Story Grid TAHere to help you tell better stories.

The 5 COMMANDMENTS of Storytelling! #author #writer #writing #storytelling #authortube

25 Aug 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:11

In this concise instructional video, the presenter outlines the "5 Commandments of Storytelling," a set of five narrative beats that must be present in every part of a story—from the overall novel down to individual scenes. The commandments are: (1) Inciting Incident, the chaotic event that introduces the antagonist’s demand and disrupts the protagonist’s equilibrium; (2) Turning Point, where the protagonist initially refuses the antagonist’s demand; (3) Crisis, the antagonist’s ultimatum forcing the protagonist to choose between two options; (4) Climax, the moment the protagonist acts on the chosen path; and (5) Resolution, which reveals how the antagonist reacts to the protagonist’s decision. The speaker emphasizes that these beats should be identifiable at every structural level and encourages viewers to subscribe for more writing advice.

Chapters

Here are the 5 commandments of storytelling. These have to exist in every single part of your book, from the macro entire story down to the micro, the every single scene of your story. Number 1 is the inciting incident, the ball of chaos that comes into your protagonist's life and knocks them off balance. This is when the antagonist shows up and makes their demand. This is what they want the protagonist to do. The turning point is number 2. This is when the protagonist refuses to do what the antagonism wants them to do, which leads to number 3. The crisis. This is the ultimatum from the antagonist. Do what I want or else. This is where your protagonist faces a choice. Do I do X or do I do Y? The climax is number 4. This is when the protagonist acts on their decision. Did they do X or did they do Y? Did they do what the force of antagonism wanted them to do or not? And then the resolution. That's number 5. This is where we find out how the force of antagonism reacts to the decision the protagonist made in the climax. These are the 5 Commandments of Storytelling. They have to work at every level of your story, so they're worth learning. Subscribe below for more writing tips.