As an instructor in storytelling for years, there is a lesson that every novice resists and which every practiced storyteller has learned the painful way – structure is not the opponent of creativity; rather, it is what enables creativity. For the novice, structure is associated with restriction and formula, and therefore is resisted as part of the process of artistic freedom. However, those who are seasoned know that it is precisely because of structure that they are able to exercise their creativity. This irony explains why some writers complete amazing stories and some writers churn out shapeless story drafts.
The beginner’s misconception
Novices tend to feel that structure hinders creativity in that adhering to a certain plot structure inevitably results in the production of a mechanical or routine piece of writing. They shun structure altogether and rely on their creativity, and often what they end up with is an unfocused narrative that loses momentum and ends up falling flat. Freedom becomes a lack of focus, since structure provides something for the creative force to react against.
Where beginning writers fall short is in recognizing the different level at which structure and creativity exist. Structure is responsible for the foundational form, the building blocks of how the narrative moves and takes shape. It is within this framework that the creativity happens – through choice, through character, through voice, through the unexpected. Structure does not control those elements, but it makes them possible, by providing the context within which they can flourish.
Why structure frees you
This is the paradox that experienced authors know well. Once the structural issues have been resolved – the direction of the narrative, the construction of the narrative, the form of the narrative – then the author is able to use their creative imagination fully in areas that really need it, such as the actual scenes of the story, the characters, the language used. The structure liberates the author from the endless task of re-inventing the wheel, which allows creativity to focus on what really needs it.
If one finds himself in such difficulty that his written work is formless, having the framework laid out might just unleash his creativity onto what counts. A free plot generator can provide that structural scaffolding, giving a writer a coherent shape to push against so their creativity goes into the characters and scenes rather than into the exhausting search for a shape that holds.
The scaffolding metaphor
Structure to me is like scaffolding. If you are going to construct something that is ambitious and high, then you need scaffolding, which enables you to do the construction and not limits your project in any way. The same can be said about plot structures. Plot structures are nothing but the scaffolding needed to enable you to do some great creations. If an amateur refuses to use scaffolding on account of freedom, then he finds out that nothing much is getting done.
In the same way as scaffolding, having a structure is just the beginning for the construction of your building. It’s an architecture for you to develop within, to move away from when you feel you need to. The author who begins his story by working within a structure is not restricted by it; he has something on which to react, which makes the process far more constructive than the blank, unformed freedom which so often stifles us.
Structure as a starting point
The optimal approach when utilizing structure is to treat it as a launching pad, not a prison. Create an effective shape, and then unleash your imagination in its exploration, surprise, and abandonment when it is required by your tale. Structure takes care of the technical problems for you, leaving you to deal only with the creative ones, which results in coherent and vital writing. That is how accomplished storytellers do things, and it is why they end up telling compelling stories, whereas amateurs without structure rarely tell any stories at all.
Embracing the paradox
If you find yourself with stories that lack form and are incomplete, then what you really need is structure, and not necessarily less of it. Tools like FaddyAI tools can supply the structural starting point, but the creative life of the story, the characters, the voice, the surprises, always remains the writer’s own work.
Structure is freedom; how ironic it may seem at first. The very thing that appears to hinder creativity ends up helping it out, taking care of the architecture of the task in order for the writer’s imagination to do its work where it counts. It is not that skilled storytellers lack creativity but that they understand that creativity requires an architecture in order to be productive. Abandon the cage if you will, but not the scaffolding.
The writers who have seen the greatest evolution in writing are those who figured out how to navigate this paradox early on – those who stopped seeing structure as a hinderance to their creativity and embraced it as the very thing upon which their creativity could be built. These people discovered that the true freedom they desired was not a lack of structure, but rather an abundance of it – only then would they be able to take the necessary risks within their writing without blowing the entire story apart. As soon as they make this connection, productivity and quality usually soar as the energy previously spent trying to grapple with shapelessness is instead devoted to creativity.
