Prior to the start of a new story, some writers like to do preliminary outlines, scene summaries and character development. Others prefer to just see where their pen leads them, and then structure their story after they have enough pieces to put together. Neither method is better than the other. It is simply your process. But either way, structure will come into play some time in your writing process, because inevitably, there must be a beginning, a middle and an end to your story. The difference between short fiction and long fiction, is that there is a sense that events were happening before the story unfolded on the page and will continue to happen after the story ends on the page.
Examining Freitag's Triangle is the best way to understand the structure of a story. Click on the link below and follow along. Using the children's story, Little Red Riding Hood, we can see how its structure follows the shape of Freitag's Triangle:
A-B: This is the beginning of the story, where we are presented with the basic conflict. The main character is introduced, and we are given the ground situation or dramatic context: Little Red Riding Hood is informed of her grandmother's illness.
B: This is where the conflict is introduced. It leads to the rising action of B-C. We see what's at stake for our central character: Although she knows the woods are filled with danger, our main character dons on her red cape and sets out to walk through the woods to bring food to her sick grandmother.
B-C: This is the rising action and where events occur to complicate the central character's situation. Obstacles get in the way; mistakes are made. Note how each event or action builds upon the other: A wolf is brought into the story. He wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but doesn't want to do this publicly. Instead, he befriends the little girl. She makes the fateful mistake of telling him where she is going. He convinces the girl to stop and pick some flowers. Meanwhile he goes to her grandmother's house, pretending to be the girl. The grandmother, just as gullible as the little girl, lets him in. The wolf swallows the grandmother whole and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandmother. When Little Red Riding Hood arrives, she senses something isn't quite right and questions his identity. This leads him to swallow her whole as well.
C:This is considered the crisis action. The outcome is inevitable, and nothing will be the same again. Decisions are made; sometimes in the form of an epiphany. This action creates significant and permanent change in the characters' lives: A woodsman bursts in and cuts the wolf open.
C-D: This is the falling action, when the conflict resolves itself: Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge unharmed.
D: This is the resolution or denouement; the characters' lives continue after the story ends:Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother live happily ever after.
Click here for Freitag's Triangle
There are quite a few works of short fiction that bend the rules of this traditional story structure, but for new writers, learning and using this structure will give you a solid foundation in shaping good fiction.
Lisa Abellera is a freelance writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and in an anthology of creative travel writing. She is the co-founder of a graduate-level writers workshop group and is hard at work on her collection of short fiction. For more about the writing process and the craft of writing fiction, visit lisaabellera.wordpress.com
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