Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Rebuilding the Arc

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freytags_pyramid.svg

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


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Heroesjourney.svg
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.


7 comments:

  1. I love cyclical arcs. I find them very fulfilling.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The very topic of non-formulaic story telling got my attention. There are times I feel that I wrote more out-of-the-box before I became cognizant of what was expected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's something to be said about ignorance--in it's most blissful form that is. :)

      Delete
  3. I like circular stories too ... such a feeling of completeness. Good for you for doing the groundwork for setting up a kidlit group. Wishing you lots of success.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Vijaya. It's coming along slowly but surely. :)

      Delete
  4. Thanks for your comment:) Interesting post even if I didn't understood all the video(my english isn't so good)

    ReplyDelete