Plot story tracker download#

Tracking the quality of the turning points is important, as it will give you a sense of flow and continuity of your Story. You’ll notice that I’ve categorized the turning points as either turning on “action” or “revelation.” Here is the first page of The Story Grid Spreadsheet for The Silence of the Lambs

You can see the Value Shift, Polarity Shift and Turning Point columns for The Silence of the Lambs’ first six scenes here. Turning points can either happen through action (a bomb blows up) or revelation. Turning Point: the precise beat when the value in the scene shifts from positive to negative or negative to positive etc. Choosing when to escalate the complications in your overall Story can make or break it from one that “works” to “doesn’t work.” +/++ and -/– are perfectly valid polarity shifts and are essential to building the thriller’s progressive complications. Remember that change can occur in a scene that moves from good to great or bad to worse too. Polarity Shift: The polarity shift is simply shorthand for the value valence change from +/- or -/+. It must start someplace (happy) and end somewhere else (sad) or there is no movement, no change and the Story stops dead in its tracks. Every scene must turn a Story value or it is not a scene. For example happy/sad, wisdom/ stupidity, love/hate, freedom/slavery, innocence/experience, etc. Story Value: These are human experiences that can shift in quality from positive to negative or negative to positive from moment to moment. If you have to struggle to determine what value is at stake in your scene or if there was no discernable moment in the scene when it shifted from positive to negative or negative to positive, you’ll know that you have more work to do on that scene.īefore I lay out these three columns for the sixty-four scenes in The Silence of the Lambs, some definitions and refreshers of fundamental Story principles are in order: That is whether your Inciting Incidents, progressive complications, crises, climaxes and resolutions in each scene are clearly defined. These three columns will give you the perspective necessary to track the success of your Story form. Lastly, you’ll determine the precise moment in the scene when that shift occurred, the Turning Point. Then you’ll determine whether that value has shifted from positive to negative or negative to positive. You’ll identify what value is at stake at the beginning of the scene and the value by the end of the scene. The next three columns on The Story Grid Spreadsheet pinpoint the mechanics of each scene.Įssentially, the VALUE SHIFT, POLARITY SHIFT and TURNING POINT columns will tell you how each scene has moved the Story forward.

Plot story tracker download#

Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic