Story Structure

A percentage-anchored landmark-beat skeleton (K.M. Weiland's 5 Secrets of Story Structure / Structuring Your Novel) overlaid with James Scott Bell's 14-signpost catalog (Super Structure) — plus two modes for using them: mapping a new story's structure before drafting, and auditing an existing manuscript against it.

Weiland's beats answer where a turning point should fall; Bell's signposts answer what psychological or emotional work that turning point needs to do. Together they give a placement skeleton with content diagnostics at each joint, not just a percentage ladder.

When to Use

This skill is for:

• ✅ Fiction manuscripts — novels, novellas, short stories
• ✅ Placing landmark beats (Inciting Event, Plot Points, Pinch Points, Midpoint, Climax) into a new outline before drafting
• ✅ Checking where beats actually land in an existing draft, by approximate percentage
• ✅ Checking whether a beat that's present is doing the psychological work it needs to (via Bell's signposts)
• ✅ Catching two specific, commonly-missed failure modes: Inciting Event/Key Event/First Plot Point confusion, and the Faux Climax trap

When NOT to Use