1) Exposition

The exposition portion of the story arc involves acclimating the reader into the context of the book with relevant details regarding story and character. The way to show rather than tell your readers the exposition of your novel is by interspersing the details within character action. Rather than beginning your novel with this long history of the world, your story is set in, begin with a scene where your character is in action in some way. They could be running late for work, dreading a first date, or even preparing for a battle in more action-based novels.

These details help ground the story in the ‘present’ of the novel and they allow the reader to learn about the character in the ‘now’ as we’re hearing about the relevant parts of their past. For example, let’s say we’re getting exposition about how your character used to be more jaded but we’re seeing them helping an elderly person cross the street as they’re rushing to work. The reader can directly see that the character has changed over time and this poses a question of what has changed, which you can then answer in the exposition.

2) Inciting Incident

The next stage of your story arc is the inciting incident, or the event that sets your story in motion. This is the event that should answer the question ‘why does your story take place now? Why today?’ There has to be something major going on in the life of your protagonist in order for your story to start where it does. And if you’re thinking to yourself that a major event or character moment doesn’t happen in the beginning of your story, then you haven’t found your beginning yet.

When it comes to showing rather than telling your inciting incident, focus on describing the action and emotion of the scene. The event should be obvious enough to the reader for them to know it’s the inciting incident (again, if it’s not your story needs a rewrite). But to help them along, make sure you’re writing ‘in-scene’ and playing up the drama, emotion, dialogue, and action of the moment. This way your reader will know for sure that this is where the story arc that they’ll follow for the entire novel begins.

3) Rising Action

The rising action involves a series of events (connected to the original inciting incident) that continue to further the plot of the story towards the eventual climax. So, for example, if the inciting incident was an announcement that a tornado will hit the protagonist’s town, the rising action would involve trying to stock up on supplies, trying to create a bunker to hide in, and even the beginning effects of the tornado. And your protagonist will have obstacles along each plot point, so when they go to the store everything they need will be sold out.

In order to show your readers the rising action of your novel, focus on plotting out these points prior to writing them. Make sure your plot doesn’t go through too long of a lull without the rising action coming into play. And, when you’re writing a scene with a rising action plot point, make sure the stakes are high and clear to the reader. The most obvious stakes are life or death, but perhaps one of your rising action plot points is that a character overhears his best friend talking badly about him behind his back. Without even needing to state it, the reader can infer that it’s their friendship that is at stake in this moment.

4) Climax

The climax of the story should contain two elements: action and choice. The main plot of your story should eventually lead to a choice that your protagonist must make. Then, the climax and/or resolution of your story should be a direct result of the choice they end up making. You, therefore, must make sure that both the choice and action of your climax make sense for your character and the rest of the plot points in your story.

If you’ve done your job write, the choice should be obvious to the reader at this point. All of the plot points should build-up to this moment and, although the reader may not know what the protagonist will choose, they should know what the choice will be between. When it comes to the climax, however, the way to make it obvious to the reader is to write in-scene. Forgo using exposition, limit any internal monologues, and don’t use long scene descriptors. Instead, focus on using short sentences to increase the pace and urgency. Use lots of dialogue and action in this moment as well.

5) Resolution

Finally, the resolution involves wrapping up the plot of the story. This is a calm point after the high action of the climax of your story where things are falling into place (for better or worse). Focus on tying up any loose ends in your story here. Make sure any consequences of your protagonist’s choice are addressed.

Instead of directly telling your reader that things are being ‘resolved’, focus on dialogue here. Any important conversations that need to be had between characters with rising tension or characters with unresolved issues should be played out before the reader. You don’t need to wrap everything up in a bow for the reader to know this is the resolution of your story. You need only to make sure any leftover moments that need to happen, happen here.

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Elements of a Story Arc

The first element of a story arc is the exposition or scenes in the beginning that are meant to introduce the reader to the characters, world, and tone of the story. Next, there is the inciting incident which is the event that sets the story into motion. The rising action involves the plot moving toward the climax through a series of events and character decisions made by your protagonist. The climax involves the protagonist making the choice that the story has been leading to, and the action that follows this choice. Finally, the resolution of the story is when the conflict comes to a close and the outcome of the story is revealed. All of these elements are present in every story arc (or should be), but they take many forms depending on which story arc is being utilized.

Story Arc Types

The story arc involves the ups and downs (or positive rises and negative falls) that occur over the course of your plot. Primarily there are six different types of story arcs used. The first is the Zero to hero (or rags to riches) story arc which involves the story starting in the negative access or the character having humble beginnings and it moves up to the positive access. Next is the Hero to zero story arc which involves just the opposite and goes from positive to negative, like a devolution story. Next, there is Man in the hole which involves a story that goes from positive down to negative then back up to positive. So, in this version, a character would hit a low point in the middle of the story and then swing back up for a happy ending. Then there’s the Icarus story arc where the character goes from the negative, up to the positive, then back down to negative. So, for example, Icarus himself who started imprisoned, then learned to fly, then fell.

Next is the Cinderella arc where the story starts in the negative, then goes to the positive, back down to negative, then positive. Sounds confusing, but just look at the story of Cinderella. She starts as a slave to her stepmother & siblings, then she goes to the ball, then she gets locked away as the prince is searching for her, then she lives happily ever after. Finally, we have the Oedipus arc, which is the opposite of Cinderella’s. This one starts in the positive, then goes negative, back up to positive, and finishes negative.

Core Value

In order to determine the arc of your story, you’ll need to determine what the core value of your story will be (or the Y-axis of your arc diagram). So, to use a base example, in a horror the core value is simply survival and how close to that your character is will determine the Y-axis. So instances where they’re put into mortal peril, they’re in the negative. Instances where they’re safer or they escape from danger, they’ll swing back up into the positive.

Your story will likely have a more complicated and nuanced Y-axis. In order to determine what yours will be, think about the emotional journey your character will face throughout the story and what choices the story is leading toward forcing your character to make.

First Draft vs. Second Draft

When utilizing story arc, we don’t recommend attempting to chart it out at first. Of course you should be plotting your work, but don’t attempt to focus on what type of story arc you’re going for in your first draft- just let the story flow. Once you’ve completed your first draft and you’re re-examing your work, this is the point at which you can examine what story arc type your manuscript has become. Once you see what arc you’re either utilizing or you’re closest to, go back and emphasize those rises and falls in action and between the positive/negative access even further to give your story a better flow.

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