Story Mountain
The story mountain is the school-friendly version of the plot pyramid. You climb from the opening, through the build-up, to the problem at the summit, then come down through the resolution to the ending. Five boxes, five paragraphs: it is a solid plan for a first 500-word story.
Step through the 5 beats
Click a point, use the buttons, or focus the diagram and press ← →. Drag the length slider to turn percentages into word positions.
Who, where, when.
In flash fiction: One paragraph.
Example beatMara lives alone in the lighthouse.
Story Mountain beats in a 500-word story
| # | Beat | What happens | Starts near word | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opening | Who, where, when. | 0 | Mara lives alone in the lighthouse. |
| 2 | Build-up | Something starts to happen. | 125 | A letter says the light will be switched off. |
| 3 | Problem | The main dilemma at the top of the mountain. | 275 | In a storm the lamp fails while a boat is lost. |
| 4 | Resolution | How the problem is solved. | 400 | She lights the old oil lamp and guides the boat in. |
| 5 | Ending | How things are now. | 500 | The fishermen invite her to breakfast. |
Story Mountain: common questions
What are the 5 parts of a story mountain?
Opening, build-up, problem (or dilemma), resolution and ending.
Is a story mountain the same as a plot diagram?
It is a simplified plot diagram. It uses the same rising and falling shape as Freytag's Pyramid with friendlier labels.
How many words per part?
For a 500-word story, a common split is about 75 / 100 / 150 / 100 / 75 words. Use the slider on this page to scale it.