Dan Harmon Story Circle
Eight steps: a character wants something, goes after it, gets it, pays for it and comes home changed. Tap any step on the circle to see what it asks of your story.
Step 1 · You
A character in a zone of comfort.
Who is this, and what does normal look like for them? Show it in one concrete scene, not a summary.
Cinderella: A servant in her stepmother's house.
The 8 steps of the Story Circle
Dan Harmon, co-creator of Community and Rick and Morty, developed the circle while making short films, as a way to boil Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey down to something he could use on every script. He explained it in a set of story-structure tutorials written for the Channel 101 community, and it has since spread through writing rooms and workshops.
- 1. You: A character in a zone of comfort. Who is this, and what does normal look like for them? Show it in one concrete scene, not a summary.
- 2. Need: But they want something. A specific want they can act on: a person, a place, an object, a result. "To be happy" is not a want; "to win the regional bake-off" is.
- 3. Go: They enter an unfamiliar situation. They cross a threshold, literally or socially. The rules they know stop working.
- 4. Search: They adapt to it. Trials, allies, mistakes. The character sheds old habits to survive in the new world.
- 5. Find: They get what they wanted. At the midpoint they reach the goal, or something that looks like it.
- 6. Take: They pay a heavy price for it. The cost of getting it. Something is lost, broken or revealed. This is often the darkest point.
- 7. Return: They go back to their familiar situation. Home again, but the world looks different because they are different.
- 8. Change: Having changed. Show the change in action: they now do something they could not have done in step 1.
Why the circle works
The circle is split in two halves. The top half is the character's ordinary world and the bottom half is the strange one. Steps 3 (Go) and 7 (Return) are the crossings. Steps 1 and 5 sit opposite each other, so the moment the character gets what they wanted lands at the exact middle of the story. Steps 4 and 8 are opposite too: what the character learns while adapting is what they bring home.
That symmetry is useful when revising. If your middle sags, check whether the character actually gets something at step 5. If the ending feels flat, check whether step 6 cost them anything real.
Story Circle vs other structures
| Structure | Steps | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Story Circle | 8 | Episodes, short stories, character-led arcs of any length |
| Hero's Journey | 12 | Quests and mythic, large-scale transformation |
| Three-act structure | 3 acts | The general default for film and novels |
| Seven-point structure | 7 | Planning backwards from your ending |
All of these sit on one draggable tension curve in the plot structure guide, which shows the Story Circle next to five other frameworks.
Outline your own story with the circle
- Start at step 8. Decide how the character is different at the end.
- Jump to step 1 and show the opposite of that change.
- Fill step 2 with a concrete want, and step 6 with what it costs.
- Then fill the rest. Short of a premise? Spark one with the story ideas generator, or roll a full seed in the plot generator and ask the AI for a beat outline.
Questions writers ask
What is the Dan Harmon Story Circle?
An eight-step story structure created by Dan Harmon, the co-creator of Community and Rick and Morty: You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change. A character in a comfort zone wants something, enters an unfamiliar situation, adapts, gets what they wanted, pays a price for it, returns to where they started and is changed.
What are the 8 steps of the Story Circle?
1. You: a character in a zone of comfort. 2. Need: they want something. 3. Go: they enter an unfamiliar situation. 4. Search: they adapt to it. 5. Find: they get what they wanted. 6. Take: they pay a heavy price for it. 7. Return: they go back to their familiar situation. 8. Change: having changed.
How is the Story Circle different from the Hero's Journey?
Harmon based the circle on Joseph Campbell's monomyth but stripped it down to eight steps that fit any length, from a sitcom subplot to a novel. It drops mythic roles like the mentor and the threshold guardian and keeps only the movement of want, cost and change.
Why is it drawn as a circle?
Because the character ends where they started, in their familiar world, but different. The top half of the circle is the ordinary world and the bottom half is the unfamiliar one; crossing the line (steps 3 and 7) is where the story turns.
Can I use the Story Circle for a short story?
Yes, it works especially well for short fiction and episodes. Give each step one paragraph or one scene. In a short piece, steps 4 and 6 often carry most of the words.
Where does step 5 (Find) fall?
At the middle of the story. Harmon places "Find" opposite "You" on the circle: the character gets what they wanted at the midpoint, which is why the second half is about the price.