STORY

AND
STRUCTURE

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 STORY
AND
STRUCTURE
A CO M P LET E GU I DE

LE O N CONRAD
illustrated by Jason Chuang

Aladdin’s
Cave

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This edition published in Great Britain in 2022 by Aladdin’s Cave Publishing,
31 Ryfold Road, London SW19 8DF

987654321

A CIP catalogue record for this book may be obtained from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-9556391-4-2

Text copyright © Leon Conrad, 2010-2022.

Illustrations © Jason Chuang Art, 2022.

Introductory epigraph from The ‘Nasadiya Sukta’ or ‘Hymn of Creation’ from The Rigveda,
translated by Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (New York: Oxford University Press,
2014), Vol. 3, 10:129, 1607–1609. Text in square brackets adapted by Leon Conrad.

All rights reserved. The right of Leon Conrad to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the
publisher.

Designed and typeset by Studio Monachino. Printed in England by CMP (UK) Limited.

Permission to quote copyrighted material beyond fair use has been obtained for the
following works. Extract from The Temple of Man by R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz published
by Inner Traditions International and Bear & Company, ©1998. All rights reserved. http://
www.Innertraditions.com. Reprinted with permission of publisher; English translations of
haikus by Bashō, Buson, and Issa reprinted by kind permission of their translator, Robert
Hass; verse translations from the Exeter Riddle Book by Craig Williamson reprinted with
permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press; excerpts from A. S. Kline’s translation
of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Poetry in Translation, 2000) reprinted by kind permission of the
rights holder; excerpt from THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by
C. S. Lewis © copyright C. S. Lewis Pte Ltd 1950; excerpts from I AM THE BEGGAR
OF THE WORLD: LANDAYS FROM CONTEMPORARY AFGHANISTAN
translated by Eliza Griswold, photographs by Seamus Murphy. Translation copyright ©
2014 by Eliza Griswold. Photographs copyright © 2014 by Seamus Murphy. Reprinted
with permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All Rights Reserved. “2” from THE
SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO by Stephen Mitchell, copyright © 2009 by Stephen
Mitchell. Used by permission of Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

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 In memoriam
George Spencer-Brown

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 Who really knows? Who shall here proclaim it?—
from where was it born, from where this creation?
The gods are on this side of the creation of this (world).
So then who does know from where it came to be?
This creation—from where it came to be, if it was produced or if not—
[s/]he who is the overseer of this (world) in the furthest heaven,
[s/]he surely knows. Or if [s/]he does not know . . . ?

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 CONTTE
CON NTS S
E NT
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
Prologue Coming to terms with story xxi

1 The basics in brief 1

2 What makes a story … a story? 15
3 The birth of story 25
Symbol 1 ( r ): story openings and closings
4 How does story work? 33
‘Fortunately’, ‘unfortunately’
5 Scribing the shape of story 45
Symbols 2–4 ( m ), ( ↽ ), ( ⇀ ): the Quest structure
6 Trickster tales 57
Symbol 5 ( ⇌ ): the Trickster structure
7 The expansion and contraction of steps 73
The Transformation structure
8 The expansion of story 85
The Rags to Riches, and Death and Rebirth structures
9 Comedy 101
10 Tragedy: the space within 123
11 Appearances in and from story 145
Symbol 6 ( u ): the Revelation, Call and Response
(Variations 1 and 2), and related composite structures
12 From ‘Huh?!’ to ‘Ah!’ 173
The Trickster Variation structure
13 Coming full circle – the ground of story 185
The Chinese Circular Structure

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14 Three further culturally specific structures 211

Dilemma tales, Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu stories, and Koans
15 Riddles 231
The Riddle structure
16 Moving between worlds 245
The Voyage and Return structure
17 The ebb and flow of story 257
The Perpetual Motion and Creation Myth structures
18 Finding harmony in story 265
Linear and Dynamic story structures
19 The unfolding of story 283
From 5 potential steps ( r ), ( u ), ( ⇀ ), ( ↽ ), ( ⇌ ),
18 story structures
20 The embryology of story structure 293
Threshold and Non-Threshold structures,
Closed and Open-Ended structures
21 Plot patterns: the patterning of story 313
Scenes, sequences, nesting, and latticing
22 Dance dynamics: the patterning of poetry 327
Poetry and story—the story structures of poetic forms:
limericks, sonnets, ghazals, landays, and haikus

Epilogue What makes story ‘story’? 364

Appendix 1 Analysis of a complex folk tale 367
Appendix 2 Ways of mapping story 449
Appendix 3 Rags to Riches – a reversal? 463
Appendix 4 List of story structures 464
Bibliography 475
Index 491

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would never have appeared without the help and
support of many friends and colleagues who contributed their
time, skill, and energy so generously to helping me realise it. I
owe them a great deal. Firstly, I’d like to thank Giles Abbott for
kindly sharing his early work on story structure with me. The
nine story structures he came up with, which predate Christopher
Booker’s work, were instrumental in my quest to find out how
story works. Next, a huge thank you to my wonderful students,
who have engaged so enthusiastically with the ideas outlined in
the book and have used them successfully to create stories, essays,
and chapter books, allowing these ideas to be tried and tested,
revised, and reformulated. If they can use them, anyone can. I’d
also like to thank Shonaleigh Cumbers for her insights into her
living tradition of oral storytelling, and the Temenos Academy for
being a continuous source of inspiration and light – in particular,
Stephen and Genevieve Overy for their work behind the scenes
organising inspiring lectures by speakers such as storyteller Martin
Shaw, and Sinologist Sandra Hill, whose insights helped inform
and shape this work. A big thank you to Yura Senokossov and Lena
Nemirovskaya for giving me the opportunity to share my ideas
with the students and alumni of the School of Civic Education at
their seminars, particularly during two unforgettable trips to the
Republic of Georgia.
My music teachers influenced me in ways they could never have
imagined. I’d like to thank Christine Croshaw, the piano teacher
who taught me the importance of creating the illusion of an
unbroken line of music with no downbeats; my harpsichord teacher,
Maria Boxall, whose fingering techniques filled baroque music with
the joy of dance; Kenneth van Barthold, for fuelling my interest in
bar structure; and my theory teacher, George Kinnear, who first
introduced me to Schenkerian musical analysis. My thanks also
goes out to the many musicians who provided me with gateways to
inspiration: Gary Branch, Maria Callas, Nelson Freire, Rhiannon

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Giddens, Philippe Jaroussky, Jakub Józef Orliński, Alex Penda,

Joan Sutherland, and the late, sorely missed Julie Felix – among so
many others. Words cannot convey how much you helped me!
I’m humbled by and very grateful to Teresa Monachino whose
creative approach to the design and layout of this book has made
it sing; and to Jason Chuang (jasonchuangart.co.uk) for his skilful
work in illuminating the space around the words and ideas, adding
depth and bringing out the fun in the work so well.
I’m also grateful to Alette Willis and Elizabeth Mannion for
their work on copy and line editing early drafts of the work, to
Hannah Bouhamdi for her help in reviewing appendix 1, and to
Elizabeth Mannion for indexing. I’ve done my best to follow their
advice. Any shortfalls are due to a lack of attention on my part,
which I’ll happily put right where I can.
I owe a particular debt of thanks to the many friends and colleagues
who read through various drafts of the work and gave me valuable
feedback on them, including Juan Acevedo, Christopher Bemrose,
Gary Branch, Christopher Chilton, Randolph Dible II, Rodion
Garshin, Simon Heywood, Hoc Ling Duong, André Kleinbaum,
Bernie Lewin, Phil McDermott, David Pinto, Alessandro Scafi,
Adam Tetlow, Alexander Tsigkas, Jacob Watson, and my wife
Tanya and my daughter Katya.
Three final thank yous: to John Martineau at The Squeeze Press/
Wooden Books for his invaluable insights and advice throughout
the publishing process; to Liz Dubelman for her marketing advice;
and last but not least, to the late Professor George Spencer-Brown,
whose work inspired mine.

To explore the ideas outlined in this book further, visit my website

(www.leonconrad.com), sign up to my mailing list and follow The
Unknown Storyteller Project on social media channels.

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 PREFACE
What is necessary for the story of Cinderella to be the story of Cinderella?
… This is a question that can never be answered with precision.

h. porter abbott
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative 1

W here do stories come from? Why do stories exist? And while

we’re on the subject … how does story work? What makes
it what it is?
These aren’t easy questions to answer. If we’re going to find
satisfactory answers to them, we’ll need to go right back to the very
source of story.
The process is rather like being a moth in flight trying to watch
itself flying. You might just manage to catch a reflection out of
your peripheral vision while keeping your focus straight ahead.
You might just manage to slow down time and stretch past the
boundaries of space to touch infinity, where there’s no beginning
and no end, and observe the infinitesimal changes that occur within
that state of infinity.
It’s a bit like trying to hear music that exists potentially in
silence, or trying to catch a thought in flight without confining it
or changing its course in any way.
To make sense of anything we come across or realise, we need to
tell some kind of a story. Every thing we say or do is either a story
or part of one. And the way to make sense of the mystery of story
is to become story – and be storied by story – in a living process.
It’s a bit like an embryo trying to hear the beat of the heart it’s yet
to develop.
We don’t ask to be born, but as human beings, we’re called to
fulfil our potential, to realise our vocation, to respond to our calling.
Sometimes we can get in our own way; sometimes life presents
us with challenges. And sometimes, there are those moments of

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clarity which allow us to catch a glimpse of what’s possible. Story

shapes all of those experiences.
Story shapes the story spinner … the story spinner’s story …
and how the story spinner develops their story. And when a story
spinner becomes aware of that, story recognises itself.
In this book, I invite you to rethink your idea of story. Rather
than classifying stories based on content and saying that myths and
legends are stories but essays and adverts aren’t, I invite you to see
story in a different way: like a necklace.
Necklaces are a combination of the discrete and the continuous:
beads and the filament on which they’re strung. Stories are no
different: they feature discrete moments or events arranged
sequentially like beads and a dynamic of relationships through which
events are linked forming a string that links them together. Story
is the ultimate necklace – a necklace that can form itself, restring
and refashion itself again and again and again in countless narrative
patterns that conform to a far smaller number of story structures.
Looking at story this way, we can observe how and why events
in stories are linked, a process which will lead us to identifying the
structures that lie under the surface of any story.
We use these story structures far more often than when we just tell
stories – we use them throughout our everyday ‘9-to-5, Monday-to-
Friday, weekend-break, 4-weeks-of-holiday-a-year’ lives. As human
beings, we’re uniquely positioned to reflect on this. Once we get to
know the story structures and understand how they work, we’ll be
far more empowered to solve problems we come across in ‘everyday
life’. We’ll start to see parallels between the story structures and the
habitual patterns of thinking and acting we use. Some are typically
helpful; some less so. Learning to appreciate their differences will
help us think more clearly and live our lives more effectively, more
purposefully. The good news is that there’s a way we can do that
which is both easier and more intuitive than it ever has been before.
We know that stories can be classified under different headings:
‘Cinderella’ stories, for instance, are referred to as ‘Rags to Riches’
stories; ‘Snow White’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ stories as ‘Death

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and Rebirth’ stories. You may be familiar with Vladimir Propp’s

31 functions, Georges Polti’s 36 dramatic situations, Joseph
Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ popularly referred to as ‘the hero’s journey’,
or Christopher Booker’s ‘seven basic plots’. These writers all focus
primarily on content in their work. And that makes it more difficult
for us to match our own stories to the patterns they’ve defined. In
order to capture the pulse—or heartbeat—of story, we need to go
beyond the content and we need an easy way to chart the patterns
that appear at this deep level.
Some people have tried to use algebraic symbols to map the
shapes of stories – Claude Levi-Strauss is one example. Some (like
Kurt Vonnegut) have used squiggly lines or graphs. Others have
used tables, charts, or diagrams. There are word-based descriptions
for different kinds of motifs, and numbers for different tale types.
Many of these are explored in appendix 2. Nevertheless, despite our
long history of telling stories, we still need a simple, easy, intuitive
way of visualising how stories work. And that’s precisely what the
system outlined in this book provides.
It’s inspired by the work of Professor George Spencer-Brown
whose book, Laws of Form, was first published in 1969. I had the
privilege of studying it with him towards the end of his life. To
date, Spencer-Brown’s work has been applied mainly in the fields
of mathematics, logic, and social theory. Its application to literary
analysis and narrative studies has been minimal. While there have
been attempts to apply his work in the field of literary analysis,
this is the first time his work has been systematically applied to
analysing story structure in its broadest sense.2 Based on only
six symbols, Spencer-Brown’s approach is remarkably simple. It’s
visually intuitive, easy to understand, and extraordinarily powerful.
Using his six simple symbols allows us to get fresh insights into
how story works, how and why story structures differ, and why story
really is a much wider phenomenon than most people have taken
it to be up to now. It has the potential to take us right to the heart
of what makes story work, to make us better problem solvers, and –
perhaps most importantly – to help us understand ourselves better.

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This book introduces 18 distinct story structures:

Quest
Transformation
Rags to Riches
Death and Rebirth
Trickster
Revelation
Call and Response (Variation 1)
Call and Response (Variation 2)
Trickster Variation
The Chinese Circular Structure
Dilemma
Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Open-Ended Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Koan
Riddle
Voyage and Return
Perpetual Motion
Creation Myth

It shows that story structures can be classified in four distinct

ways – by the quality of how the stories unfold based on the quality
of the first step in a character’s story line; by key elements that
can be found in the middle (Threshold/Non-Threshold structures);
by what happens at the end (Open-Ended/Closed structures); and
finally, by quality, acknowledging the two aspects of story outlined
above (Linear and Dynamic), linking to the ideas of the discrete
lines of ‘beads’ and continuous ‘stringing’ that the necklace of story
uses to create its patterns. While every bead is different, all beads fit
into common families of shapes – spheres, cylinders, teardrops, for
instance. Every static bead, however, depends on a unifying string to
hold it in place as part of the dynamic structure which is a necklace.
Although the approach is based on Spencer-Brown’s work, don’t
worry if you aren’t familiar with it. All you need is laid out right

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here in this book, pitched in a readable, easy-to-understand way.

You probably instinctively know much of this already. It’s just hasn’t
been described in this way before.
Even though the approach is based on only six primary symbols, it
allows for unlimited expansion, without any additional symbols being
needed. It’s like a mandala – the kind in which small fractal elements
scale up to form a whole that’s larger than the sum of its parts.
I’ve found Spencer-Brown’s minimalistic system not only
beautiful but a joy to work with.3 Using it has allowed me to
answer H. Porter Abbott’s question (quoted at the beginning of
this section) about what makes the story of Cinderella the story of
Cinderella … with precision.
The pattern of that story structure (the Rags to Riches
structure)—and those of the 17 other story structures outlined
in this book—can be traced back centuries – back to some of the
earliest written records, which means they existed as part of oral
culture well before that. And we’re still using the very same story
structures to create stories today! There clearly are laws of story. The
methodology presented here works in harmony with them.
When we look at how structures compare, deep relationships
appear – giving us new insights into the relationships between
story structures. Understanding how the Quest structure is nested
in the more compressed Transformation structure, for instance,
leads to a deeper understanding of how we process emotions – and
that can help us manage anger more effectively. It can also show
us how we can avoid being pulled in to emotional traps laid for
us by unscrupulous advertisers. That’s just one of many fascinating
insights and applications that emerge.
This book clearly demonstrates how different story structures
can be distinguished … more precisely than ever before, but also
why Comedy and Tragedy are structure neutral; it shows how
these can be applied to any story structure, and presents the
argument that they exist to bring us into a better state of balance.
Moreover, it shows that our innate yearning for balance is the
energy that drives story. If there’s any bias to be detected in the

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work, it’ll be found to align with principles common to Daoist and

Perennial Philosophy and the kind of rationalism advocated
by J. M. Robertson.4
The stories I’ve drawn on as examples come from a range of
cultures and eras – from China, Japan, Europe, North, West and
South East Africa, North America, India, Persia, the Middle East,
and others. They go back to ancient Egyptian times, to ancient
Israel and Babylonia, ancient Greece and Rome, and on through
the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early modern period to
the present day. They’re all relevant.
I’ve based my examples on stories which are well known and
well loved – Brer Rabbit and Simple Jack stories, riddles from The
Old English Riddle Book, classics like Beowulf, stories from Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, Greek tragedies and extracts from literary works
such as Kipling’s The Just So Stories. I’ve also drawn on some lesser-
known examples such as a tale about a cuckolded husband from
The Arabian Nights. In addition, I’ve included jokes, West African
dilemma tales, oriental Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu stories, koans, and
a story from Malawi about The Moon and His Two Wives (a rare
example of a Perpetual Motion structure story), tales from Russia,
China, the Middle East, and extracts from Chinese literary classics.
I also draw on a range of poetry in regular forms, including a
limerick about Kim Kardashian by Salman Rushdie, haikus by
Bashō and Buson, a Shakespearean sonnet, a ghazal by Wali, and a
collection of landays from Afghanistan.
I look at why some story structures feature more commonly in
songs or poems than they do in stories … all this to get closer to
finding the source of story than we’ve managed to get previously.
This way of looking at story demands we see with our eyes, hear
with our ears, but experience with our soul. It requires embodied
engagement – it calls for thoughts and feelings to work together in
a balanced way. It requires a new way of looking. Individual journeys
will differ. The book has one goal: to bring story to life in you.
If, as I argue here, story structures arise in and from human
awareness, and reflect aspects of human awareness related to a

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yearning for balance, then one has to ask why … what purpose do
they serve? The only satisfying answer I’ve come to so far is that
they point to a deep need for the voice of The Unknown Storyteller
to be heard. We achieve this through being open to story storying
within us – to story storying us.
In the prologue, I present some key definitions. In chapter 1, I
introduce a brief basic overview of the methodology outlined in
this book, which I expand on in the subsequent three chapters.
In chapters 5 to 18, the individual story structures identified are
presented in turn, showing how they differ, following which, in
chapters 19 onwards, I explore some of the implications of the
methodology. In chapters 21 and 22, I introduce insights that the
approach can bring to the appreciation of literary forms such as
narrative and poetry, pending a more in-depth work showing how
the methodology can be applied in the practice of writing.
Some of the best story spinners are poets. Poets know how story
works better than anyone – they create in the moment, while also
being storied as living, breathing beings caught up in the awe-
inspiring mystery of a living, breathing cosmos.
The greatest of these poets have left us treasures – Farīd ud-Dīn
‘Attâr, whose quotes frame the work, for instance and the great
poets behind the text of the Rigveda whose words take us as close
as I think we can get to the source of story.
We start and end this journey with their works, which point to
a starting point and destination for our exploration of story which
lies just beyond us … until we re-discover it all around us, and
within ourselves. Once that happens, it becomes easier to see that
life lifes; story stories. Story lifes. Life stories. Story = life; life =
story. Story and life are one-and-the-same. Realising that gives us
the potential to achieve a more finely tuned sense of balance – both
in relation to ourselves and in relation to others.
I hope this book will help you tell life’s story and help you to
story your life by living your life story in harmony … with story.

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 NO T ES
1 H. Porter Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2021), 21.
2 Spencer-Brown’s work has been seen – at least potentially – as providing
an answer to what Bouissac calls the ‘Saussurean unfinished agenda’ (Paul
Bouissac, “Saussure’s Legacy in Semiotics,” in The Cambridge Companion
to Saussure, edited by Carol Sanders, 240–260 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), at 256, 260). Ingo Berensmeyer (“‘Twofold
Vibration’: Samuel Beckett’s Laws of Form,” Poetics Today 25 (3): 465–495),
Bruce Clarke (Posthuman Metamorphosis: Narrative and Systems (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2008)), and Don Kunze (“Triplicity in Spencer-
Brown, Lacan, and Poe,” in Lacan and the Nonhuman, edited by Gautam
Basu Thakur and Jonathan Michael Dickstein, 157–176 (Cham: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2018)) are, to my knowledge, the only narrative scholars to have
drawn on Spencer-Brown’s work in print to date. A detailed analysis of the
ways in which they have applied Spencer-Brown’s work in this field can be
found in my paper, “Laws of Form – Laws of Narrative – Laws of Story,”
in Laws of Form: A Fiftieth Anniversary, Series On Knots & Everything.
Vol. 72, edited by Louis H. Kauffman, Fred Cummins, Randolph Dible,
Leon Conrad, Graham Ellsbury, Andrew Crompton, and Florian Grote,
785–806. Singapore: World Scientific, 2022.
3 While the Chinese Circular Structure can be easily mapped with Spencer-
Brown’s six primary symbols, I’ve added five further ‘nice to have’ symbols
for visual clarity.
4 Rt Hon John Mackinnon Robertson, Letters on Reasoning, 2nd ed., revised
with additions (London: Watts, 1905). The important influence that
Robertson’s work had on George Spencer-Brown’s is explored in Leon
Conrad, “Roots, shoots, fruits: William Blake and J M Robertson: two key
influences on George Spencer-Brown’s work and the latter’s relationship to
Niklas Luhmann’s work,” Kybernetes 51, no. 5 (2022): 1879–1895.

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 PROLOGUE
CO M I N G T O T ER M S W I T H S T O RY

Whosoever desires to explore The Way—

Let them set out—for what more is there to say?

‘attâr, trans. unknown, Canticle of the Birds 1

L et’s begin with a few definitions. I use story; stories, a story, the
story; and narrative(s) to stand for the three levels that are found
together in every narrative.

Story

I use the word ‘story’ to mean two things which are linked:
firstly, the relatively static ways in which events in a
chronological sequence are linked; and secondly, the dynamic
impulse that links these events. The combination of these is
what makes story ‘story’.

Stories, a story, the story

Stories come into being when someone initiates or commun-

icates a series of events which are (or are capable of being)
meaningfully related to each other.2

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I use the terms stories, a story, or the story to mean a linked

arrangement of events that’s easily recognisable, regardless of how
a/the story is told.
Because there are many ways of telling a story, we end up with
different narratives.

Narrative(s)
By narrative(s), I mean (a) particular version(s), or telling(s) of a
story.

A narrative is the static, finished form that results from an

interpretation of a story.

A book can be made into a screenplay that’s made into a film,

then adapted for theatre, and retold in the form of a graphic novel.
The graphic novel might be remade as a film and its plot could be
summarised as a spoiler on a review site on the internet, or retold
among friends in a social setting. Each of these is an example of a
narrative based on the same key source: a story.
For instance, West Side Story (a film) is based on Shakespeare’s
stage play, Romeo and Juliet, which could have been based on the
poem by Arthur Brooke (1562), and/or the prose narrative by
William Painter (1580), either of which could have been based on
the earlier Italian prose version by Luigi da Porto, written in the
1520s, and published in various editions from 1531 onwards, which
may have been based on an earlier version from an oral tradition.3
These are all narratives based on ‘a single, common core story’
recognised as the story of the ‘star-crossed lovers’. Folklorists have
estimated that there are over 1,500 Cinderella stories, for instance,4
all of them recognised by the similarity in their key content as being
based on ‘a single, common core story’ which could be described as
the ‘Rags to Riches’ story. Each of these stories can be told in a
variety of narrative ways, which leads us to interpretations.

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 Prologue xxiii

Interpretation(s)
Different (re)presentations of a work or performances of a
production come about as a result of a dynamic process of engaging
with a narrative.

An interpretation is a dynamic process through which a

narrative unfolds over time.

Within any narrative, each character has their own story line.

Story line(s)

Story lines map the moment-to-moment sequence of events

each character experiences. Story lines always follow (a)
particular story structure(s).

Story structure

I use story structure to mean the minimum number of related

events we need for a unified whole we can recognise as being
common to a particular group of stories with the qualities of
distinctive ‘single, common core stories’ or ‘masterplots’, as
Porter Abbott calls them.5

Joseph Campbell has argued, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, that
the ‘hero’s journey’ masterplot can be traced through a wide range
of narratives. He describes their story structure as having three
main stages (separation, initiation, return), each stage containing
several subsections.6

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By starting from a narrative, then following each character’s story

line, identifying the distinctive narrative units which unfold through
these story lines, arranging them in chronological order, reducing
them to the minimum number of units required to tell the ‘bare
bones’ of a story, and then seeing how the characters’ story lines
interlink, we identify the story which underpins the narrative. We
can then analyse the relationship between the story and the story
structure(s) which it follows to understand the role that story plays
in that context – both in the story and in our engagement with it.
The approach develops and builds on the work of many narrative
theorists and writers, and I am particularly indebted to the work of
Mieke Bal, Roland Barthes, Joseph Campbell, Gerard Genette, A. J.
Greimas, Claude Levi-Strauss, Georges Polti, Vladimir Propp, Philip
Pullman, Arielle Saiber, Ferdinand de Saussure, and John Yorke.7

Plot pattern

Plot pattern deals with how a story is told and the order in
which the sequence of events is narrated.

Story unfolds in both space and time, but they’re treated differently
at different levels. Story structures emphasise time – they map
sequences of events in the order in which they happen, moment to
moment. Plot patterns, however, emphasise space. Think of where
a narrator is positioned, for instance. Usually, shifts in a narrator’s
position indicates a scene change and takes us from place to place
in the story – but not necessarily in chronological order.

Story
Story spinner
Plot pattern Story structure
Space Time Space Time
Narrative

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 Prologue xxv

Other terms will be defined as we come to them. In homage to

Spencer-Brown, the quirky injunctive style he uses to introduce
definitions in his book Laws of Form is invoked here when structures
are defined.
By defining terms, or story structures, we fix them – temporarily.
It’s more useful, however, to see the structures in particular as
flexible, responsive building blocks, which can merge, and develop
variant forms in context and yet still follow recognisable structural
patterns. Often the story seeker’s interpretation will influence how
a character’s story structure is determined. The detailed analysis
presented in appendix 1, which complements and develops the
basic overview of the structures as presented in the main part of
this work, provides an example of this.

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 NO T ES
1 The last lines of the poem (lines 4482–4483), as quoted in Clarissa Estes’
introduction to Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton
and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004), xxix.
2 There are useful definitions to be found in the glossary in H. Porter Abbott’s
Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2021), 243–263, particularly those for ‘entity’, ‘event’, and ‘story’ on
pages 248, 249 and 261 respectively.
3 For the film, see Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, directors, West Side
Story (Los Angeles: United Artists, 1961); the play, William Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet. In The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series, edited by René
Weis (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), 1125–1158; the poem, Arthur Brooke,
“Romeus and Juliet.” Shakespeare Navigators, 1 February, 2021, https://
www.shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/BrookeIndex.html; the prose
narratives, William Painter, “Romeo and Juliet,” The Palace of Pleasure:
Elizabethan Versions of Italian and French Novels from Boccacio, Bandello,
Cinthio, Straparola, Queen Margaret of Navarre, and Others. Vol. 2, Tome
2, edited by Joseph Jacobs, 3 January, 2011, Project Gutenberg, http://
www.gutenberg.org/files/34840/34840-h/34840-h.htm#novel2_25; Luigi
da Porto, Matteo Bandello, and Pierre Boaistuau, Romeo and Juliet Before
Shakespeare: Four Early Stories of Star-crossed Love (Toronto: Centre for
Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2000); and Luigi da Porto, Romeo
and Juliet, translated by Maurice Jonas (London: Davis & Orioli, 1921),
https://archive.org/details/romeojulietphoto00dapo/page/n9.
4 Marian Roalfe Cox, Cinderella; three hundred and forty-five variants of
Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o’Rushes, abstracted and tabulated, with a discussion
of mediaeval analogues, and notes (London: David Nutt for the Folk-Lore
Society, 1893), https://archive.org/details/cinderellathreeh00coxmuoft/;
Anna Birgitta Rooth, The Cinderella Cycle, (New York: Arno, 1980); Alan
Dundes, ed., Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook (New York: Garland, 1982);
Russell A. Peck, “The Cinderella Bibliography”, in A Robbins Library Digital
Project, accessed 16 November, 2018, http://d.lib.rochester.edu/cinderella.
According to Heidi Anne Heiner, ‘Sources disagree about how many versions
of the tale exist, with numbers conservatively ranging from 345 to over
1,500.’ “History of Cinderella,” 1998–2021, https://www.surlalunefairytales.
com/a-g/cinderella/cinderella-history.html. Heiner elsewhere states that

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 Prologue xxvii

‘the general consensus is that well over 1,000 variants, with a conservative
estimate of over twice that amount, have been recorded as part of literary
folklore.’ Cinderella Tales from Around the World, (n.p.: SurLaLune Press,
2012), 1.
5 For the definition of ‘masterplots’ as ‘recurrent skeletal stories’, see Abbott,
Cambridge Introduction, 254–255 and further references listed therein. See
also Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (London
and New York: Continuum, 2005). Italics mine.
6 See Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2004, 28–36, and
chapter 18 of this work, where I compare Campbell’s views on the ‘navel of
the world’ and the Chinese Circular Structure.
7 Mieke Bal, Narratology in Practice (Toronto, Buffalo, London: University
of Toronto Press, 2021), Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative,
4th ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), On Storytelling: Essays
in Narratology (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 1991); Roland Barthes, “An
Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative,” in New Literary
History: On Narrative and Narratives 6, no. 2 (Winter 1975): 237–272,
https://doi.org/10.2307/468419; Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand
Faces, 2004; Gerard Genette, Narrative Discourse (Oxford: Blackwell,
1979); Algirdas Julien Greimas, “Elements of a Narrative Grammar,”
in Diacritics 7, no. 1 (Spring 1977): 23–40; Algirdas Julien Greimas, and
François Rastier, “The Interaction of Semiotic Constraints,” in Yale French
Studies: Game, Play, Literature 41 (1968): 86–105; Georges Polti, The Thirty-
Six Dramatic Situations, translated by Lucile Ray (Franklin, OH: James
Knapp Reeve, 1924), https://archive.org/details/thirtysixdramati00polt/
page/n4; Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, 2nd ed. (Austin, TX:
University of Texas Press, 2005), and Levi-Strauss’ commentary on his
work therein; Philip Pullman’s “Poco a Poco,” in Daemon Voices: Essays
on Storytelling (Oxford: David Fickling, 2017), 150–173; Arielle Saiber,
Giordano Bruno and the Geometry of Language: Literary and Scientific Cultures
of Early Modernity, (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing
Company, 2005); Charles Bally, Albert Riedlinger, Ferdinand de Saussure,
and Albert Sechehaye, Course in General Linguistics (London: Duckworth,
1983); Carol Sanders, The Cambridge Companion to Saussure (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004) and especially the chapter therein by
Bouissac entitled “Saussure’s Legacy in Semiotics,” 240–260; and John Yorke,
Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them (London: Penguin,
2013).

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 1
THE BASICS
IN BRIEF

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 The poet … must familiarize himself with the secrets of his
calling, the great and inviolable laws and the lesser and
breakable rules of his discipline or craft.

 -,    ,

Only Two Can Play This Game 1

J ust as a farmer ploughs a field before starting to sow, or a builder

lays foundations before putting up a building, in this chapter, I
lay out the foundations of the methodology. With the foundations
in place, we’ll be able to build on them in more detail. We start with
some key ideas.

Assumptions and conventions

Story implies the presence of a story spinner. The story spinner

communicates information to a story seeker.
Story emerges from a sense that something is out of balance
with respect to a specific character – a sense that something
(from their perspective) either should be, but isn’t; or a sense
that something isn’t, but should be.
Story is based on a series of events that can be classified
as ‘backward and forward steps’ (the ‘heartbeat’ of story,
the pulsing beats of which being ‘counted’ when the story is
‘recounted’ or ‘told’) within a character’s story line.2
Story lines always relate to a particular character in a
particular situation.
Stories involve one or more characters’ story lines unfolding.
This emergent unfolding of a related series of events is how
story ‘stories’.3
The events are (or are capable of being) meaningfully
related to each other in relation to the initial state in which
a character (concrete or abstract)4 starts out and to the state

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in which they end up, taking the character from one point in
space and/or time to another.
The events are either seen as ‘fortunate’ and/or ‘unfortunate’
relative to the perceived state of imbalance to which they
relate.5
At the level of story structure, the sequences of steps always
follows the chronological order in which the events unfold in
time.
The order in which these steps occur at the level of
plot pattern in the narrative telling of a story need not be
chronological.
The minimum number of events, and the order in which
these events unfold distinguish different story structures.

Notation
George Spencer-Brown’s calculus, which inspires this work, is
based on a single mark ( m ) which represents a token of the first
distinction, resulting from a self-realised ‘act of crossing’.6 Its
presence implies an unmarked state which stands for the space in
which the mark appears, ‘in the form’ ( u ).7 The unmarked state
contains unlimited potential for the emergence of new marks –
just as we have unlimited potential for ideas to appear in and from
our minds. When ideas are expressed, the expressions can expand
( ⇀ ) and contract ( ↽ ).8 Where the movement has potential to
expand or contract, but the result is (as yet) undetermined, the
double barb is used ( ⇌ ).9 Finally, ‘the snake eating its own tail’ is
introduced – the mark of recursion, or re-entry into the form – to
deal with memory, time, and other looping or indeterminate forms
such as the principle behind the square root of minus 1. Until one
option is chosen, it can either be -1 or +1. It’s indeterminate ( r ).10
These six simple symbols, along with the absence of form, are the
only elements we need to map the deep structure of story. They’re
applied as follows:

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 The basics in brief 5

As used by George
Events Symbols Spencer-Brown As used in this work
Openings/ r Recursion or re-entry. The mark of recursion or
Closings Introduces time, re-entry is used to symbolise
memory and second- openings and closings of stories.
order forms, like the These typically set up and
principle behind the resolve cognitive dissonances
square root of minus 1. in space-time (e.g., ‘Once upon
a time’, which treats time as
a bounded region of space on
which something can be placed,
rather than something flowing,
moving and constantly in motion;
and ‘they lived happily ever
after’, which treats the extent
of characters’ lives as indefinite
rather than definite).
This applies to all story
structures.
Initial/final m Mark of indication. The mark is used to symbolise
situations a ‘who, when, and where’: a
Performs a pointing
function. Stands for the character in a particular point in
marked state. space and time at the start and
end of a story.
This applies to all story
structures.
Empty Absence of form. The only structure in which a
space blank space appears, indicating
This indicates the
unmarked state. the absence of a mark, is
the Open-Ended Linear Koan
In relation to the first structure.
distinction, it signifies
‘nothing’; ‘mystery’; the Here, I focus on the
void from which, and in comparatively static aspect
which, form emerges. of the symbol, and link it to
a transcendent, awe-inspired
‘WOW!’ state.
Backward ↽ Act of condensation, The backward barb symbolises
step cancellation. an event which poses a problem
Retracing for a character or hinders them
from resolving it. In this context,
meetings are interpreted as
backward steps.
Forward ⇀ Act of confirmation, The forward barb symbolises an
step compensation. event which helps a character
Tracing resolve the problem they face, or
propels them towards realising
their destiny.

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As used by George
Events Symbols Spencer-Brown As used in this work
Events ⇌ Potential for expansion As will be described, the double
involving or contraction, as barb symbolises an event which
cognitive yet unrealised, thus involves a ‘mistake’ of some
dissonance indeterminate. kind – specifically, an Aristotelian
categorical cognitive dissonance
often in the form of defeated
expectation in the quality of
the interaction between two
characters.11 This could be:
(i) an active intention to dupe
(Trickster step and its resolution
in a Transformational Twist),
(ii) a comic outcome
(Comic step, based on a simile-
based category mistake and its
resolution in a Transformational
Twist), or
(iii) a surprising outcome
(Trickster Awe step, based
on an interjection-like
perception of dissonance
between categorematic and
syncategorematic qualities
of being (Huh?!) and the
resolution of that perceived
sense of dissonance (Ah!) in a
Transformational Twist).
The double barb typically appears
either singly ( ⇌ ), not ( ⇌ ⇌ ),
or as a pair framing a backward
step ( ⇌ ↽ ⇌ ).

Although I introduce an extra set of secondary symbols in chapter

13 to map the dynamic movement of the energy in a story in
relation to the Chinese Circular Structure for convenience, the
steps can still be notated in a basic manner using Spencer-Brown’s
marks of indication ( m ) and cancellation ( u ) alternately.

Treatment of steps and step sequences

Sequences of the same step type can expand and contract as follows:

A double ( ↽ ↽ ) sequence of steps can contract to a single ( ↽ ) step.

A double ( ⇀ ⇀ ) sequence of steps can contract to a single ( ⇀ ) step.

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 The basics in brief 7

A single ( ↽ ) step can expand to a double ( ↽ ↽ ) sequence.

A single ( ⇀ ) step can expand to a double ( ⇀ ⇀ ) sequence.

Sequences of different step types can expand and contract as follows:

A triple ( ↽ ⇀ ↽ ) sequence of steps can contract to a single ( ↽ ) step.

A triple ( ⇀ ↽ ⇀ ) sequence of steps can contract to a single ( ⇀ ) step.
A triple ( ⇌ ↽ ⇌ ) sequence of steps can contract to a single ( ⇌ ) step.

Contrariwise, as Tweedledee might say:12

A single ( ↽ ) step can expand to a triple ( ↽ ⇀ ↽ ) sequence.

A single ( ⇀ ) step can expand to a triple ( ⇀ ↽ ⇀ ) sequence.
A single ( ⇌ ) step can expand to a triple ( ⇌ ↽ ⇌ ) sequence.

Call this the expansion and contraction of steps.

Process of working
With the basic principles outlined above in mind,
1. Select a story to analyse.
2. Note the source version, where relevant.
3. Summarise the story in ‘bare bones’ form.
4. Note the story opening and closing, stated or implied.
5. Identify the main characters and their initial situation (who,
when, where, and in what condition).
6. Identify the problem(s) which caused the story to emerge for
each of these characters – these are typically resolved (but
sometimes left unresolved) at the end of the story.
7. Identify the main structural parts of the story (beginning,
middle, end, and any subsections).
8. Arrange the events related to each character’s story line in
chronological order.
9. Within these story lines, look for pairs of ‘unfortunate’/
‘fortunate’ steps which relate to the ebb and flow of the story
structure. The terms ‘unfortunate’ and ‘fortunate’ are relative

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to the solution of the character’s initial problem. Ask yourself,

‘Where does the tide of the story’s flow change?’ ‘Which
elements of the story flow forward and help the character on
their journey towards solving their problem?’ ‘Which elements
of the story relate to a reversal of the flow, that delay or distract
a character on their journey?’ Are there any outliers? Are there
any single steps that don’t fit into a pair? Note these. Analyse
them. What do they point to?
10. Identify the quality of each element using the appropriate
symbol:
Opening, Closing: Oscillatory Step ( r )
Character: Mark ( m )
Forward step: Forward barb ( ⇀ )
Backward step: Backward barb ( ↽ )
Meetings are always interpreted as backward steps in
this approach to the analysis of story structure, as they
stop the character in their tracks and delay or distract the
character from continuing on their journey.
Trickster, Dupe, Comic, Transformational Twist,
Trickster Awe steps: Double barb ( ⇌ ). These steps
signify an interaction between two characters which
involves a defeated expectation or cognitive dissonance
of some kind.13
11. Can you condense ( ↽ ↽ ) or ( ↽ ⇀ ↽ ), to ( ↽ ); ( ⇀ ⇀ ) or
( ⇀ ↽ ⇀ ) to ( ⇀ ) and/or ( ⇌ ↽ ⇌ ) to ( ⇌ ) without losing
essential information? If you can, then do.
12. Analyse the overarching structure of the entire story based
on the dominant pattern which results, using the 18 story
structures currently identified as a guide.
13. Note any questions or variations that result from your analysis
when compared to the 18 story structures currently identified.

Application
For the purpose of demonstration, we’ll be using the story of
The Gigantic Turnip.14 It’s a cumulative story in which the main

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 The basics in brief 9

character (the grandfather, in Afanas’ev’s version, analysed below)

starts with a problem, goes through a sequence of events that, after
many failed attempts, leads to him overcoming the hindrance that
lies in the way, with the help of his family and friends, which results
in his problem being solved. In the following analysis of his story
line, each step is assigned an appropriate symbol.15

Analysis of the grandfather’s story line in the story of The Gigantic Turnip
Steps Symbols Structure Outline of content
1 r Opening [Implied]

2 m Initial situation Grandfather planted a turnip.

3 ↽ Problem When the time came to harvest it, he

couldn’t pull it up.
4 ⇀ Journey He called for help.

5 ↽ Meeting with … A character came over …

6 ⇀ … friend/helper … and tried to help him harvest it, but

the attempt failed.
Loop back to step 3 in a series featuring
grandmother, granddaughter, a dog, five
beetles.
7 ↽ Meeting with … The fifth beetle, adding its strength to
the cumulative build-up …
8 ⇀ … enemy/ … helped them pull up the turnip …
hindrance
9 m Final situation … enabling the grandfather to harvest it.
(outcome/resolution)
10 r Closing [Implied]

When the ‘friend/helper’ characters join the story, they’re simply

that – friends/helpers. As soon as their attempts to help fail, they
share in the grandfather’s problem and their story lines and his
merge. The final iteration (relating to the fifth beetle) allows the
story structure to resolve. The story structure is then revealed to be
a standard Quest structure, outlined in full in chapter 5, the typical
steps of which are shown in the column marked ‘Structure’ above.

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Classification of story structures

(a) Linear and Dynamic story structures
16 story structures involve barbs in their notation – whether these
relate to backward steps ( ↽ ), forward steps ( ⇀ ), or steps involving
a categorical cognitive dissonance of some kind, indicated by ( ⇌ ).
All of these 16 story structures are Linear structures.
Two story structures start off, as the Linear structures do, with an
opening step ( r ) and a mark for the character ( m ). From there,
an alternation between marked ( m ) and unmarked ( u ) states
unfolds, the number of such steps, and their qualities distinguishing
the structures and giving them their individuality. These story
structures are the Chinese Circular Structure and the Revelation
structure. They’re identified as Dynamic story structures. Dynamic
story structures symbiotically underpin Linear story structures.

Call the Chinese Circular Structure and the Revelation

structure Dynamic story structures. Call the remaining
structures identified Linear story structures.16

Each step in the Chinese Circular Structure or Revelation

structure relates to one or more steps in a Linear story structure.
Steps in Dynamic story structures are notated using the following
three symbols ( r ), ( m ), ( u ), which, in the context of Dynamic
story structures, are used to denote the following:

As used by George As used

Events Symbols Spencer-Brown in this work
Oscillation r Recursion or re-entry. In Dynamic story structures, the
Introduces time, mark of oscillation symbolises
memory and second- a qualitative change in the
order equations. relationship between knower
and known. The change is from
either a marked or an unmarked
state to an oscillatory state.

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 The basics in brief 11

As used by George As used

Events Symbols Spencer-Brown in this work
Marking m Mark of indication. In Dynamic story structures, the
Performs a pointing mark of indication symbolises
function. Stands for the a qualitative change in the
marked state. relationship between knower
and known. The change is
from either an oscillatory or an
unmarked state to a marked
state.
Elsewhere, I refer to this as
a state which gives rise to a
statement (the declarative
mood).
Unmarking u Mark of cancellation. In Dynamic story structures, the
Cancels a mark of mark of cancellation symbolises
indication, or stands for a qualitative change in the
the unmarked state. relationship between knower
and known. The change is from
Equivalent to the blank either an oscillatory or a marked
piece of paper on which state to an unmarked state.
it is written. In relation
to the first distinction, Elsewhere, I refer to this as a
it signifies ‘nothing’; state which gives rise to a wish
‘mystery’; the void from or prayer (the optative mood).
which, and in which,
form emerges.

(b) Threshold and Non-Threshold structures

The 18 story structures can be classified according to whether a
character crosses a threshold between transcendent (metaphysical
or supernatural) and immanent (physical) dimensions of being,
with the Creation Myth structure straddling both:

Threshold structures Non-Threshold structures

Transformation Quest
Trickster Variation Trickster
Death and Rebirth Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Rags to Riches Open-Ended Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Revelation Dilemma
Call and Response (2 Variations) Riddle
Chinese Circular Structure Voyage and Return
Koan Perpetual Motion
Creation Myth

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Threshold structures typically feature fairy godmothers, angels,

demons, etc. It may be useful to distinguish between concepts and
percepts here – we experience trees with our senses; we experience
tree spirits with our mind … until they cross a threshold and
manifest in physical form. In the Creation Myth structure, both
dimensions unite.
Linear story structures can also be classified according to (c) the
quality of a character’s initial step and (d) the quality of the ending.

(c) Classification by initial step

The mark ( m ) stands for a character in a particular time and place.
It can be followed by any of the other 5 primary symbols used in
the methodology:

Revelation The Chinese Quest Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu Riddle

Story Transformation Open-Ended Koan
Structure Death & Rebirth Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Trickster Creation Myth
Call and Response
(2 Variations)
Trickster Variation
Dilemma
Voyage & Return
Perpetual Motion

(d) Classification by endings

Closed Open-Ended No clear ending

Quest Dilemma Perpetual Motion
Transformation Open-Ended Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu Creation Myth
Rags to Riches Koan
Death and Rebirth Riddle
Trickster
Trickster Variation
Call and Response (2 Variations)
Ki-Shō-Ten-Ketsu
Voyage and Return

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 NO TE S
1 James Keys, Only Two Can Play This Game (Bath: Cat Books, 1971), 37.
2 One exception is the Creation Myth structure, although this can be
expressed as the first contraction and release that generate the heartbeat
of all of the other story structures. Another could be the Chinese Circular
Structure, which exhibits a similar contraction/expansion pattern – the ebb
and flow of qi.
3 The principle is behind a game used in storytelling, improvised theatre,
and theatre warm-up contexts. It has inspired two books: Remy Charlip,
Fortunately (New York: Aladdin, 1993), and Michael Foreman, Fortunately,
Unfortunately (Minneapolis, MN: Andersen, 2011). More recently, it has
appeared as a ‘texting game’: Simon Hill, “The best texting games,” in
Digital Trends. 15 July, 2019. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-
texting-games/.
4 Abstract concepts are often personified as fictional characters; mathematical
proofs are an example of stories which feature abstract propositions as
characters.
5 The terms ‘unfortunate’/’fortunate’ are intended as props to help bridge the
gap of unfamiliarity with the symbolic methodology, to be swiftly discarded
once familiarity with the methodology is acquired.
6 George Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form (London: George Allen and Unwin,
1969; Leipzig: Bohmeier Verlag, 2011), 3. Citations refer to the Bohmeier
edition unless stated otherwise. In Spencer-Brown’s work, all acts (and thus
marks) of distinction are taken to be tokens of the first distinction.
7 Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form, 5.
8 Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form, 7–10.
9 Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form, 10. In Spencer-Brown’s work, the ⇌ is used
this way, but is not expanded on further. It plays a key role in the analysis of
story structure in this methodology.
10 Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form, 53; Louis H Kauffman, “Laws of Form and
Form Dynamics,” in Cybernetics & Human Knowing 9, no. 2 (2002): 49–63
at 58; André Reichel, “Snakes all the Way Down: Varela’s Calculus for Self-
Reference and the Praxis of Paradise,” in Systems Research and Behavioral
Science 28, no. 6 (2011): 646–662, https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.1105. In
conversations with me, Spencer-Brown referred to this as the ‘if ’ function.
11 The dissonance relates to Aristotle’s 10 Categories of Being, summarised in
chapter 9 of this work. See Aristotle, “The Categories,” translated by Harold

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P. Cooke, in The Categories; On Interpretation, translated by Harold P. Cooke

and Hugh Tredennick (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962).
12 Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, illustrated by John
Tenniel, edited by Martin Gardner (London: Penguin, 2001), 180.
13 These are explained in detail in the main body of this work. See especially
chapters 6, 12, 14, and 15.
14 My analysis is based on the version in Aleksandr Afanas’ev, Russian Fairy
Tales, translated by Norbert Guterman (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945),
26–27.
15 A step-by-step analysis of this story is outlined in a presentation I gave
entitled “The Unknown Storyteller,” (PowerPoint presentation, LoF50,
‘Laws of Form’ 50th anniversary conference, Liverpool, 10 August, 2019),
YouTube: GZJdlhG0z78.
16 A mapping of the links between Dynamic and Linear story structures
can be found in chapter 18 and is explored further in Leon Conrad, “The
Chinese Circular Structure,” 2 parts, unpublished manuscript, last modified
18 and 2 June 2020 respectively.

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 2
WHAT MAKES A
STORY … A STORY?

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 … the poignant question strikes a spark to the engine that ignites the
heart. This starts up the energy of the story; it rolls the story forward.
The mythic tale unfolds in response to that single igniting question.

clarissa estes, What Does the Soul Want? 1

W hen we come across something we think is different,

something unusual, or something that makes us stop and ask
questions, a story appears. Our ability to spot subtle changes in our
environment—and our drive to make sense of these changes—are
innate instincts on which the deeply embodied frameworks which
story uses to story are fashioned.
Firstly, within the story spinner, a story emerges as a result of
a causative spark. That spark shapes—and links—a chronological
sequence of events. Without it, there can be no story.
Take this sequence of events, for example … is it a story?

I woke up yesterday morning.

The sun was shining.
I had breakfast and went out.
I sat in the park.
I got hungry.
I went to the park café.
It started raining.
I had lunch.
It had stopped raining when I started my journey home.
I met Janet on the way.
We talked for a bit.
We parted.
I had a quiet supper at home.
I went to bed and slept through the night.

It could be a story – there’s potential there, but at the moment, it’s

simply a sequence of events.

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But what if those events were presented like this … ?

I woke up yesterday morning and saw that the sun was shining,
so I decided to have a quick breakfast and take a walk. I went
where my feet led me and ended up sitting in the park around
12 o’clock, by which time I was hungry, so I walked over to
the café by the lake. I’d just chosen something to eat when
it started to pour down. Luckily, I was inside, so I avoided
getting wet. It took a while for the rain to clear, and when it
did, the world looked fresh and clean. The rain had given me
an opportunity to focus on clearing my mind, sorting out some
stuff, and I started home with a clearer head. It took me about
half an hour to walk back. Just as I turned the corner into my
road, I met Janet and stopped to chat with her. We talked for a
bit – I found out about what had been going on with her and
shared some of the stuff I’d been thinking about. It brought
us closer together somehow. Then we parted. As I prepared a
light supper at home, I reflected that I was better off for having
shared something of my life with another human being and
hoped that she felt the same. I think she might have. When
my head hit my pillow that night, I ended up sleeping better
than I’d slept for a long time.

Although it’s definitely not Booker prizeworthy, the events in this

version are woven together more meaningfully than they are in the
first version. They hang together better. They’re explicitly related
both chronologically and causally rather than simply being listed
chronologically. They open up more possibilities: What did the
protagonist need to sort out? And why? … Who was Janet? …
What was their relationship? … Is romance likely? … Why had the
protagonist been sleeping poorly by comparison to how they slept
after their day out? Is this just one story? Or are there many? You’re
the story spinner … you get to decide. They’re your stories. Story
emerges in a general sense – not just the stories mentioned here,
but all stories – because something sets off a sequence of events at

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 What makes a story … a story? 19

the level of story. Come across something unusual, or something

that makes you stop and ask questions … a story is born.
What ignites the process for one person may well be different to
what ignites it for someone else. Nevertheless, the stories which flare
up will usually be connected to some form of unresolved question
or perceived state of imbalance. This book argues that stories exist
for a purpose. They help us restore unrestricted flow. Stories help
us bring things back to a state of balance. Through the power of
story, stories help us realise the Oneness-of-Being.2 Being is one, so
logically, story facilitates the manifestation of a fully formed entity
that unfolds step by step through time, yet is fundamentally unified.
Our relationship to this fundamental unity is supported by the
coming together of three universal principles: truth, goodness, and
beauty (harmony, or proportion) – an idea that goes at least back to
Plato,3 who identified these as ‘goodness, symmetry, truth’.4 When
we’re out of balance, story helps bring us back into balance. As
we’ll see in the chapters on Comedy, Tragedy, and Riddles, story
also depends on the embodied ways in which we make sense of the
world around us, first categorised, as far as I know, by Aristotle, in
the 4th century BCE.5
If Janet and the protagonist had failed to meet; if there’d been no
mention of them being together, could the story of their evolving
relationship ever be told? If the overriding questions are about who
the protagonist is, what kind of person they are, or why they did
what they did, the questions open up a back story for them, a story
that begs to be told.
We’re predisposed to respond to our environment, and we
respond in particular ways to imbalances in that environment. We
can’t help responding to change. When an unresolved question is
involved, a story invariably emerges …

Imagine you’re in a familiar spot – the room you spent the

most time in as a child, where you were happiest. Imagine that
out of the corner of your eye, you see a shadow … a shadow
that shouldn’t be there …

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20 STORY A ND ST RUCT URE

Hold that thought … let it develop …

What happens?

Where did it happen?

What’s really happening?
Is a story being set up?
Probably.
So, what’s setting up the story?
My guess is that it’s not the shadow, but something else. Shadows
are part of the environment, after all. Perhaps it’s that a particular
shadow shouldn’t be there. The imbalance we perceive in relation to
our environment sets up … the story.

Stories are linked to perceived imbalances in our environment,

and stories are ways of making sense of—and resolving—
those imbalances.

In his Poetics, Aristotle describes changes in state and perception

(changes that flow naturally, or changes that involve reversal and
recognition) which drive story forward.6 You might prefer to use terms
such as ‘inciting incidents’, ‘problems’, ‘mythic questions’, or ‘conflicts’
– the essence is the same. Flow and balance are essential to story. They
go back to the birth of story, well before the first written theories on
how story works appeared, and well before ‘problems’ emerged.

Stories are set up as a result of imbalances which can manifest

in several forms.

That shadow that appeared as an imbalance because it shouldn’t

be there is one kind of imbalance. It shouldn’t be there, but it is.
Defeated expectation stops us in our tracks; it ‘blocks flow’.

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 What makes a story … a story? 21

But what about this?

Imagine that you’re just about to walk into a place that’s very
familiar to you. As you enter, you notice that a particular piece
of furniture is missing.
It should be there, but it isn’t. Or is it the other way round?

Is it that there should be an absence of a shadow in that particular

place in the first of these two scenarios, but there isn’t? And is it
that there shouldn’t be an absence of that piece of furniture in the
second one, but there is?
Is—Isn’t—Is—Isn’t—It could be thought of as rather agonising,
couldn’t it?
I’d be hard pressed to think of any other way to frame an
imbalance – either we feel something should be and it isn’t, or it
shouldn’t be and it is. Either way, the flow is blocked; the block is
unhelpful because flow is necessary.
So how can flow be restored?
Should we try to solve problems? Or give up hopelessly? Should
we find someone or something that can help? If so, then who or
what can help put things right? How can we know what the right
thing to do is? How can we find the best way to solve a problem?
Can we ever?
I could ask: What makes the difference? What sets up these
responses? Story happens because these responses emerge. Without
the responses, we wouldn’t have story, but we do – and one of the
clues to understanding how story works can be found embedded
deep in the story of how story is born …

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 NO T ES
1 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, xlviii.
2 The thesis that as all things participate in Being, in that sense, they are
all paradoxically ‘one and the same’ can be traced at least as far back as
Parmenides, if not earlier, and onwards through Plato and Aristotle. It is
central to Spencer-Brown’s work.
For references, see Parmenides’ “Fragment 8”: ‘A single story of a route
still / Is left: that [it] is; on this [route] there are signs / Very numerous: that
what-is is ungenerated and imperishable; / Whole, single-limbed, steadfast,
and complete,’ in Parmenides of Elea, Fragments, translated by David
Gallop (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 64–75, at 8.1–4, 64.
Plato describes three states of Being united as one – ‘the Being which
is indivisible and remains always the same and the Being which is
transient and divisible in bodies’ and a compound, all blended together
‘into one form’: Timaeus, 35a, from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9,
translated by W.R.M. Lamb (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press; London: W. Heinemann Ltd. 1925), https://www.perseus.tufts.
edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0180:text=Tim.:section=35a.
For Aristotle, ‘Unity is nothing distinct from Being.’ The
Metaphysics, translated by Hugh Tredennick, Vol. 1. (London: W.
Heinemann; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933) 4.1003b, 150–151.
On ‘The Oneness-of-Being’ (waḥdat al-wujūd ) in the Sufi tradition,
see René Guénon, The Essential René Guénon: Metaphysics, Tradition, and
the Crisis of Modernity, edited by Ed Herlihy (Bloomington, IA: World
Wisdom, 2009), 125–126; Seyyed Hosein Nasr, “Scientia Sacra,” in The
Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy, edited by
Martin Lings and Clinton Minnaar, 114–140 (Bloomington, IN: World
Wisdom, 2007), 120n13; and Muhammad Ali Aziz, Religion and Mysticism
in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. The Legacy of Ahmad Ibn ‘Alwān
(London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 69.
3 Plato, The Republic of Plato, translated by Allan Bloom (New York: Basic
Books, 1991). Truth and measure are covered at 6.486d, 166; exemplary
philosophic practice is defined as integrating being, truth, goodness, and the
ability to apprehend the harmony or relationship between them at 6.501d,
181; truth and goodness (with knowledge of them implying harmony) at
6.508d, 188–189. See also Seth Benardete, Socrates’ Second Sailing: On Plato’s
“Republic” (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 157–177.

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 What makes a story … a story? 23

In his book On the Divine Names, Pseudo-Dionysius, in the late 5th or early
6th century CE, drawing on revelation ‘from the Oracles’ and on inspiration
from philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, lists among his names for
the Nameless: Being, One, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty: Dionysius the
Areopagite, On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology, translated by
Clarence Edwin Rolt (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1920), https://archive.org/details/dionysiusareopag00dion/page/n5 at
1.5–6, 59–62; 2.11, 78–81; 3.1, 81–83; and 5.1, 131–132 respectively. He
discusses the Platonic link between the Universals (in his terms, the ‘divine
names’) and light in chapter 4, 86–130.
4 Plato, Philebus, from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8, translated by Harold
N. Fowler (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, W.
Heinemann Ltd. 1925), 64e–65a and ff, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Phileb.:section=64e.
See also Plato’s Seventh Letter, in Hans Joachim Krämer, Plato and the
Foundations of Metaphysics: A Work on the Theory of the Principles and Unwritten
Doctrines of Plato with a Collection of the Fundamental Documents, edited
and translated by John R. Catan (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1990), 342d,
196 and Plato, Symposium, from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3 translated
by W. R. M. Lamb (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London,
William Heinemann Ltd. 1925), Diotima’s speech, 205e ff, especially
210e–212a, where the discourse soars from the physical realm, through the
metaphysical realm to transcend both. Symmetry is variously translated as
proportion, harmony, balance, or beauty, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Sym.:section=205e.
5 Aristotle’s 10 Categories of Being are summarised in chapter 9 of this
work. See Aristotle, “The Categories,” translated by Harold P. Cooke, in
The Categories; On Interpretation, translated by Harold P. Cooke and Hugh
Tredennick (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 1–111, and
especially at 4.1b25–1b26, 16–19.
6 Aristotle: On Poetics, translated by Seth Bernardete and Michael Davis
(South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press, 2002) 1452a, 29.

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