Developing A Story Arc

A story arc is actually pretty simple – beginning, middle and end. That’s all it involves at the most basic level. The problems occur in deciding what those are. Sometimes it is not simple at all.

The Beginning is where the actual story begins. It is not backstory; it is not regurgitating descriptions of the setting all over the place. It is also not in the middle of the story or right before the end of the story and then catching up in flashbacks. There is maybe one in ten thousand writers who could pull off such a story arc and I can’t at the moment think of but one example. In The Cat Who Played Post Office, Lillian Jackson Braun makes excellent use of flashback from a pivotal point in the story. This is one of very few instances (and one of few writers) where this bending of the rules works to advantage. I came across one story by an indie writer that tried something similar. He started in the middle and spent (probably) the first half telling the story in a nearly continuous flashback because he started the story in the wrong place. I never finished it and never will.

So, the tough part is deciding where the story actually starts. If you know what your main plot is (you should), the story arc will begin with where that plot either begins or is first revealed to your main character. There can be minor variations. A disaster might be presaged by some unremarked event involving wildlife that has no direct bearing on the characters at all. I have seen that used to good effect several times. Any critical discriptions of character and setting should be worked into the opening scene naturally so as not to detract from whatever is creating the tension in the scene. Go back and read that sentence again. While I won’t go into the elements that make a powerful beginning, that sentence is a large part of it.

One author started her story with a note that was not a solicitation from the local Madame to a mercenary Captain, though it looked and smelled like it. The note was a job offer that was the exact beginning of the story. She did not give background or world building details up front, she simply presented the scene and let the image grow in the readers mind. Now, she could have given the whole background in narrative on the reasons behind the job offer and that information was important to the story eventually, but those reasons were not the beginning of the story. Begin at the beginning.

The middle of the story can vary depending on the kind of story it is, but it will have one consistant characteristic – a pivotal point. This is the point where the character has an epiphany, or a crisis errupts to change the direction, or a new piece of information comes to light. Maybe the suspect you were certain commited the murder is killed, again, changing the percieved direction of the story. In some cases, there may be many small such points, but there will always be one notable instance that stands out. After this point, the pace usually picks up like a snowball rolling downhill as the character(s) works to resolve the challenge in view of the new direction.

The end of the story generally has two parts, the climax and tidying up. The climax is the resolution of the plot in the story, not nessecarily the conflict. Some conflicts have no real resolution, though I know some would disagree. Life goes on and people walk in and out of it. Characters are the same way and while this segment of the story thread may be done, it is always connected to many others, even if they are never explored. Tolkien comes to mind here as a classic example.

The tidying up is what Twain called the marrying and the burying. Tie up those loose ends somewhat to leave the reader either satisfied or not, depending on the intent of the story. It should have a sense of closure even if it’s something of a cliffhanger.

Here, I want to put in a little about how multibook stories are different and how they are the same. I am writing my story of Selarial and Alcar as a trilogy because it quickly became apparent it was too big for a single book if handled properly. In a series of stand alone books you have a single story with a single plot in each book, rather like any TV series you care to name. They are connected in story type, characters, setting, etc., but they are also self contained as to plot. A true trilogy is different in that each book is part of a larger plot and story arc. Each will also usually have it’s own subplot and story arc. The two must work together.

In my first book, the beginning is when Selarial and Alcar meet. The middle is their shift in awareness that the increasing conflict between the Coalition and their Thess’n enemies has deeper roots and a personal element. The subplot of book one is this change in awareness and the knowledge that their future is not what they thought it would be. While both characters are involved in the conflicts and the  plot, the first book is primarily Selarial’s, not Alcar’s. The end of this book is when they both embrace that future in a meaningful way. I’ll try not to give any spoilers. The end of one book must lead into, or at least point to, the next book.

The second book has a totally different, yet related subplot. Alcar stuggles to find his stride in the leadership of Selarial’s planet while Selarial is stranded half a galaxy away. There is a reason for that I’ll get to in a moment. The external conflicts with the Singer Council and later with the Coalition Assembly are what drive him towards taking his role in the larger scheme of things. This had to be done on his own, without Selarial’s presence, in order to be effective. Otherwise, she would have dominated that part of the story and the second book is his book. Her subplot is secondary.  The beginning is his first open conflict with the Singer council. The middle is the resolution of that conflict and the shift to the larger one. The end is also a lead directly back to the main plot of the entire trilogy.

I won’t go into the story arc of the third book here, but rather, the way the three books fit the overall story arc of the trilogy. Book one is plainly the beginning of the larger plot. Book 2, largely using the same pivot point, is the middle and book 3 is obviously the end, wrapping up the plot threads and finding at least some resolution to the various conflicts. One, in particular is not really resolvable, at least not in any permanent way.

One thing to note is the individual story arcs are a part of the larger story arc development. in a multibook story, you will resolve some of the conflict and plot with each story, but not all. They are sort of stories within a larger story. There is also a progression from smaller, more personal plots and conflicts, to the larger plot as the over all story arc develops.

Happy Writing!