What is - Story Structure?

Is it just me or does anyone else find it disconcerting that there is so little agreement about something as fundamental as the basic structure of stories?

I'm all for originality and creative freedom however, I've observed over the years that just as too much originality (too little structure) leaves a large portion of the audience confused and thus uninterested, too little leaves the audience boarded.

Therefore, should we not be looking for, searching for and trying to understand what all stories have in common - in order to understand the universal and thus master the execution of those universal principles of storytelling?

Coloring outside the lines or thinking outside the box is only relevant when we have lines, and to the degree that we have a box. Without lines and boxes our art form will go the way of poetry, which has become so self-absorbed as to have passed all but completely out of even passing interest of the reading public.

Is not a story a specific thing, designed and executed for a specific purpose? Or is it just whatever anyone decides it should be at any given moment?

Are we creating stories for the audience or simply as a narcissistic exorcise in self-indulgence?

Write on...

Richard