M.I.C.E. QUOTIENT
Milieu - The Milieu is the world--the planet, the society, the weather, the family--all the elements that went into creating that special world.
Idea - Idea stories are about the process of finding information.
Character - The Character story is about the transformation of a character’s role in the communities that matter most to him or her.
Event - Event stories focus on events which rip the fabric of the universe or disrupt the natural order and cause the world to be in a state of flux.
Notes:
All stories contain four elements that determine structure: Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event. While each is present in the story, one generally dominates the others.
Which one dominates? The one that the author cares about most. This is why we often consider the process of discovering the structure of a story a process of self-discovery: What is your story about? Who is the central or viewpoint character? Where is your story set? What is the purpose of your story? Once you have considered each of those questions, then you can ask, Which aspect of the story matters most to you? That is the aspect that will give you your story's structure.
Let's take each element in turn and look at the structure that would be required if that is the dominant element in the story.