Follow the Threads: Planning Stories with Templates

Words are tricky—but plotting your story is enough to make you pace the room, furiously reorganize your bookshelves, and suddenly remember the laundry needs folding.

Uncovering the story beneath the story takes a little (or a lot of) planning—figuring out the themes you’re circling, the tension that holds everything together, and the drama that threatens to unravel it all requires intent and a willingness to dig.

Shaping big ideas into strong openings, scenes, stakes, themes, turning points, etc., can be pretty daunting. But stories always leave clues. The challenge is knowing what to pay attention to, and how to follow the loose and tangled threads until they come together to form the map of your story.

To help you do just that, we’ve drafted four new story-building templates to help transform your sparkly ideas and beautifully messy outlines into something with motion and clarity. If you’re staring down a blank page, trying to get unstuck mid-draft, or fine-tuning the themes that makes your story memorable, these templates can help you ask pointed questions and spot deeper patterns, making your story stronger—scene by scene.

The templates (and all our others!) are available right now in Ellipsus—just choose from template when you start a new doc!

Where does the story actually begin? This template will help you zero in on the hook, tone, emotional stakes, and details of your opening… and the questions it raises that will keep readers turning pages (or clicking next).

• Does your first line make the reader ask a question? (Who is this? Why is this happening? Where are we?)
• What does your character’s body language, inner thoughts, or dialogue tell us about them?
• Do any details foreshadow later conflicts, or your character’s overall arc?

A story is a collection of scenes; a progression of things that happen. You can use this template to plan the beats that progress your story with purpose and impact.

• Setting: How does this location affect the characters? (What would they notice about this setting? What stands out for them?)
• What is this scene’s balance of dialogue, internal thoughts, and action?
• How does this scene shape the reader’s perception of the characters?

This template will help you brainstorm and develop recurring ideas and metaphors… anything that gives your story a stronger sense of meaning and depth.

• Do any characters reflect different sides of the thematic conflict? (E.g., A rebel vs. a loyalist in a story about freedom.)
• If your story could be summarized with a thematic question, what would it be? (E.g. Can we ever truly escape our past? Or does power always corrupt?)
• Climax: (Does a character face major decisions or actions that defines the theme?)

No drama, no story. This template guides you through the layers of conflicts large and small—the personal, interpersonal, and world-level tension driving your characters (and what’s at risk if they fail).

• Will your characters lose something they love? (A person, a dreams, their reputation?) How do they react?
• How does conflict affect the culture, society, or history of your setting?
• How does the conflict push a character toward growth or adversity?

You can mix and match or use them together to shape a story that hits harder, and says something real. Let the unraveling begin!