The simple shapes of stories…they are beautiful shapes.
— Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Have you ever had an agent, editor, or a reviewer say something like this about your novel?
“This story has a weak (or non-existent) narrative arc.”
“While the characters are strong, the narrative arc did not maintain my interest.”
“The writing is solid, but the narrative arc is unclear and inconsistent.”
I have. And on many occasions, I’ve had to be the editor to say something along that line.
It’s easy to say that a story doesn’t have a strong narrative arc. It isn’t as easy to define and describe a narrative arc. It’s even harder to write a story with a strong narrative arc. I know how difficult it can be from my own experience as a writer.
Think of narrative arc as a bell curve. It starts at a point on the lower left hand side of a graph, rises in a curve to a peak, and then drops back down again. The standard narrative arc is often referred to in terms of the three-act play: a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Ac…
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