There are many ways to structure a story. But one theory says that they are all really saying the same thing.
Here I create a table comparing the four major narrative structures: Aristotle’s chronological structure, John Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, Dan Harmon’s Story Circle (the source for my “But-Fore Story Circle“), and the classic three-act play.
I’ve also included two other structures, which aren’t normally considered part of dramatic storytelling. First is something I call “MMO”, which stands for means, motive, and opportunity. This is how typically how detectives determine who is the perpetrator of a crime. Second is “Human Action”, Ludwig von Mises’s title for his treatise on economics (I wrote a one-syllable summary here); it is a theory of how basic principles of choosing can be used to explain all economic phenomena.
| Chronological | Hero’s Journey | Story Circle | Three Acts | MMO (detective principles) | Human Action (economic theory principles) |
| Beginning | Call to adventure | You. Need. Go. | Setup | Motive | Prerequisites of action: felt unease about the current state of affairs, ideas about a possible better world, and a logical connection between ends sought and means required to instigate the change to get them |
| Middle | Challenges and transformation | Look. Find. Take. | Confrontation | Means | Entrepreneurial judgment: whether the benefits of change outweigh the costs |
| End | Atonement and return | Return. Changed. | Resolution | Opportunity | Action: making the choices necessary to bring about the desired state of affairs: exchanging with oneself and others to alter the structure of production. |
Ash Navabi 