Title

Dan Harmon's 8-Segment Story Circle

Description

Dan Harmon hardly invented the circular narrative structure or traced the cyclical nature of stories in the three-act structure. He merely simplified the Hero’s Journey and adapted it to his own screenwriting needs.

In Harmon's 8-Segment Story Circle, there are only 8 parts: You. Need. Go. Struggle. Find. Take. Return. Change.
The way the story circle works is that your main character, much like Campbell’s hero, moves from a zone of comfort towards a want, and with that, into the chaos of the second act, from where they’ll return changed. The top half of the circle represents order and the bottom half chaos. The right side of the circle represents the hero resisting their transformation, the left side represents the hero moving towards their transformation.

Use this as a template for Dan Harmon's story structure:

The protagonist has a need. He goes to search for it. He finds what he needs, but in order to get it, he must face extreme challenges. In this journey, the protagonist returns to where he started, but he gained new experience which will help him change his world once and for all.

Designer

Tim Stotz

Date

1990

Bibliographic Citation

Storytelling 101: The Dan Harmon Story Circle: Boords. boords.com. (2022, October 24). https://boords.com/blog/storytelling-101-the-dan-harmon-story-circle

School, A. F. (2020, March 5). Create a better movie: Dan Harmon’s Story Circle. AV FilmSchool. https://avfilmschool.com/create-a-better-movie-dan-harmon-story-circle/

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English Circle

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English Arrow