: Re: How to write a story without conflict, like "My Neighbour Totoro"? We are used to stories being about conflict. There can be an antagonist, or a hostile environment, or even an internal problem

@Sent2472441

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My Neighbor Totoro makes heavy use of Kishōtenketsu:

Kishōtenketsu (起承転結) describes the structure and development of classic Chinese, Korean and Japanese narratives...The first Chinese character refers to the introduction or kiku (起句), the next: development, shōku (承句), the third: twist, tenku (転句), and the last character indicates conclusion or kekku (結句).

This site contains a deeper analysis, but here's an example:

Kiku: the girls run inside the house that their father tells them is most likely haunted
Shoku: the girls find a rotten pillar holding up the veranda
Tenku: instead of something bad happening, they push the pillar back into place and everything is fine
Kekku: the girls run away into the forest

EDIT: commenters have drawn parallels between kishōtenketsu and western literary analysis concepts, such as Freytag structure or the three act structure. While superficial similarities exist, the devil is in the details. Here's an article that explains the difference better than I could, but briefly, a story using a kishōtenketsu structure contains no conflict, no violence. Instead, the tenku, or twist, usually uses a non-sequitur or surprise to create something to resolve in the conclusion (or kekku). The fundamental distinction between kishōtenketsu and western forms is that the protagonists need not struggle for that twist to be delivered, the confusion can exist wholly on the part of the viewer.

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