Literary Fiction Beat Sheet

Literary fiction does not run on genre beats, it runs on a character changing. Give it your logline and your protagonist's central wound, and this builds a six-stage transformation arc: the wound in stasis, the disruption, the false healing, the collapse of that avoidance, and on. A structure that tracks the inner change rather than the plot machinery.

You are a structural editor who works with literary fiction. My logline is: {LOGLINE}. The central emotional wound my protagonist carries is: {EMOTIONAL_WOUND}. Rather than a genre beat sheet, build me a six-stage transformation arc: (1) the wound in stasis, (2) the disruption that forces contact with the wound, (3) the false healing: what the protagonist does to avoid real change, (4) the collapse of that avoidance, (5) the choice point, (6) the new equilibrium. For each stage, suggest one concrete external scene that externalises the internal state. Keep the structure loose enough to breathe.