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: Explores a dynamic adventure through interconnected Storyforms, such as Indy’s pursuit of the Ark and his rivalry with Belloq.
- The Empire Strikes Back: Balances intricate narrative layers, each driven by its own Storyform, including Luke’s training with Yoda and the evolving relationship between Han and Leia.
- Jerry Maguire: Navigates themes of professional ambition and personal fulfillment via separate Storyforms, such as Jerry’s partnership with Rod Tidwell and Dorothy’s life and romance with Jerry.
- Barbie: Uses contrasting Storyforms to delve into identity, empowerment, and societal roles, highlighted through Barbie’s interactions with Ken and her bond with Gloria.
- As Good As It Gets: Intertwines multiple Storyforms to examine personal growth and relationships, such as Simon and Melvin’s unexpected friendship and Melvin’s romance with Carol.
- RRR: Combines bold Storyforms to address sweeping themes like loyalty and liberation, with threads focusing on rescuing the girl and fueling a revolution.
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.
Why Use Multiple Storyforms?
Using multiple Storyforms allows for greater thematic depth and narrative flexibility within your story. Here are two key reasons why you might choose to work with more than one Storyform in Subtxt:
- Exploring Different Thematic Issues
Each Storyform represents a unique perspective on a thematic argument. By incorporating multiple Storyforms, you can explore diverse thematic issues within the same story. For example:- In Barbie, one Storyform examines Barbie’s empowerment and identity through her interactions with Ken, while another focuses on societal expectations through her connection with Gloria.
- In The Empire Strikes Back, separate Storyforms allow for Luke’s spiritual journey with Yoda to unfold alongside Han and Leia’s interpersonal dynamics.
This approach enriches your narrative, giving it a multifaceted and layered quality that resonates with audiences on multiple levels. - Experimenting with Different Storyforms
Sometimes, it’s not just about the themes—you might want to test different narrative approaches for the same story idea. Subtxt allows you to work with multiple Storyforms simultaneously, making it an excellent tool for experimentation.- You can try out different Storyforms to see which one best fits your story’s needs or combine elements of several to achieve your creative vision.
Subtxt’s flexibility empowers you to experiment, iterate, and refine your story structure until it aligns with your goals.
By working with multiple Storyforms, you can create intricate, engaging narratives that explore multiple dimensions of human experience while maintaining clarity and purpose. Whether you’re pursuing thematic richness or simply testing different ideas, Subtxt provides the tools to help you succeed.
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 Cognitive Processing, 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.
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Identifying Workspaces in Subtxt
Subtxt organizes your creative journey into two distinct Workspaces, each marked by its own unique symbol:
- Muse Workspace: Represented by a quill, symbolizing creativity and freeform exploration.
- Develop Workspace: Represented by a hexagonal nut, signifying structure and precision in story development.
These symbols help you quickly identify which Workspace you’re in or where your story is headed within Subtxt.
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Accessing Workspaces from the Story Central Page
On the Story Central page, you’ll find a list of your most recent stories. Each story includes direct links to either the Muse or Develop Workspace:
- Muse Link: Takes you to the Muse Workspace for that story.
- Develop Link: Takes you to the Develop Workspace if a Storyform exists.
If there’s no Develop link, it means a Storyform hasn’t yet been created or attached to the story. To begin working in Develop, you would need to:
- Refine your ideas in Muse to discover the Storyform for your story.
- Manually define the Storyform using the Argument Builder.
Clicking on the bounding box of a story will take you to its portal in the Muse Workspace for further exploration.
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My Stories and Storyforms
The My Stories section lists all stories and their associated Storyforms in your catalog. If a Storyform exists for a story, it will be clearly linked, allowing you to dive directly into the Develop Workspace for that story. This provides a comprehensive view of your progress across all your projects, making it easier to manage and continue working on any story at any stage.
By seamlessly navigating between these Workspaces, you can move from creative exploration in Muse to structured development in Develop, ensuring your stories are both imaginative and well-formed.
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.
Narrative Aspects and Stories vs. Storyforms
In Subtxt, Narrative Aspects represent the individual components of a story, such as Dynamics, Perspectives, Storypoints, and Storybeats. These aspects are essential building blocks, providing flexibility in how you develop and refine your narrative.
Independent Sets for Flexibility
Each Story and Storyform maintains its own set of Narrative Aspects. This separation enables you to:
- Develop a story conceptually before committing to a specific Storyform.
- Share or transfer Narrative Aspects between different Storyforms or back to the overarching Story within the same project.
This system ensures that your creative process remains flexible while also allowing for complex, multi-structured narratives.
Saving Narrative Aspects: Muse Workspace Context
Where Narrative Aspects are saved in the Muse Workspace depends on the Muse Context:
- If the Muse Context is set to Story, the Aspects are saved at the Story level.
- If the Muse Context is set to a specific Storyform, the Aspects are saved there instead.
You can also use Muse to move Narrative Aspects between:
- Story and Storyform
- Storyform to Storyform
- Storyform back to Story
Develop Workspace Saving Behavior
In the Develop Workspace, all Narrative Aspects are automatically saved to the active Storyform, streamlining the structured development of your story.
Deleting Stories and Storyforms
Deleting a Story or Storyform is a destructive process in Subtxt and cannot be undone.
- Deleting a Storyform: Removes the Storyform itself and all Narrative Aspects tied to it. Ensure that any elements you wish to keep are transferred to another Storyform or back to the overarching Story before deletion.
- Deleting a Story: This action is more far-reaching, as it removes the Story along with all its associated Storyforms and their Narrative Aspects.
To delete Stories or Storyforms:
- Navigate to the My Stories page.
- Tap the Edit button at the top.
- Select the red minus sign next to the item you want to delete.