A Grand Argument Story is a conceptually complete story with both an emotional and logical comprehensiveness. There are many qualities that identify whether a story is a Grand Argument or not. These exist in the story's Structure, Dynamics, Character, Theme, Plot, and Genre.

Structure: The underlying relationships between the parts of a story describe its structure. A Grand Argument Story has a specific structure that we explore thoroughly in the first half of this book entitled The Elements of Structure.

Dynamics: The moving, growing, or changing parts of a story describe its dynamics. A Grand Argument Story has eight essential dynamics that we explore in the second half of this book entitled The Art of Storytelling.

Character: Grand Argument Stories deal with two types of Characters: Objective Characters and Subjective Characters. These Characters provide the audience with the experience of moving through the story in both a passionate and an intellectual sense.

Theme: Theme, in a Grand Argument Story, is tied to every structural and dynamic element. Theme provides the various biases and perspectives necessary to carry the story's subject matter or meaning.

Plot: Plot in a Grand Argument Story is the sequence in which a story's thematic structure unfolds. Plot details the order in which dramatic elements must occur within that story.

Genre: Genre in a Grand Argument Story classifies the audience's experience of a story in the broadest sense. Genre considers the elements of structure, dynamics, character, plot, and theme to define significant differences between various complete Grand Argument Stories.

These parts of a Grand Argument Story combine in complex relationships to create its Storyform. A Storyform is like a blueprint that describes how these parts fit in a particular story, regardless of how they are symbolized for the audience. It is such a Storyform that allows such different stories as West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, to share the same meaning while bearing little likeness to each other. The same is true for Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne. These two pairs of stories share almost the same Storyform.