Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them

these actions have consequences, which in turn provoke obstacles that are commonly dubbed4 forces of antagonism

In the first act of any story a character is presented with a particular flaw or need. An inciting incident occurs towards, or at, the end of that first act, and the protagonist ‘falls down a rabbit hole’. In the second act, the character attempts to return to the world from which they came, whilst slowly learning that another equally important wor

A well-designed midpoint has a risk/reward ratio: a character gains something vital, but in doing so ramps up the jeopardy around them. It’s an obstacle that can dramatically raise the stakes and in the process force the heroes to change to overcome it. That change marks the point of no return for the protagonists; it’s the end of the outward journ

We are both brought face to face with the consequences of not learning – we will remain unenlightened13 – and thus, if we continue to read or watch, we choose to learn too.

Niles and Daphne became couples and ‘will they?/won’t they?’ became ‘they have’, viewers had nothing to root for. The story engine that drove each show was turned off as the characters’ goals were achieved, the questions were answered and their quests complete.

Storytelling has that same fundamentally religious function – it fuses the disparate, gives us shape, and in doing so instils in us quiet.

As the story unfolds and opposites are bridged, the audience infers causality and the story comes alive.

Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots

Technically Jones’s action is a deferred response – antipathy is awoken in the first act but not given direction until the end of the second.

The tripartite shape placed at the beginning of a story will resolve itself into an inciting incident; in the middle it will form the foundations of a midpoint; and at the end, a climax.