What is a Narrative Arc or Story Arc definition?
The narrative arc also called the “story arc” refers to the shape and structure of a story. It is universal and pertinent to both fiction and nonfiction. This arc reflects the events in your story, the sequence of occurrences in the plot, and determines the troughs and crests that set the pace. A good arc is integral if you want to engage your readers from start to finish. It is essential to deliver a satisfying conclusion.
The narrative arc is a term that describes a story’s complete progression. It testifies to the belief that every story has a relatively calm beginning, a middle where tension, character conflict, and narrative momentum builds to a peak, and an end where the conflict is resolved.
Even if two different stories are dealing with the same ideas, it is how you add complexity to a basic story arc that differentiates the two.
It sometimes comes in handy to think about the story arc as though you’re setting up a simple dramatic play. Evidently, you’ve got three acts to tell your story.
- In Act One, you set the tone and introduce your audience to the setting, the characters, and the seeds of conflict.
- In Act Two, your characters grow, respond and change in accordance with conflicts and circumstances. They set about trying to resolve the big puzzle, the seminal idea. Usually, the conflict escalates to a climax.
- In Act Three, characters resolve the Big Problem and the story concludes.
So, how does a Narrative arc differ from a plot?
Imagine every scene of your novel summarized on notecards! This entire stack of cards is your plot, but the order in which you lay them out is your narrative arc. The plot is comprised of the individual events that make up your story whereas your story arc is the sequence of those events. Carefully sequencing your plot into a cohesive story arc helps readers navigate through your story. It sets expectations that you can either satisfy or disrupt. Thinking about your arc is integral around the whole point. What if your Scene-1 notecard actually belongs in the climax? What if you have too many scenes based on internal conflict in a row and it derails the narrative?
The plot is the skeleton of your story and the narrative arc is its spine. It’s the central through-line that marks the plot’s progress from the beginning to the end.
What is a character arc then?
The character arc is to a character what the narrative arc is to the story. The narrative arc treads the plot on a grand scale whereas a character arc charts the inner journey of a character throughout the plot. Each main and sometimes secondary character will go through an individual character arc. While the story arc is external, the character arc is internal.
Narrative and character arcs are part of a larger symbiotic relationship. Every plot point in the story arc aims to bring your characters closer to, or further from, their goals and desires. The circumstances and conflicts your characters go through are part of the arc, but the way characters meet challenges and as a result, change, is the ‘character arc’ territory.
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Freytag’s Pyramid: The Five Elements of a Story Arc
Gustav Freytag, a 19th-century German novelist, used a pyramid to study common patterns in the plots of stories. In 1863, he put forward the idea that every arc goes through five dramatic stages: Exposition, Rising action, Climax, Falling action, and Resolution.
1. Exposition
Here, the reader is introduced to the story. The exposition puts through the background information to prime the audience for the rest of the story. It includes the introduction of the main character-the who, setting-the where, and the circumstances-the when.
2. Rising Action
This is when conflict begins to build up. The rising action usually begins with an ‘inciting incident’, the triggering point that sets the main events of the story in motion. This is when the audience starts to realize what your story is really about. Here the visual representation describes the structural elements of the plot.
3. Climax
The highest point of tension in your storyline is the climax. This is often the point at which all the different subplots and characters converge. Usually, the climax requires the main character to face the truth or make an important choice.
4. Falling Action
This is the point triggered by the protagonist’s decision. In the falling action act, the conflict gives way to resolution. Loose ends of the story are tied up, and tension begins to dissipate.
5. Resolution
Resolution is also known as denouement. This is how the stories are ended. The resolution of a narrative arc isn’t always happy or pleasant. Yet it does close the loop and show how the events of the story have transformed the characters and the world around them.
For a story to create the impact an author wishes to have, a narrative arc alongside the plot needs to converge and take the story along. Then comes the character arc which keeps the readers glued. And if all the five elements of a story arc are followed to the T, the author will most often than not be able to keep it grippy, tight, and taut.
