About Story Charts

Story Charts help visualize the structure of a story.

Story Charts are made up of:

• Lines representing each major Plotline
• Markers along these lines representing Turning Points
• Each Plotline moves along two-axes: time and Value
• Each Plotline reaches a Resolution
• Each Plotline represents Change:
• Internal Change within a character
• Relationship Change between two characters
• External Change within the world

Story Charts can be used to understand the story of movies, books, or anything with a story in it. This is the Story Chart of the movie Casablanca:

The Story Chart reveals the story of Casablanca. We can see:

• The story has 3 major Plotlines


• Plot 1 (in black) is the External Quest of the rebels trying to escape
• Plot 2 (in green) is the Internal Change of Rick becoming a patriot
• Plot 3 (in red) is the Relationship Change of the love between Rick and Ilsa


• Each Plot reaches an irreversible Resolution


• Plot 1 (in black) ends in success with the rebels escaping
• Plot 2 (in green) ends in success with Rick shooting Strasser
• Plot 3 (in red) ends in failure with Rick sending Ilsa off for good


• Each Plot's Turning Points propel the action towards resolution (the Turning Points take on increasingly higher and lower values)


• One Plot's Turning Point directly propels a Turning Point of a different Plot, and so on, until conclusion, for example:


• Rick refuses to help Ugarte (a Turning Point towards the negative on the Internal Change Plot), this results in Ugarte being arrested (a negative Turning Point on the External Quest Plot).
• Ilsa admits her love for Rick (a Turning Point towards the positive on the Relationship Change Plot), this results in Rick bartering for a future with Ilsa in return for betraying the rebels (a negative Turning Point on the External Quest Plot)
• Rick shoots Strasser (the climax Turning Point in the Internal Change Plot), this results in victory for the rebels since they can escape (the Climax Turning Point for the External Quest Plot)

We can also see the magic of the Casablanca story. Casablanca is a love story, yet we feel satisfied with an anti-climactic ending where the lovers Rick and Ilsa are forever separated.

Why?

Let's simplify the Story Chart and strip away all the Turning Points and only look at the resolutions of each plot:

We can see on the Story Chart that even though the love Plot plummets to an anti-climax, the two other Plots finish with positive Climaxes: the rebels escape the Germans and Rick has become a patriot. The film could have ended when Rick sends Ilsa and Victor off because this would have concluded the love story. But we have one more scene at the end in which Rick shoots the German officer Strasser. This scene is crucial because it ensures the safe departure of Ilsa and Victor (a positive climax for the escape plot) and seals Rick’s fate as a patriot (a positive climax for Internal Change Plot). So the film is about Rick giving up a chance at love to become a patriot, and the story is about:

True love leads to living responsibly

The Story Chart helps us understand the story of Casablanca visually. We can see the interchange of love and patriotic redemption at Climax. Take a look at How To Create Story Charts for movies you love.

Thank you for reading,

James Dai (imdukyoon@gmail.com)