I've been reading up on story arcs for the past few days. Doing an image search brings up a truckload of examples. Reading about what they are supposed to be has been fruitful.
I have my start, my inciting incident, my obstacle to overcome, BUT....
I'm now at the Midpoint and wonder exactly what it should be. I've got a story that will climax in a huge battle. I've also got a character who must make a HUGE decision. That's probably the second obstacle to overcome. Yup, I think that's what I'll make that. But the midpoint. Could it be the dance? I blush at the thought of my poor hero/heroine. I think the dance will be the midpoint. From then on, it will go downhill until the decision is made. Then we can come to the climax and finish this thing.
Well, that puts me in a better state of mind. I've not had to do this before. I've always 'known' what was going to happen. The fleshing out part was always the surprise.
I suppose it's really kind of the same here. I do know the ending. That's important. *g* I do have an idea of what the decision will be (but the Muse can be frustratingly oblique when it comes to those things!)
PS - great image here.... http://embiddulph.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/story-arc.jpg
That's interesting! I have no idea where I am in my super-long epic. It might be worthwhile to see if I can apply this diagram to it. ;-) In some ways, my outline serves a similar purpose, but maybe my outline could be be made better if I applied this to it!
ReplyDeleteA couple of posts ago, you mentioned your childhood heroine with freckles -- did either of us who commented with suggestions on who she might be get it right? ;-)
I never used an outline or a story arc for my epic. Could be the nature of the beast. Yet, I found that even for my little 'Dentist' story, the arc helped.
ReplyDeleteNo idea who the character was, sadly. I even think she might have been a girl scout. Still looking.