and bones, completely open, to be able to be born again.
All these stages are mirroring and connecting each other. The beginning and the end mirror each other, The Bolt mirrors the ending, The Quest The Power, everything is connected, everything causes everything else, it's a dance of repeating and reflecting movements, all focused on the main character's growth and change... The bigger the ante, challenge, suffering, the bigger the impact.
This character goes on with their life. Everyday normal. Often there's something about this life they aren't quite happy about - often they are not at all happy about it, and want it to change. Sometimes they are quite happy about it.
Then something happens. Something that forces them out of the "everyday normal", whether they want or not. This force has to be characteristic for your character, and show the reader what makes your character special. You can't just throw an earthquake on your character, because some would just lay down and die if something so devastating happened to them. What would make your character react and leave the safety of familiarity? You use either the carrot and lure them out of the safety with an opportunity they can't resist, or the stick, and make it clear they have to act or die, lose what they most want forever.
Make them want something so bad they will act to get or to keep it.
So, they act and things happen because of that.
Here we get into the character development area. You do as you will. It isn't necessary, but it gives depth to your story. The idea is that during the first half of your story, the character is innocent, well-meaning, full of beliefs, ideas, preconceived notions, prejudices, theories, all that, and these get tried, tested, experimented upon, and all the false ones will prove to be false, all the sound ones will be confirmed.
This part is also about teaching your character what they need to get what they really want. Which might be different from what they think they want.
They will try to get what they want, and depending on what kind of a story you are writing, the things go wrong until they try to get what they really want, in an authenthic, genuine, true manner, being true to themselves, their values, using what they have learned in a way only they could.
The punishment for wrong answer should be bad, to make the reward for right answer better.
Make the solution, answer, supportive of your chosen theme. If you want to write a book about the power of friendship, make it so that friendship is the reason why they win.
Then they return to the Everyday Normal, but they have changed, they have grown, and Everyday Normal is now something quite different from what it was in the beginning of the story.
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