StoryCraft ‘s Writing Stages

Because it utilizes the Hero’s Journey pattern common to all the great Myths, classic works of fiction, and blockbuster screenplays, StoryCraft New Edition  is ideal for expressing every kind of story, be it fantasy and adventures, love stories, coming of age stories, revenge stories, mysteries, and even stories based on your own life experience.

Writing a perfectly developed, thoroughly compelling story based on the Hero’s Journey concept is easy when each Stage of your story is guided with the Jarvis Method of story creation developed by John Jarvis, the creator along with Irwin Berent of the original StoryCraft  story-development engine.

Here below are descriptions of some of the main parts of StoryCraft New Edition, interwoven with the main Stages of the Jarvis Method, which are incorporated into the StoryCraft  program:

Starting a New Story Using StoryCraft New Edition
From title to character names to genre and more, the beginning of the story-writing process is made as simple and clear as every other step of writing the StoryCraft way.

Stage I. Story Concept
The initial story idea is turned into a concise, summarizing concept.

Often neglected by writing teachers, the Story Concept is the basic premise that forms the foundation of every well-developed story.

Stage II. Story Category
The underlying purpose of the story is formulated.

No other program so clearly encourages the writer to clarify the story’s “moral direction.” Every story ever written falls under one of three Categories: (1) Action stories, which focus primarily on the plot, the action; (2) Character stories, which focus primarily on the learning experiences of the main character; (3) Epic, Theme or Myth stories, which focus ultimately on a larger social or moral challenge.

Stage III. Story Plot Type
The overall pattern of the story is determined.

Remarkably, every piece of high-quality fiction can be grouped into 22 fairly distinct Types (for example, “Capture and Escape Stories,” “Love Stories,” “Revenge Stories,” “Coming of Age Stories”). More basic than mere genres, these Types define the essence of the story and determine its overall pattern.

Stage IV. World Creation
The main characters, their helpers, and their Worlds are given life.

The Goal of the Hero… The Hero’s personality…strengths…weaknesses… The Antagonist’s motivations… The Environment of the Hero… The Environment of the Antagonist… The Allies… The Shape-changers… The Gate-guardians… all are carefully developed.

Stage V. Story Creation
The structure steps for the particular Type of story are completed.

Every great story shares 12 fundamental steps of structure–based on the Hero’s Journey pattern–each dependent upon the story’s Concept, Category, and Type. At this stage, each step is filled in with the Characters and Environments developed in the World Creation stage, adding plot twists and developing the story according roughly to its unique pattern.

StoryCraft New Edition  Simplifies Every Step of Writing!

StoryCraft New Edition…
    …BANISHES WRITER’S BLOCK BY SIMPLIFYING THE STORY-CREATION PROCESS  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  guides you in a natural way that allows your stories to flow from you, stage by stage, your ideas arising as quickly as you can think — no interruptions, no delays, no excuses.

    … PERFECTS YOUR STORY’S PREMISE  ~  Using StoryCraft New Edition, your basic story idea easily becomes a concise Story Concept that will form the solid foundation on which you’ll build your story.

    … ESTABLISHES THE IDEAL CATEGORY FOR YOUR STORY  ~  Once you have your Story Concept, StoryCraft New Edition  leads you almost effortlessly towards the decision of which Story Category (action, character, or epic) to use to develop precisely the kind of story you most need and want to write.

    … MATCHES YOUR STORY WITH A TIME-PROVEN PATTERN SO YOUR STORY’S OUTLINE SITS CLEARLY IN YOUR MIND’S EYE  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  identifies 18 basic patterns, or Types, of stories that all the great myths and literary classics fall under, and results in a clear sense of the outline of your story — based upon your particular choice of Story Type — throughout the entire story-creation process.

    … BUILDS COMPELLING CHARACTERS AND WORLDS  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  guides you through the creation of your story’s main characters and their helpers as well as the worlds that they populate, prompting you to describe the precise elements necessary for main characters of stories of your Concept, Category, and Type.

    … OFFERS INSTANTANEOUS ADVICE ON YOUR STORY  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  offers built-in help instructions, accessible from every screen, that instantly describe the desired task.

    … LETS YOU BRAINSTORM FREELY AT EVERY MOMENT  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  allows you to brainstorm and develop unique plot twists at each Story Creation Step.

    … GIVES YOU INSTANT NAVIGATION TO ANY ISSUE RELATING TO ANY PART OF YOUR STORY AT ANY POINT  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  allows you to work on understanding and resolving any part of the story, wherever and whenever you have a thought, an idea, or a difficulty.

    … GIVES YOU TOTAL WRITING FREEDOM  ~  At every stage of your story, StoryCraft New Edition  writer’s software promotes inspiration as it gently suggests the direction of your story.

    … RESULTS IN WELL-STRUCTURED NOVELS AND SCREENPLAYS  ~  What you write with the assistance of StoryCraft New Edition  develops naturally into logically complete novels and screenplays. (The only thing it doesn’t explain is how to format your screenplays.)

    … SIMPLIFIES THE REVISION PROCESS  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  helps turn the two tasks of writing and revision into a seamlessly integrated process by giving you the information you need to know to revise your story within each step of the story-creation process, from beginning to end.

    … CONVERTS INCOMPLETE STORIES INTO FINISHED STORIES  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  allows you to work with any outside stories, so that you can easily re-design stories that you had previously been working on, transforming almost magically old notes, story ideas, and undeveloped stories into near-perfectly developed stories, ready for word processing.

    … MAKES THE CRAFT OF WRITING EASY TO LEARN AND EASY TO PERFECT  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  has been carefully designed and refined so that even the most novice of writers can understand clearly and quickly every task (and yet also even the most advanced of writers find its approach sophisticated, reliable, and practical).

    … TEACHES THE WORLD’S #1 WRITING METHOD AND PHILOSOPHY AS YOU WRITE  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  is more than just a story-writing tool; it is also a sophisticated complete course in writing that utilizes the Jarvis Method, the system of fiction writing that’s the accepted standard among university writing programs around the world.

    … REVEALS HISTORY’S GREATEST WRITING SECRETS  ~  StoryCraft New Edition  understands intuitively how you write because its system is based on the way classic literature and great myths have been written since the dawn of civilization.

StoryCraft  is also Ideal for Homeschooling and Other Educational Uses

Designed for users at any level of expertise from most basic beginner to professional, StoryCraft  uses clear, easy-to-understand language to present a systematic overview of the entire fiction-writing process from start to finish. This makes it an excellent tool for writing as well as for learning the craft of writing, and it is therefore also ideal for homeschoolers and other students of writing and fiction. StoryCraft  illustrates and illuminates every stage in the process of story writing by using detailed examples from A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’s literary classic that is one of the most beloved and entertaining works of literature ever written and the perfect illustration of writing in the Hero Journey pattern.
          In addition, StoryCraft  contains a complete curriculum and student guide to using the software and fully understanding the Jarvis Method created by StoryCraft  co-creator John Jarvis, guru extraordinaire of the crafts of novel-writing and screenwriting.

And it is Therapeutic too!

While professional writers use StoryCraft  to develop novels & screenplays, anyone can use it just for the pure joy of expressing yourself through your own non-judgmental creative imagination.  And whether you write for publication or just for self-expression, the software can even be used to create stories based on your life for resolving traumas and other life issues.
In fact, you can use StoryCraft for therapy too, as it gives you the freedom to delve into any traumas or challenges you have faced in your life — even making up characters and situations that may mirror your own experiences while giving you the emotional distance of “just being a story” — to see yourself as a hero on a journey.