See How Stories Work

Beating the Story: How to Map, Understand, and Elevate Any Narrative shows you how to track, map, and understand the rhythm of a story. The most compelling stories move us emotionally. Up and down, between hope and fear, in ways we don’t always expect—but that you can harness as a writer, editor, and critic. Whether you’re writing or rewriting, editing a manuscript or dismantling your favorite television episode, this book helps you understand how stories get hammered into shape.

Beating the Story combines Robin D. Laws’ insightful and articulate analysis of story beats with all-new transition beats and icons to do for fiction and screenplays what his Hamlet’s Hit Points did for narrative games. Read it and see how to map, understand, and elevate any narrative.