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@mark-kamibaya: Haven’t read McKee yet, but he’s rather high on my reading list. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to his book soon. Since I’m not as familiar with competing structures, because of how broad the three act structure is, my view tends to be that most stories work well with following that basic structure, albeit with certain tweaks depending on the story.
For myself, characters and theme are what make a great story. I love great plots, but I can forgive a lot in a story if it has solid characters and themes.
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Guiding authors at Story Embers.
Ooh, such a lovely topic! @Mark-Kamibaya thanks for starting it. I missed it initially because I’m on vacation and wifi is spotty, but you may rest assured I have not abandoned the forum. 😉
As for my favorite structure/arc… well, it really depends. I don’t think I have an absolute favorite. The two I primarily use are Hero’s Journey and Dramatica. And really, neither one is better. I use them interchangeably depending on the nature of my theme. Hero’s Journey works best for personal themes— responsibility, humility, confidence, etc., whereas Dramatica works best for themes of more universal truth, such as sacrifice, or the loss of innocence. The first book in my series was definitely Hero’s Journey, whereas the second book, my WIP, leans more towards Dramatica, though it is a coming-of-age. The theme of the first book was personal responsibility, and the theme of the second is that the world is broken and man is not the answer. The third book will definitely be primarily Dramatica because it’s basically an allegory of man’s fall; loss of innocence, separation from God, etc. The fourth is very strongly Hero’s Journey as the theme is loyalty.
And so on and so forth. All my stories have a hero, more or less, just as Les Miserables follows the story of Jean Valjean through all the other plot-threads, but they’re definitely not all Hero’s Journey.I may have more to say on this, but I guess this is enough for now. 😉
Thanks for all of your input.
(I just felt like posting for no good reason)
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
The only one I know of is the Hero’s Journey. I recently learned about that one. Could you explain the others?
@leumeister Are you sure you want me to explain all of the other ones? ‘Cause I can talk a lot.
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
Here, I’ll fix it. @mark-kamibaya
I’ve been learning more about character arcs recently and am working on a disillusionment arc for one of my MCs. A disillusionment arc is, how did @kate-flournoy put it, moving from a pleasant lie to an unpleasant truth. So it is positive in that it moves from lie to truth, but negative in that it goes from pleasant to unpleasant. Since I’m working on a trilogy, I’ll be giving my character a disillusionment arc for the first two books, then a shorter positive arc for the third one.
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
I don’t know exactly how to do this @leumeister. There are many different types of story structure and a lot of character arcs. And I haven’t even studied all of them fully. So I’ll just attempt to satisfy your curiosity about the types of story structure that I listed and then post links for you to find out more.
Bell Curve: The bell curve looks like this. It basically shows that in a story you have the beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and then the end. I think the problem with this is that it makes the reader think the main climax has to be in the middle. And that’s kind of wrong. Almost all stories have the main climax at the end.
Three Act Structure: The three act structure is the type of structure that most movies use. It divides the story into three acts (actually four because you divide the Act II into two smaller acts). Act I introduces the character and the story world. Act II is the main action of the story. In the middle of Act II (which is the middle of the story) you have a scene that usually mirrors or contradicts the ending of the story. This scene also is used to turn a passive main character into an active main character. Act III is the climax of the story. The key scenes in the Three Act Structure are actually the scenes that transition between acts because those scenes are the act climaxes (the Act III climax is also the climax of the story, but isn’t usually the final scene in the book). Here’s a great article on Three Act Structure.
Save the Cat! beats: This is a modification of the Three Act Structure. Personally I find it more helpful because it is more specific than the TAS. I guess it really isn’t a modification. It’s just a more detailed TAS.
Hero’s Journey: You know what it is. Here’s a link: Hero’s Journey. As Josiah pointed out, I see that the Hero’s Journey is limited to the kinds of stories that can be told using it. However, I believe it is very helpful to learn just because it is so pervasive.
Multiple Act Structure: MAS is kind of a more general version. This is actually what most “anti-structure” people use. Basically you just remember the definition of an act and use as many acts as needed in your story. The definition? Here’s mine: An Act is a series of scenes that ends in a powerful scene that completely changes the world of the main character. Obviously, there are different definitions, but I’m partial to mine (obviously) because a story is about a character. And how that character views the world is a major change in the character. For reference here’s another definition:
An ACT is a series of sequences that peaks in a climactic scene which causes a major reversal of values. More powerful in its impact than any previous sequence or scene.
I’ll get to character arcs later, okay?
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
You know how sometimes you write something really long and then you forget to post it? It just happened to me, @leumeister. So I’m gonna make this brief.
Bell Curve: Action starts, rises, culminates, falls, the end. That’s a bell curve. My problem with it is that it implies that the culmination is in the exact middle. That’s wrong.
Three Act Structure: In the original post, this section was really long. Anyway. The TAS is the method used by many movies. You have the introduction (Act I), main story (Act II), and culmination (Act III). TAS emphasizes the scenes in between acts. Those are the important ones. To learn more here’s a link.
Hero’s Journey: You know this one. I don’t really like it because I see it as a bit limited with the types of stories it can tell. But I believe it should be required for all story tellers to be familiar with it (same for TAS). Here’s a link.
Save the Cat! Beats: It’s a more detailed three act structure. Study this. Seriously. It’s real good.
Multiple Act Structure: This method is more flexible. You just arrange your story in many acts. An act is a series of sequences that build up to a climactic scene. It’s easy to remember but harder than you think. This is the method that most “I hate outlining” people subconsciously take. Here’s I think you should learn MAS. In order to learn this study various definitions of an act. Then while you write, remember two things: (1) Every scene has to progress the story towards the act climax. (2) An act climax has to completely change the way the MC sees the world.
There you have it. Comments? Questions? Criticisms? Tag people if they would like to see this.
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
Thanks. 🙂
My current story, Aquila, loosely under the Hero’s Journey plot type, I think.
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