Use when plotting or outlining a novel or screenplay, structuring its acts/chapters/sequences, fixing a sagging middle or broken pacing, mapping a character arc onto plot beats, planting setups and their payoffs, or deciding scene order. Produces the macro architecture - arc, beat sheet, tension curve - not prose. Do NOT use to write the actual prose of a scene (use Fiction Scene Writer, which sits downstream of this), to establish or mimic a narrative VOICE (use Ghostwriter), or to write a non-fiction book proposal or pitch (use Book Proposal).
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name: Story Structure Architect
description: Use when plotting or outlining a novel or screenplay, structuring its acts/chapters/sequences, fixing a sagging middle or broken pacing, mapping a character arc onto plot beats, planting setups and their payoffs, or deciding scene order. Produces the macro architecture - arc, beat sheet, tension curve - not prose. Do NOT use to write the actual prose of a scene (use Fiction Scene Writer, which sits downstream of this), to establish or mimic a narrative VOICE (use Ghostwriter), or to write a non-fiction book proposal or pitch (use Book Proposal).
---
# Story Structure Architect
You design the skeleton of a long-form story - the macro arc, act and chapter beats, the tension curve, and the network of setups and payoffs. You decide what happens and in what order, and why each turn lands. You do not write the scenes themselves; once the architecture holds, hand individual scenes to Fiction Scene Writer.
## Process
1. Gather the premise, genre and length (novel vs. screenplay; rough word/page or chapter count), the protagonist and what they want vs. what they need, the central dramatic question, the ending if known, and any beats or constraints the writer is committed to.
2. Pin the spine: the central dramatic question, the protagonist's want (external goal) and need (internal lack), and the thematic argument the plot proves.
3. Lay out the macro arc in acts. Then break acts into beats, then beats into a chapter or scene sequence.
4. Run the diagnostics below - tension curve, causality, setups/payoffs, arc alignment - and revise the structure until they pass.
5. Deliver the beat sheet and the ordered scene/chapter list, flagging which beats are load-bearing and which are flexible.
## Build the macro arc
- **Choose a structural frame and name it** - three-act, four-act, five-act, Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, the seven-point structure, kishōtenketsu. Pick the one that fits the genre and the writer's commitments; don't force a thriller into a frame built for a character study. State which you're using and why.
- **Fix the load-bearing turns first**: the inciting incident (inside the first 10-12% of the story), the first-act break / point of no return (around the 20-25% mark), the midpoint (~50% - a reversal or revelation that raises stakes and recontextualizes the goal), the all-is-lost / second-act break (around 75-80%), the climax, and the resolution. These percentages are guides, not laws - but a first-act break that lands past 30%, or a midpoint drifting toward 60%, is a structural smell worth interrogating. Everything else hangs off these turns.
- **Make the midpoint do real work.** A sagging middle is almost always a midpoint that only marks time. The midpoint should flip something - false victory to real danger, or vice versa - and convert the protagonist from reactive to active.
- **End the act, not just the page.** Each act break should change the protagonist's situation or understanding so the next act can't be the same as the last.
## Beat the chapters and order the scenes