From 31 Functions to 14 Categories: Grouping Propp’s Narrative Structure for Co-Creative Writing Tools

Propp’s 31 narrative functions have traditionally been used in computational storytelling as underlying structural mechanisms rather than as tools directly accessible to users. This paper investigates an alternative approach by examining the usability of these functions when presented explicitly to novice writers engaged in creating branching narratives. Initial observations indicate that the full set of 31 functions introduces a level of complexity that can hinder accessibility and creative flow for beginners. To address this, the study proposes a reduced framework consisting of 14 broader narrative categories, designed for integration into a co-creative authoring interface aimed at game design students and emerging writers. The reduction was conducted through a systematic five-step process in which the original functions were treated as a dataset. Each function was coded on four structural dimensions, followed by clustering and iterative refinement to ensure coherence and usability. The paper outlines this methodological process, presents the resulting 14-category framework, and proposes a simplified and structured representation of Propp’s model that aims to better support novice users by reducing perceived cognitive complexity while maintaining narrative expressiveness. An empirical evaluation of the framework is planned to further assess its effectiveness.