Either way, your action should consistently raise the stakes until it reaches the peak. You might end up with something that looks like a bell curve, or you might end up with something that looks like a stock market index. If you’re having problems identifying your story arc, graph your story on paper to ensure that the action rises, falls a little, rises even more, falls a slight bit, and keeps rising until reaching the climax. Or it can look like a pyramid where each block is a scene that builds up the pyramid until the apex and then slowly comes down the other side until you’re at the denouement. Then the arc starts to gradually drop back until you’ve hit level ground again. Story arcs look like a giant bell curve with the story starting at ground zero and rising, rising, rising, until it hits the climax point at the height of the curve. Act Three culminates in a climax where the character is changed in some fundamental way, and then the tension falls back down until you’ve reached a satisfactory closure. Act Two, or the middle, is intertwined throughout with scenes of rising drama, suspense, or intensity and scenes of calm deliberation to let your readers catch their breath. Everyone changes to a degree by the end.Ī good story starts with a bang or a hook, something to get the reader’s attention, and quickly accelerates to more action-Act One. Then there’s the climactic scene and the denouement. He works hard to change his circumstances and win the girl. Gatsby starts out as a poor man who falls in love with a rich girl. Consider the story arc of The Great Gatsby. Your main character must be confronted by action: danger, threats, seduction, tests of bravery, moral dilemmas, or physical or emotional assaults, to name a few. In a Word, Here's What’s Important: Action For now, know that the two play off of each other. We’ll cover character arc in another article. You can’t have a story arc without a character arc. As your main character struggles, endures, and overcomes throughout the story arc, she naturally changes as a character by the end of the story. Your story arc and character arc should be melded together in such a way you’re not sure where one begins and the other ends. Your Story Arc is Your Guide to Plotting.In a Word, Here's What’s Important: Action.
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