Stories and Storyforms

Introduction

When we think of a story, we often focus on the surface elements—characters, events, or settings. But there’s much more to a story than meets the eye. Beneath the plot and dialogue lies a carefully crafted structure, guiding how the story unfolds and what it ultimately communicates. This deeper structure is what gives a story its shape, direction, and meaning. Whether you’re writing a novel, a screenplay, or even a video game, the real power of your story comes from how well its underlying framework supports the message you want to convey. This is where the concept of Storyforms comes in.

Understanding Storyforms

A Storyform is a unique narrative structure that defines the thematic argument of a particular storyline. Every Storyform works as a cohesive blueprint for your narrative, organizing characters, plot points, and themes into a meaningful whole. Many well-known films have more than one Storyform, allowing them to explore different narrative threads within the same overarching story. For example:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark: An adventure with sophisticated narrative structures (Indy and the Ark, Indy and Belloq).
• The Empire Strikes Back: Balances multiple perspectives and narrative layers, each with its own Storyform (Luke and Yoda, Han and Leia).
• Jerry Maguire: A mix of professional ambition and personal growth, handled through separate narrative structures (Jerry and Rod Tidwell, Dorothy and Jerry).
• Barbie: Incorporates contrasting Storyforms to explore themes of identity, empowerment, and societal expectations (Barbie and Ken, Barbie and Gloria).
• As Good As It Gets: Weaves together different narrative threads, balancing romance, self-improvement, and interpersonal growth (Simon and Melvin, Melvin and Carol).

While these examples are fantastic, it’s important to note that most stories—whether they’re films, novels, television series, graphic novels, games, or other mediums—typically have just one Storyform. We recommend that you start with a single Storyform when beginning your project, as it provides a strong, focused foundation for your narrative. Once you’re comfortable, you can explore layering multiple Storyforms if your story requires more complexity.

Appreciations of Narrative

At the heart of a Storyform are Appreciations of Narrative—the essential narrative components that define how conflict is viewed and processed throughout the story. These appreciations are like a vast set of datapoints that shape the various perspectives and dimensions of the narrative. They help you decide what the story is really about and how characters and audiences alike will experience conflict.

For example, consider the Story Goal:

• If the Story Goal is Obtaining, the conflict centers around achieving or gaining something concrete, such as recovering a treasure or winning a race.
• On the other hand, if the Story Goal is Understanding, the conflict revolves around gaining knowledge or insight, such as solving a mystery or coming to terms with a personal revelation.

Appreciations provide a framework for interpreting the different angles of conflict in your story. They help determine the thematic and dramatic elements that guide the audience’s understanding of why conflict exists and how it is being addressed. Appreciations also account for different perspectives, such as the Objective Story Throughline (the objective view of conflict), the Main Character Throughline (the personal experience of conflict), and the Relationship Story Throughline (the interpersonal conflict between two key characters).

Methods of Conflict

While Appreciations define the what of conflict, Methods of Conflict are the underlying engines that process how conflict is dealt with at a granular level. These are the tiny, often unseen forces at work throughout the story, continuously driving characters to act and react to the obstacles they face. Methods of Conflict reveal the particular strategies or approaches characters use to engage with and resolve conflict.

Think of Methods of Conflict as the dynamic tools or mechanisms that fuel narrative progression. For example:

• A character might employ a method of Psychology, trying to convince others to change their minds in order to achieve the story goal.
• Another might rely on Self-interest, focusing on personal gain, even at the expense of others.

These methods allow for nuanced storytelling by showing how conflicts aren’t just about big goals but also about the day-to-day decisions and approaches characters take in the pursuit of those goals. When layered into a Storyform, these methods become the gears that keep the narrative machine running smoothly.

Together, Appreciations and Methods of Conflict form a vast network of interconnected elements that drive the story forward, giving it depth, complexity, and cohesion. While Appreciations help frame the story’s overall thematic argument, Methods of Conflict shape the moment-to-moment tensions and choices that bring that argument to life.

Workspaces

In Subtxt, your writing journey is organized into two distinct Workspaces: the Muse Workspace and the Develop Workspace. Each serves a different purpose, depending on where you are in the creative process and how structured your story needs to be.

Muse Workspace

The Muse Workspace allows you to work on both Stories and Storyforms, giving you the freedom to explore your ideas in a flexible, open-ended environment. Whether you’re brainstorming loose story ideas or refining a more structured Storyform, the Muse Workspace provides a space to experiment without being constrained by a set interface. This makes it ideal for those just starting out, as you can develop your story at your own pace while perhaps working towards forming a cohesive Storyform.

Develop Workspace

The Develop Workspace is a prescriptive environment tailored to help writers develop their Storyform with precision and focus. This workspace comes equipped with specialized tools and features designed to guide you through the process of building a structured narrative. It emphasizes the key elements needed to craft a well-formed story, offering a clear, step-by-step approach to developing Storypoints and Storybeats.

While the Muse Workspace supports both Stories and Storyforms, the Develop Workspace is specifically tailored for working with fully formed Storyforms. If you’re new to Subtxt, starting in the Muse Workspace can give you the creative freedom to explore your ideas before transitioning into the more structured Develop Workspace.

Storyforming for Creativity

As Storyforms are independent of Storytelling, you can use a Storyform to develop a completely new story.

How does a Storyform help me write a story like Forrest Gump but with different people, different genre, different time, setting, etc?

You can think of it as analogous to "how would Romeo and Juliet" help me write "West Side Story". The Storyform is a blueprint of the underlying narrative thematics. Storytelling is what differentiates Romeo and Juliet from West Side Story, when at their core: they share the same Storyform.

One aspect of the Storyform for Forrest Gump is the idea that the main emotional challenge to the Main Character (personified through Jenny and Lt. Dan)--find themselves in a state of constant challenging at the beginning of the narrative. The growth of their emotional arc finds them both moving out of this challenging state into one of trust.

Therefore, one way you could use the Storyform of Forrest Gump to write a different story with different people, time, etc. is to develop the same kind of emotional arc with the challenging characters in your story.

Subtxt helps automate this process: you plug in the different scenarios, people, etc., choose the Forrest Gump Storyform, and then ask the Narrative Agents to do the heavy lifting.

You still need to go over their work, and then, of course, write the final story, but they can save you a ton of time developing your story.