Beating the Story: How to Map, Understand, and Elevate Any Narrative

See How Stories Work

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. This book shows you how to track, map, and understand the rhythm of a story. Whether you re writing or rewriting, editing a manuscript or dismantling your favorite television episode, Beating the Story helps you understand how stories get hammered into shape.

Beating the Story combines 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.

Foreword by John Rogers.

Robin D. Laws is the author of eight novels plus the short story collection New Tales of the Yellow Sign, and has edited five original short fiction anthologies. He designed such tabletop roleplaying games as Hillfolk, Feng Shui, The Esoterrorists, and The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. Hear him discuss writing and story, among many other subjects, on the award-winning weekly podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.