User blog comment:PyroGothNerd/Writing a story/@comment-24399271-20140128232500/@comment-11170851-20140129000031

Two cents here, some different from Pyro:

1) Is more relevant to "the journey is the end result, not the goal" - aka, sometime the process of a character falling down, picking themselves up, falling down, etc is more compelling than "They fell down, got back up, and went to greater glory"

(A good example is The Hobbit. Sure, it's fantastic that there is GOLD under the mountain, but how Bilbo and the Dwarves get there is part of the overall narrative...and actually more compelling than the end goal in the end).

2) Writing may be mastrubatory in nature, but a story written soley for one's own pleasure is just an ass patting exercise. Writting for other people is often the best way to expand how to write.

3) Is the grand advice of any academic writing. Write your paper and make your conclusion your opening paragraph....because by the time you've finished writing it, you're pretty certain you know exactly where you're coming from, thus it's a better starting comment than the one you orginally had.

4) It's the structure of a monomyth, which ALL writers use and abuse...even if we like to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. Yeah, it's hellishly formulaic, but at the end of the day, it's what every story boils down to.