Tag: story structure

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The Pinch Points of a Story

For years, I have been talking about story structure (at least I have within my in-person writing groups). And for years, I've been trying to help writers understand that the antagonist is just as important to a story as the protagonist.

It all comes down to understanding both the role of the antagonist in a story and their nature. While I have written about this before, to quickly summarize, the antagonist is simply getting in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals, whatever those goals might be. But that doesn't make the antagonist a villain. In fact, the antagonist can be anything that is getting in the way, be that another character, the weather, societal norms, or the protagonist themselves.

When we're looking at story structure, there will be points within the story where the reader gets to see the antagonist in all their glory. Two critical beat points that are antagonistic beats are known as the pinch points.

Be advised that this blog post refers to beats and sections described in the Mohr Story Structure model.

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Does my story need to have a romance subplot?

For some time now, there has been this push to include a romance subplot in books. And I've heard an ill-informed push that says, "Sex sells."

But I've read far too many published stories where the romantic subplot failed to integrate properly into the overall plot. And the number of sex scenes that I've read (including in published works) where I questioned the need for the scene altogether is higher than it should be.

In my work as a developmental editor and writing coach, I'm watching new writers crumble as they try to tackle romance subplots and open-door sex scenes. And I am seeing their stories suffer as a consequence.

It's time to tackle this issue head on and highlight why romantic subplots and open-door sex scenes could be working against you, not for you.

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What type of series are you writing?

I've been thinking about the construction of series when it comes to fiction for some time. This is in part because I have several clients who are working on series, but I too am working on multiple different series myself within my own fiction writing.

How exactly one approaches a series will depend on the nature of the series itself. Each type of series comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. And there are some commonalities between the different types of series, but there are also some distinct differences.

In today's post, I want to break down the different types of series that might exist and point out some of the things that you will need to consider when working on a series of that type.

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The Mohr Story Structure Model

Regular consumers of story, either written or film, learn to recognize the patterns that come with the rise and fall of action. They develop this innate instinct about when things should happen. If something is off with the pacing of a story, the readers know. They can feel it. They may not be able to explain why the pacing is off, but they still know that it's off.

Story structure models help to provide reasoning and some mathematics to what the readers know by instinct. This is why story structure is more important than what some writers give it credit for.

However, in all my years of studying story structure, I've also noticed that emphasis is often given to the protagonist of the story, focusing on their actions and decisions. The antagonist is often treated as an afterthought or ignored completely. As such, the dynamic interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist is not leveraged to its full potential.

When I noticed this pattern, I started to develop my own story structure model that leans into the interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist. As I write this blog post, I'm currently writing a full book about the topic, defining the antagonist and looking at story structure in detail, incorporating the antagonist into the model. That book is slated for publication come February 2026, but it's time to start sharing with the world the base structure that I'm calling the Mohr Story Structure model.

The Mohr Story Structure model is an amalgamation of a lot of different models, but adds the antagonistic beats that are commonly missed or misunderstood. I employ a four-act structure.

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Understanding the Nature of the Antagonist

When we start the conversation about the protagonist and the antagonist, some writers instantly jump to the conclusion that we are referring to a good-guy-vs-bad-guy story.

One might ask, "What if I don't have a villain in my story?"

My response: "Not all stories have villains. But all stories have characters striving towards a goal of some sort… and there is always something getting in the way."

I dove deeper into this idea in a previous post, highlighting that the role of the antagonist in a story is to get in the way of the protagonist achieving those goals, whatever those goals happen to be. But your protagonist is not necessarily the good guy of the story. And the antagonist is not necessarily another character. The good-guy-vs-bad-guy concept is one of many protagonist/antagonist pairings that might exist.

It's time to take a dive into the different types of antagonists found in stories. And not all of them are characters. We'll be looking at the classic good-guy-vs-bad-guy trope, but we're also going to dive into man-vs-nature and man-vs-self.

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