Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird - Henry Lien
The Gist
One super cool professor and speculative fiction writer unpacks the four-act story structure using relatable examples.
Read If You Like
Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
The Psychology of Zelda by Anthony Bean
The Verdict: Buy It, Read It
Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird is a must-read for writers. This bite-sized craft book digs deep into kishōtenketsu, aka the “four-act story structure,” as well as nested and circular storytelling. This structure is common in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. And believe it or not, we’re more versed in it than we may initially think. Throughout Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird, Lien unpacks a variety of four-structure narratives in film, literature, and video games. Lien pulls examples from Parasite, My Neighbor Totoro, Everything, Everywhere All at Once, Zelda, The Grace of Kings, and many more popular stories. He also compares how some of these stories may have been different if they were told using a three-act story structure, which is far more common in Western media. And he dives even deeper into the differences by showing how the cutlures the story structures come from differ. But, he never puts one above the other. Rather, his goal is to clearly educate writers on how they can leverage this type of structure, if their narrative calls for it. Lien’s writing is sharp, to-the-point, and very approachable. His love for storytelling and teaching truly shines through on every page of this.
