Story structure in fantasy fiction

This blog post is about common story structures used in fantasy fiction, including Save the Cat, the hero’s journey, and the heroine’s journey. Authors don't need to follow these structures, but they have played an important role in the history of the genre, so being familiar with them helps authors make informed choices about story structure in their own writing.

The big issue with story structure in fantasy fiction (and beyond) is that there's lots of competing advice out there, and a lot of this advice is bad. This is not true for other craft topics, such as character goals and motivation, where there's a broad consensus.

Now, genre fiction (and commercial film/TV shows) in general follows templates much more often than, say, literary fiction or experimental fiction. There are recognizable formulas that readers and viewers recognize unconsciously. These may be satisfying or irritating to you as you watch or read. But, just as with tropes, it’s their familiarity that many readers find comforting.

Developmental editing services for fiction authors

Learn more about the basics of story structure here:

Story structure in fantasy fiction and beyond: Beware of rigid formulas

Sometimes you will see editors or marketeers selling their story structure blueprint. Some of the famous ones include Save the Cat Writes a Novel and Storygrid.

There are also story templates out there, available for free. In the fantasy fiction space, these include the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey.

Some editors recommend you apply these templates prescriptively to novel writing. For instance, there are people who will say, if the inciting incident hasn't happened by ten percent in or in the first two or three chapters, and the stakes aren't raised roughly halfway through, then the story won’t work. Generally speaking, this is really bad advice because it can lead authors to make insertions and changes that aren't right for their novel just to fit very rigid expectations.

Part of the problem here is that the fiction developmental editing space is completely unregulated, and that means anyone can hang up their shingle and call themselves a story editor. As a result, there are varying levels of competency, and hustlers out there solely to make money off new authors. It pains me to see fiction developmental editors actually be this prescriptive.

These templates are out there partly because they have become commercially popular and because it is easier to sell your magic rigid ten-step formula for story structure than to constantly reply to author requests with "maybe" or "it depends" or "you have to think about the context." And that's because confidence sells.

So we should be really wary of pushing rigid formulas on people. The story coach Karen Parker has linked this kind of formula pushing to capitalism explicitly on their coaching course.

Who can templates help?

That said, templates can help authors who struggle a lot with plot and write intuitively, without outlining or planning (so-called pantsers). But authors should not make edits to satisfy rigid criteria, especially those based on percentages.

Templates can also help people who feel insecure about their writing, because their faith in a ten-step model, say, can help them feel more confident about their writing.

Now on to fantasy fiction!

Story structure in fantasy fiction: The hero’s journey

You might have heard of the hero's journey. This is a really common and famous template used. It's grounded in the much older idea of a quest.

Psychologically, this appeals to a lot of writers because writing a novel is also a quest. It’s usually a long one, and like a quest it’s ultimately about the getting there and the friendships formed along the way rather than the act of hitting publish.

The hero's journey starts with a character in a familiar, home-like place. This character might be responsible for the fate of a group of people or, like, the world or a situation or something like that. They usually have some kind of unique skill or ability, often linked to the Chosen One trope.

Take Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. She has archery skills and strong personality features, such as her independence and compassion and so on. Or Frodo Baggins.

The hero's journey is a circular model. This person goes on a journey (usually in the external world, but it could also be an internal or emotional journey). The journey typically ends in the same place it begins, but the world and them have been changed forever by the process. The protagonist moves from the known world to another setting full of danger. And often this journey into the unknown introduces the protagonist or reveals to them their unique power.

This model is incredibly popular in storytelling, in Western storytelling specifically, and you'll see it all over the show in anything from Hollywood films to fantasy novels.

The heroine’s journey

I prefer the heroine's journey, which is another fairly common template. Now this is like the hero's journey. There's still this move from the familiar home-like setting to the unknown or the unfamiliar setting. But the arc isn't about the protagonist's individual kind of change and realization that changes maybe the world or their situation. It's about the heroine as they move through this space, this unfamiliar space full of danger. It's about them forming a support network of allies and beating this foe or this darkness and being changed through collective action rather than individual action.

So now you have three templates: Save the Cat, the hero’s journey, and the heroine’s journey. And I’ve strongly recommended not applying them rigidly and not making edits to force your story into one of these frameworks.

Story structure in fantasy romance

Subgenre also matters. If you are writing fantasy romance, then the emphasis will be on the romance, and it will typically have the romance beats, something very similar to Gwen Hayes's Romancing the Beat. There will be obstacles to the couple being together, and there will be a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) ending.Maybe you’re writing romantic fantasy. Romantic fantasy is a fantasy novel with a significant romance subplot. The romance isn't the number one feature, necessarily. You don’t need a happily ever after ending. Romantasy straddles, for want of a better word, these two subgenres, romantic fantasy and fantasy romance.

Why fantasy fiction is so cool!

For me, the beauty of speculative fiction and fantasy is that you can get all kinds of stories in there as long as there's some fresh worldbuilding element. And while certain templates like the hero's journey and the heroine's journey may be favored, I think there's also a lot of room for plot innovation in spec fic compared with some other genres that stick more closely to expected beats, such as romance and thrillers.

And that's partly why I love editing speculative fiction, because I find it constantly surprises me. Okay.

Conclusion: Story structures are like chairs – some work, some don’t

On her plot and story structure course, Jennifer Lawler says that story structure is like a chair. Now you know when a chair works as a chair, and you know what wouldn't work as a chair. Like, a spike would make a really, really bad chair, for example. But there are hundreds, there are thousands of possible great chairs, and a chair that is comfy for me might be uncomfortable for you and vice versa. This is why I think story templates are ultimately a bad call when applied rigidly. What makes a good chair depends on various factors – the materials the shape, the pressure on your bum and lower back as you sit. And the same applies to novel writing. There is no one size fits all.

Developmental editing services for fiction authors