Ignition. Combustion. Detonation. Aftermath.

As I work with my collaborative partners on their novels, I’m finding the vocabulary of other story gurus’ work to be either overly generalized and confusing in its taxonomy or hyper specific to one niche or genre. Not helpful.

This is my first attempt to begin to define a taxonomy that will emerge in a book called Hacking Story (by yours truly) later this year. 🤞 For simplicity’s sake, I’m choosing terms that can be used at all levels of story:

• meta

• macro

• meso

• micro

The purpose of a specific vocabulary will be to make all of the tools (be they begged, borrowed, invented, or stolen) easier to explain in a universal manner for all of those levels of story.

Note: All four of these story phases are exchanges which means that at least two characters interact in a punch/counterpunch exchange. The catalyst happens to or does something to affect the agent. The agent reacts and/or responds. No, I’m not going to go into detail on those other terms right now. This post is already too long! 🤓 But I think you’ll get their meaning pretty easily from context. You’re smart. And pretty! 🤩

This one is the beginning that I already have some notes on that I published earlier this week. There are a bunch of requirements that your Ignition must meet to kick off the cycle of exchanges between your catalyst and your agent. Think of it simply as lighting the fuse… 🧨

Here’re the notes:

Deep Dive Notes: Getting Started with Inciting Incidents

·

May 17

Earlier today, we had a great conversation about beginnings in the May 2026 Deep Dive. Here’s a summary of what I remember (and what’s not incriminating). 😅 No, I’m still not going to record the monthly deep dives or use the “ai” summary feature of Zoom. The Deep Dives are for you. I hope you can show up for the next one:

This series of exchanges has some unique properties that distinguish it from Ignition and the rest. First, this type of exchange is repeatable. You can have zero or fifty-seven Combustion exchanges between Ignition and Detonation.

Second, each Combustion exchange must be “bigger” (physically and emotionally) than the previous Combustion. If the stakes don’t rise, the reader will be unconsciously confused because they won’t feel intuitively that the Detonation is coming because the energy delta between exchanges is flat.

Third, a Combustion exchange can take one of four forms (explained below):

1. Amplification

2. Escalation

3. Constriction

4. Expansion

Fourth, this is the only “optional” phase of the cycle. If your Ignition leads directly to the Detonation with no intervening plot or story, you didn’t need any Combustion to amplify the narrative energy. Just skip to the Detonation. This happens often in micro scenes and mini scenes (which I’m calling micro cycles and mini cycles now—you’re welcome), which I’ve rambled about before:

What is a scene?

·

Mar 14

Often in novel craft discussions, the word “scene” gets thrown around as if everyone knows what it means. Worse, the term is also utilized and overloaded in other disciplines of writing (screenwriting and playwriting especially) wherein “scene” means something very specific and has for a long time. However, those connot…

Lastly, a key thing to remember when you’re writing the Combustion exchanges, each must be a punch (from the catalyst) and a counterpunch (from the agent). The agent’s counterpunch can be a reaction, a reaction+response, or just a response. I’ve described some of how that works elsewhere:

The Reaction/Response Cycle

·

Feb 4

I’ve been in the grips of an unexplained high body temperature for most of a week, so be forewarned that this may be the product of a fever dream. Notwithstanding the fact that I’ve been talking with students and clients about the difference between reactions and responses for years. My foundational understanding of th…

This happens when the Combustion exchange is a bigger form of the previous exchange. This punch from the catalyst contains more oomph than the last one. Perhaps the first was a punch and the second was a kick? It can be a bigger form of the Ignition or a larger form of the previous Combustion. Something has to be different and MORE. If it’s not more, it’ll feel like a repeated exchange and the reader will be sad because it feels like nothing is happening. Don’t make the reader sad.

This happens when the Combustion is a new type of punch: a new tactic from the catalyst, an entirely new catalyst enters the chat, or something else very different happens (not just a bigger thing like an Amplification). The Escalation must feel physically and emotionally bigger that the previous exchange or the reader will feel like the cycle is flattening out in energy level, which makes them sad. You know what happens when the reader gets sad, right?

This happens with the catalyst takes away options from the agent. This could be the clock starts ticking faster (constriction of time) or the catalyst chases the agent into a corner (constriction of space). The option set available to the agent must be reduced by a Constriction. This must increase the temperature and pressure on the agent and feel “bigger” or “more” than the previous exchange. If not, guess what happens?

This is the one way that you can be “nice” to your agent (for small values of nice). A catalyst “gives” the agent something or a new option fortuitously arrives for the agent to choose between. However, this must make the whole cycle worse for the agent in some way. This usually means that the expansion comes with a cost, a price, a consequence, or a sacrifice to obtain it. If the expansion doesn’t make the reader feel like we’re getting close to Detonation, you’re negligently disappointing your reader. Don’t disappoint your reader.

Kaboom. Earth-shattering kaboom. If you’re Marvin the Martian, of course, the Detonation is actually not an explosion. Something went wrong. Marvin made a bad decision or relied on substandard Acme technology, etcetera. However, in all seriousness, this is where the Dramatic Question or Crisis Question of your unit of story that was set in motion by the Ignition gets answered.

I just realized that I haven’t finished or published my Thou Shalt Have Questions post, so perhaps nobody will know what I mean by the distinction between them. Hopefully, you’ve read Robert McKee’s Story and you’ll get it. 🤞

This exchange is the last and biggest punch from the catalyst which either forces the agent to CHOOSE (Crisis Question) or otherwise RESOLVE the cycle (Dramatic Question) in some way with the agents final counterpunch.

There are tidbits about story questions in these two posts which may help you until I get my book (Hacking Story) out of my, uh—never mind.

What do you desire? (Part 1)

·

August 26, 2025

This post got out of hand and had to be slapped into two different posts. This is part one of two.

What do you desire? (Part 2)

·

August 27, 2025

This post got out of hand and had to be slapped into two different posts. This is the second of two parts.

Before I started seriously working on Hacking Story in the very recent past, I wrote a (somewhat tongue-in-cheek titled) post about this kind of exchange. Like every other exchange, this is a punch (from the catalyst) and a counterpunch (from the agent). It also has some other unique properties that you can read about here:

Fifty Shades of Resolution

·

Feb 15

I’m not sorry for the clickbait-y title. But I will apologize (slightly) by not inflicting fifty actual shades of Resolution upon you. Also, probably unrelated, I can’t think of fifty different kinds of Resolution. You’re welcome.

OMG, I wrote it and that felt like a lot. A whirlwind of narrative theory noise, no? 🤓

If it felt like a lot and you’re having trouble with your Ignition, Combustion, Detonation, or Aftermath at any level (scene, sequence, act, novel, or series), let’s talk about how I can help you.

Book a Free Campfire Chat

Monthly Free Story Consultations | Monthly Free Narrative Concept Deep Dives