Story Structure: MICE Quotient

I often listen to the podcast Writing Excuses. In it, the organizational tool called the MICE Quotient is frequently mentioned. I learn best by putting things in my own words, so here is my first go at it:

The basic idea of the MICE Quotient is that each part of the acronym (Milieu, Inquiry, Character, Event) can be referenced as a FILO (First In Last Out) queueing order when opening and closing story arcs, with the idea that any story doing so will read as a coherent whole. 

Milieu opens upon entering a location, and closes upon exiting. Inquiry opens upon raising a question, and closes upon answering it. Character opens upon introducing an internal need, and closes upon satisfying it. Lastly, Event opens upon a disruption of the status quo, and closes upon restoration of it.

The story is the Try-Fail cycle that happens before the arc is ended. It is entirely reasonable for arcs to be opened and closed within the primary story arc, but the FILO order of such should be followed to have a satisfyingly cohesive narrative.

Now, these are interesting and useful to me when analysing my favourite stories, but I found the Inquiry story to be a bit redundant, as usually the question comes from discovering that the status quo is not as it seems. As such, I compressed the acronym into the following:

Milieu -> Location; to be exited

Inquiry, Event -> Disruption; to be solved

Character -> Need; to be accepted

There's nothing special about my change, but I find it less confusing and so more serviceable to myself.