Rebuilding the Arc

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I read an interesting post today about atypical story arcs, by Joyce Audy Zarins. Instead of the usual rise and fall (pictured above), some story arcs take on less traditional patterns, like the "X" shape arc in Bridge to Terabithia where Jesse and Leslie switch roles by the end. 

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I tend to follow the heroes journey arc the most, but I'm intrigued with the idea of using an arc as an integral part of the story rather than a plot mapping tool.

Joyce also mentioned the cyclical arc of Holes, by Louis Sachar, and how fitting that is to the title and development of the main character.

I started looking around for other ideas about arcs and ran across a lecture by Brandon Sanderson. He briefly talks about non-traditional arcs but then answers a student's question about collaboration, also an interesting topic and pertinent to a discussion on arcs. 

I'll leave this here for now. More on arcs later as I churn up additional research, but I'm currently enrolled in two writing courses that are keeping me busy, Mira Resiberg's The Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books and Julie Hedlund's soon-to-be-released course on marketing for the authorpreneur. More on both of those later. 

I'm also churning away at my middle grade novel and revising a handful of picture book ideas I think have the most potential.  Between all that, I'm organizing a children's lit group in my new home as I did in my previous home. There is no SCBWI chapter here, but I'm trying to lay the ground work for establishing one. It's been a busy but fruitful transition. Hopefully I'll have more good news to share in the near future.

Happy writing.

Weekend Links: The Heroes Journey, The Benefits of Anti-social Behavior, and Ancient Teens

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'm taking Emma Walton Hamilton's middle grade writing class. I'm learning so much. One of my favorite lessons dealt with the plot device called the heroes journey. The video above explains it nicely.

The video below will make you feel so much better if you are even slightly anti-social.

 And finally, if you're planning to write a book for ancient Roman teenagers, the next video is for you. Okay, seriously though, it's a great look into the life of a teen--the differences and similarities over time. The stuff that many good modern novels are made of.

Have a great weekend. I'll have some fun news to post soon, so stay tuned.