Structure · Understanding story
Do I have to put every item under a Signpost into that part of the story?
The short answer
Begin by illustrating the Signpost and its conflict. The chart is not a checklist of separate scenes you must write.
The Plot Sequence Report can help when you want a more detailed exploration. Keep scale in mind: a Signpost describes one part of a Throughline’s progression, while the Goal, Issue, and Problem operate across the story. A matching label does not confine the Goal to that one section, and no fixed scene count follows from the label alone.
An imagined example
A section with a purpose
During a Learning Signpost, a rescue team interviews witnesses and discovers that its map is wrong. You can build several scenes around that exploration without assigning a scene to every chart label. The larger rescue Goal still matters before, during, and after this section.
Try it in your story
What conflict does this Signpost explore, and how does that exploration move its Throughline forward?
Where this answer comes from
An editorial synthesis of these discussions. The example above was written for this answer.
- Theme Browser and PSR
Mike Lucas, February 13, 2017, post 2.
- Writing signposts
March 20–21, 2019.
A note on older terminology
Older discussions may say Overall Story for Objective Story, Obstacle or Impact Character for Influence Character, and Subjective Story for Relationship Story. Source titles retain their original wording. Historical software instructions describe the tools of their time.