A Story is Just a Series of Turning Points With Causality

Writing is a craft, and story-structure is one of the main building blocks. How to use Turning Points to structure your story

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

You: “Tommy… You and all your fancy words…”

Me: “Hold on a second, its pretty easy. Really, it is”

But don’t take my word for it; let’s look at this old proverb from the 14th century: For want of a nail:

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.

For want of a horse, the rider was lost.

For want of a rider, the message was lost.

For want of a message, the battle was lost.

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

It is a story in its purest essence. A series of turning points with causality.

A turning point can only be two things:

• Action, or
• new information.

Causality is cause and effect. When one action triggers an effect.