Story Circle
Dan Harmon's eight steps around a circle: you, need, go, search, find, take, return, change.
Use it with your book's length
How it works
Dan Harmon, who created the TV show Community and co-created Rick and Morty, built the Story Circle as a short version of the hero's journey. Draw a circle. The top half is the hero's normal world and the bottom half is the strange one. The hero goes down into the strange half and comes back up.
Eight steps is easy to hold in your head. It works for a whole book, and you can also run a small circle inside each chapter or scene.
Good for: Any length, from a short story to a series. Good for character stories.
Watch out: The circle is about what the hero wants and what it costs. If step 6 doesn't hurt, the change at the end won't feel earned.
The 8 beats, and where they fall
| Beat | Where | In 80,000 words |
|---|---|---|
| YouThe hero in their comfort zone. | 0% | 0 |
| NeedThey want something. | 12% | 9,600 |
| GoThey step into a strange place to get it. | 25% | 20,000 |
| SearchThey adapt, struggle and change to fit in. | 25% to 50% | 20,000 to 40,000 |
| FindThey get what they wanted. | 50% | 40,000 |
| TakeThey pay a heavy price for it. | 50% to 75% | 40,000 to 60,000 |
| ReturnThey go back to where they started. | 75% | 60,000 |
| ChangeThey are not the same person who left. | 87% to 100% | 69,600 to 80,000 |
The places are rough guides, not rules. Plenty of good books move a beat by a chapter or two. Put in your own word count and chapters to see your book's numbers.
Other story shapes
- Three acts beat sheetThe classic shape. Act 1 sets things up, act 2 is the long middle, act 3 is the end.
- Four acts beat sheetThree acts with the long middle cut in two at the midpoint.
- Five acts beat sheetRising action to a turning point in the middle, then the fall to the end. The shape of Shakespeare's plays.
- Save the Cat beat sheetBlake Snyder's screenwriting beats, as Jessica Brody laid them out for novels.
- Hero's journeyJoseph Campbell's journey, in Christopher Vogler's 12 steps. A good fit for quests and fantasy.
- Heroine's journeyA journey where the lead wins by building a team, not by fighting alone. After Gail Carriger's book.
- Seven-point story beat sheetDan Wells's plan: decide the ending first, then build back to the start.
- 27-chapter methodThree acts, each cut into three blocks of three chapters. Fill in 27 chapters and you have a plan.
- Fichtean curveStart in trouble and never let up. One crisis after another, climbing to the climax.
- KishōtenketsuA four-part shape from China and Japan with no fight at its center: introduce, develop, twist, bring together.
- Romance beat sheetThe usual shape of a love story, in four parts: meet, fall, pull apart, come back together.
- Mystery beat sheetThe usual shape of a whodunit: crime, clues, a wrong answer, then the truth.
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