narrative structure
Plot's underlying skeleton
Narrative structure is the framework organizing how a story unfolds—its beginning, middle, and end, along with elements like rising action, climax, and resolution.
The term appears in literary analysis, screenwriting, and criticism: The film's unconventional narrative structure jumps between timelines.
Different cultures and genres employ different structures; the three-act structure dominates Western storytelling, while other traditions favor circular or episodic patterns.
- plotStoryline or land parcel
- story arcNarrative's overall shape
- character developmentProtagonist's psychological growth
- character arcProtagonist's gradual transformation
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
denouement · framing device · in medias res · allegory · Bildungsroman · storytelling · exposition · protagonist · conflict · rising action · oral tradition · resolution · folklore · middle · hermeneutics · falling action · end · point of view
- storytellingstorytelling, story, tale, storyteller, story time
- writingwriting, drafting, authors, author, books
- writing skillshandwriting, spelling, words, letters, writing prompts
- literary analysisliterary analysis, character analysis, book review, plot, critical analysis
- literary studiescriticism, literary history, modernism, literary movements, literary themes
- Literature Studiesliterary analysis, literary theory, close reading, literary canon, literary movements
narrative structurechaos
Complete disorder and confusion
randomness · disorder · formlessness · incoherence · disorganization
narrative structurestream of consciousness
Narrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
non-linear · anti-narrative · automatic writing · found footage · slice of life
narrative structurerandom events
Occurrences lacking any cause
improvisation · happenstance · accident · found footage · chance
structure, narrative, narrator, narrate, structural, narration, narrating, narrated, narrates