Labov's 6 Basic Elements of Storytelling

Classifying and delineating story patterns is a vast field of study, but one of the most influential theories was written in 1972 by sociolinguist William Labov. His research essay "The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax" isolates recurring narrative features in face-to-face storytelling: 

1. Abstract - How does it begin?
2. Orientation - Who/what does it involve, and when/where?
3. Complicating Action - Then what happened?
4. Resolution - What finally happened?
5. Evaluation - So what?
6. Coda - What does it all mean?

Studying this structure helps us understand how people encode information about the world on a personal level. Much of it is applicable to narrative discourse, especially the short story, though not necessarily in this order. 

"The more we understand the nature of narrative, the more we understand ourselves."