Like most things, the Story Arc begins at the beginning, and is so named because it shows the curving of the storyline in any written piece of fiction - from short stories to mighty tome length novels, and scripts and screenplays alike. Any form of writing that tells a story will most likely follow the layout above.Start / Establish Routine
So let's go through it. Once you've decided to begin your story, the first thing you need to do is to choose your main character (MC) and establish their routine.
To do this, you need to answer a few questions. Who is your MC? Where are they? What are they doing? And so on. This first step ('establish routine'), effectively, is an introduction to your story for the reader.
Let them know who your MC is straight away, and begin to set up the 'world' (or, the environment that your story is set in). Perhaps your MC is a highly-moralistic policeman with financial debts, hunting down criminals and solving cases. Perhaps he is directing traffic. Or, maybe your MC is a tea-shop owner, bored of the business she inherited and dreaming of a real adventure. Perhaps your MC is an alien from another planet, from thousands of years in the future, with in interest in inter-stellar geography. Or with claustrophobia. Or herpes. It doesn't matter who, or where, your MC - this is the part where you establish for the reader who they are, and what their everyday life is like for them (their routine).
The 'Inciting Incident'
The next step, is the 'Inciting Incident', where everything changes. Something happens that sends your character's life off into a completely different direction. The II (Inciting Incident) itself doesn't have to be much, important, just something that affects your MC's life enough to alter their path.
For example, the convict that the policeman catches offers him a bribe to let him go. Or he witnesses an accident while directing traffic. Perhaps his wife phones. The tea-shop owner finds a treasure map that's been accidentally (or deliberately) left behind by one of her customers. The alien falls through a rift in time and ends up on the other side of the universe. Again, it really doesn't matter what it is that happens, just that the result of it pushes your MC into a situation that they wouldn't have previously come to.
Everything Changes
Now that your MC's lifepath has been altered, their same-old daily actions will obviously change. The routine that you set up in the first step now no longer applies.
Imagine your MC's lifepath as a gentle flow of water. It's going along as usual (establish routine), and then suddenly you block it with a rock (II). The water can't stop flowing, but now can no longer get through the way it was going - so it chooses a path around the rock instead (everything changes).
So, for our examples: The policeman, having taken the bribe, now feels so guilty about what he has done that he begins to act very out of character, certain that his colleagues (and everyone else) is aware of what he has done. The tea-shop owner sells up and sets off with the map to find her treasure. The alien, now has to get home, and takes the first step.
Whilst the II itself doesn't have to be important, it does make an important change to your MC's life - and sets them off on the rest of the story(line). This 'everything changes' step is where we see that II has had an impact.
Note also, that the line on the chart for this section is moving downwards - out of their comfort zone, your MC's life is beginning to spiral out of control.
Obstacle to Overcome
Which leads quite nicely into this next point. With things beyond their control, and everything continuously changing around them, your MC comes upon their first problem - their first challenge.
Now that the water has moved around the rock, it finds that there's a wall between it and it's target. Or a trench. Or another rock. The policeman realises that there was a CCTV camera watching his actions with the criminal, and he must get rid of the evidence before anybody realises. Or own up. The tea-shop owner has her purse snatched and is left with no money. The alien has been found and declared an intruder. He must now escape without being caught.
At about a third of the way into your story, quite simply, this is where your MC has their first real 'obstacle to overcome', their first real test or trial. Failure to overcome it will again alter their lifepath, irrevocably. Success will see them through to their goal, but will also increase the risk, the tension. Like raising the odds in a game of poker, it will take things to a new level.
Tension Rises / Midpoint / Everything Changes
Now that your MC has successfully dealt with, and has overcome, the obstacle, the drama has been heightened. Your MC has committed themself to their task, and so the risk, and tension begins to rise. They've overcome whatever the issue was, it's now down to them to keep everything on track.
The water made its way past, or through, the wall and is now running along quite happily. It's easy, free, almost as though it is flowing downhill and is increasing in speed with the gravity. At this point, it's almost worth turning the Story Arc upside down - the tension here flows easily downstream, rolling away, just like the water. The 'everything changes' part it just came through is now an uphill struggle, culminating in the harder to manage 'obstacle to overcome'.
So, perhaps the policeman - now free from risk of suspicion - decides that since he managed to get away with it, he'll now take a few more bribes from the criminals he catches. He won't be greedy, he'll just take enough to clear his debts. Sure, the risk increases (and therefore the tension), but it's nothing he can't deal with. He got away with it before. The tea-shop owner, penniless, turns to crime to fund her travels. The alien escapes the base, and learns about somebody that might be able to help him, but he's still got to be careful to keep out of sight from the authorities. He stows away on a spaceship in search of help.
The Midpoint is the height of tension in your story, and represents the halfway point. Just like everything changed after the II for your MC, everything will change again after the Midpoint. Treat it as (a very large) obstacle to overcome, or something highly dramatic that results in your character taking a different route.
For example, the policeman and his corruption are discovered by a colleague. He has a matter of time until he's reported to his superiors. He now has a choice - face the consequences of his actions, or stop the colleague. Either way, something important is going to happen, and he will be set along a different route. Since he's risked so much already, it's not an option for him to give in now. He tries to threaten the colleague, but things go too far, and the colleague ends up dead. Now the policeman - his morales shot to pieces - has to hide both his corruption, and a murder.
The tea-shop owner is caught stealing and is arrested.
The alien reaches the person that can help him, but he's not what he expects, and demands payment.
Just as everything changed for your MC after the II, everything now changes again after the Midpoint. The only difference here, is that since the Midpoint is the highest, most dramatic, point of tension in your story, it means that your MC has further to fall.
Obstacle to Overcome / Tension Rises
The next obstacle comes in at about two third's of the way through your story. Just as your MC feels they can sink/fall no lower, they have another challenging obstacle to overcome. This will again change things for your character, and they begin to pick the story back up, tension increasing as they go along. Despite all of their setbacks, they are closer to the end of their story. The only way out for them now is to continue onwards. As they push further on, the tension begins again to build.
So then. The policeman, having murdered a colleague to cover up his own corruption, has to deal with the body and any incriminating evidence (everything changes). Maybe he stashes him away somewhere in the hope that he's never found. Maybe he stages the crime scene, pretends to discover it, and calls it in. Maybe he discovers he was witnessed by one of the criminals that bribed him before, and now finds himself being blackmailed (obstacle). Faced with being reported, or financial insecurity once again (rendering everything he has done to this point useless!) he decides he has to deal with the witness (tension rises).
Maybe the tea-shop owner is offered a way out of prison, but it will cost her the map.
Things begin to pick up a little for your MC here, as the tension rises - but there are less options for them to choose from.
Climax
The next point on the chart is the 'Climax'. This is just as it sounds. This is where everything in your story comes to a head. It's the big finish before the actual ending. This part isn't actually very long, but it's one of the most important parts of your story. It's the pay-off. The reward for your reader for having read through everything and got to this point. The Climax, is where your MC reaches the end of their story. Either they accomplish their goal, or they are stopped short before they can reach it. Either way, this is as far as they will go - this 'chapter' of their life has come to an end. A lot of your storylines will be concluded with this section.
Back to our examples: The policeman - now a corrupt killer (which would never have happened had it not been for the II!), learns that his (now murdered) colleague had an informant that alerted him to your MC's actions. This informant, worried that the policeman will come after them next, has reported him to the police... who turn up armed and take the policeman into custody. His crime-run is over, and everything that he worked for over the course of the story has been lost. Further than that though, he has lost himself. He is no longer the same man (the moralistic policeman) that he was at the start of the story.
The tea-shop owner, withering away in prison, bullied by the other inmates - decides that enough is enough. She can't take it anymore, and there's no way she'll be able to ever follow the map and find the treasure now, whatever it was. She takes her own life, but not before eating the map.
Denoument
The Denoument comes after the Climax, and is basically the final resolution of your storyline. It's where you wrap up, finish off, and clarify any outstanding storylines, narrative threads, or plot twists. It doesn't have to be long. In fact, the shorter the better, really. The tension falls dramatically after the Climax, so it is best to get this part done quickly. A lot of your loose threads will have been resolved as part of the Climax, just make sure you've closed any that are left over, otherwise your reader will be left feeling that your story is incomplete.
And that's it! You have a story!
The End!
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