This is Story Fanatic, a collection of articles covering story structure and analysis for
creative writers. Published weekly.
Personal triumphs are stories that explore what its like to feel good about losing out. While the efforts in the primary throughline may have failed, the Main Character has grown to a point where they have overcome their own personal angst. This is why these stories are often called “bittersweet” - the good guys may have lost, but the Main Character goes home happy.
There are many who believe they don’t need story structure. They see it as something restrictive, something to hold a writer back from his true and artful potential. What many don’t realize is that by setting into motion a work of narrative fiction that means something, they have already engaged the gears of purpose.
There are several different ways to end a story meaningfully. Triumphs end with scenes of joy and revelry. Tragedies culminate with characters in despair over their ultimate failure. Yet there is another kind of ending that happens somewhere in-between the two, an ending that doesn’t call upon things to be so black and white.
Dennis Lehane’s novel Mystic River offers a rare insight into the complex dynamics that make up a Main Character’s “arc.” The less straight-forward that growth is, the closer to real life the portrayal will be and the more meaningful it will be for the audience.