When looking at story structure, it is important to understand the importance of and distinction between the beginning, the middle and the end.
Let's look at the middle.
We often hear that the basic reason much writing doesn't quite work is "the muddle in the middle.
" A writer will have a great idea for a story, will know where it starts and know where it ends.
He will write a great beginning, and a good or great ending.
But then he must get from one to the other and is often confused as to how to do that.
First, remember that confusion is a very high and powerful state to be in.
Don't fight it, celebrate it.
Then, there are things you can do to help you on your way.
What is the middle? What is set in motion in the beginning progresses and develops, often in unexpected ways.
Again, pretty basic and simple.
The middle is also most of your story, not just the middle third of it.
This intimidates some writers.
Don't let it intimidate you.
You're the one in charge of the beast and your story will thank you if you take the reins firmly.
To stretch a metaphor a little.
Which can be fun.
So what do you do? First, step away from the computer and do some imagining work.
You'll need to know your characters.
You'll need to know your settings.
Imagine them well before you start to write.
Give them quirks, if you want.
The characters, I mean, not the settings.
Although giving the settings quirks might be fun, too.
Once you've imagined them, write down what you imagined.
This is for you, just notes, not part of the story itself, although much of it may end up in the story.
Once you've done this, if the getting from A to Z still doesn't become clear, throw some circumstances at your characters (or settings.
Or both) to see how they would react to them.
Again, this is just for yourself, but again, a lot of it could influence your story in very interesting ways.
The main piece of advice I have, however, once you feel you know your people and where and when they are sufficiently, is to imagine the unfolding of the events of the story.
Live through it in the senses of your mind.
Feel the events, smell them, hear them, see them, taste them.
Do this before you are actually writing it all down.
If something occurs to you in this imagining, make a note of it, but keep imagining.
Then just tell the tale you've imagined.
This will be the basis of the story, and, since you've come to it organically and have personally experienced it yourself, anything that is missing will become obvious.
The muddle will melt and the middle will move meaningfully forward.
To use too many alliterations.
Which can also be fun.