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Story Circle template

The Story Circle is eight steps: a character in comfort wants something, crosses into the unknown to get it, adapts, gets it, pays for it, returns, and is changed. It is the Hero's Journey reduced to what the character wants and what it costs.

Eight landmarks form a circular journey from comfort through change and back home.

When to use it

  • The change in the character matters more than the size of the plot.
  • You write episodes or short fiction and want one arc per piece.
  • You know the want but not the cost. Step six makes you name it.

The television writer Dan Harmon drew the circle for his writers' rooms as a simpler way to hold the Hero's Journey in mind.

The 2 acts

  • Act One: The Descent. Down from the familiar into the unfamiliar, one step at a time.
  • Act Two: The Return. Back up, paying for what was taken, arriving changed.

The 8 beats at 70,000 words

The marks assume 70,000 words, because character-led novels often run 60,000 to 80,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. In Their Comfort 2% · word 1,500 Where they are at ease. Establish it, because everything after is measured against it.
  2. They Want Something 12% · word 8,500 A want surfaces. It does not have to be admirable, only real.
  3. They Cross Into the Unknown 25% · word 17,500 They enter an unfamiliar situation to get it. The rules here are not their rules.
  4. They Adapt to It 38% · word 26,500 They adapt — learn the new rules, and change a little to fit them.
  5. They Get What They Wanted 50% · word 35,000 They get the thing they wanted. The story is only half over.
  6. They Pay the Price 62% · word 43,500 The price arrives. This is the beat the whole shape exists for.
  7. They Return to the Familiar 78% · word 54,500 Back to where they started, carrying what happened out there.
  8. They Are Changed 95% · word 66,500 The familiar world reads differently now, because they do.

A worked example

Priya, an overlooked accountant, wants to be noticed, and takes a season's work keeping the books for a traveling circus.

  1. In Their Comfort. Spreadsheets, a quiet desk, a manager who calls her Pria.
  2. They Want Something. She wants one person to know her name without reading it off a badge.
  3. They Cross Into the Unknown. She signs on with the circus and discovers the books are in a shoebox.
  4. They Adapt to It. She learns to count cash in a moving truck and to lie to the owner kindly.
  5. They Get What They Wanted. The whole company knows her; the ringmaster introduces her at the final show.
  6. They Pay the Price. Her audit finds the ringmaster stealing, and telling will end the tour.
  7. They Return to the Familiar. She tells, the circus folds, and she goes back to her desk.
  8. They Are Changed. She asks her manager to say her name properly, and he does.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Story Circle shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 70,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word