Story Arc

Some people consider the two terms interchangeable. But to me story arc is the general term. And there are three kinds. The classical story has three parts: character, plot, and settings. Each may have an arc separate from the others, or intertwined.

Character arc: how the main character(s) change over the course of the story. Sometimes they do not; series characters often remain unchanged, or change very slowly over the course of a series.

Action arc: how the actions change over the course of the story. This arc may be straight, zig zag and even backtrack, go up or down in terms of tension and other qualities.

Settings arc: how the locales change over the course of the story. Does it start out in a rural setting and progress by stages every more into urban settings? (Or vice versa.) Does the story start out with a sunny setting, both physically and emotionally, then get progressively darker? Lord of the Rings is an example. Horror stories often do this.

celticroots said:

How does story arc differ from character arc in a story?

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One is for the whole book, the other is for (each) character?

celticroots said:

And how can you tell if your novel has both?

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Well, um - I think a with most stories the MC's story is the main story, right? So you almost always have both if you have one...

but - I guess for some big sprawling ensemble-cast epic, the stories of several important characters will come together to make a slightly different arc? perhaps? Although I've never read such a book. I think movies have this more than books. Take for example, the Xmen movies - I think with some of these it's hard to name a main character & say 'this movie was so&so's story. (I'd argue that with such things, very often the most focused story and that which most parallels the main story is that of the antagonist.)

I never have a story arc. I have a story meander. You get to the end, but not without a lot of side trips.

Which may explain more than I care to think about concerning my publication history.

caw

blacbird - IMO - if you have a beginning and end and your character changes, you have an arc.

Story arc: how you kill the shark that's terrorising the beaches
Character arc: how the character changes so they're able to kill the shark

Yuuup, your story arc is really just the specifics of how your characters succeed or fail to accomplish the task that forms the backbone of your plot (though that task may change according to developments in the plot).

Character arc is the specifics of how your characters change/develop from where they were at the beginning into wherever they are by the end.

I find the term "arc" misleading because it's hard to picture plot developments and characters taking actions/morphing as a result an arc. The "arc" part really just seems to track the chronological rise and fall of stakes/tension/intensity as each element of your book (the story, the characters) progresses toward its conclusion. In reality that "arc" (and the stakes/tension/intensity) is just one aspect of what's going on, and even that it isn't so much an arc as a wave with slowly rising peaks and troughs.

Arc doesn't help visually beyond that, so don't worry too much about it.

I can't say I've ever worried about arcs - or even thought about them.

I always figured a character arc is a type of story arc, one that largely involves character development as the driving force of it. As long as it is still a driving point of the story, but doesn't involve the above, it's just a story arc.

Beats the hell out of me. I just tell a story I like, and fill it with characters I like. For me, "Story arc" and "character arc" are just synonyms for "I'm going to tell the same damned story everyone else has been telling for two thousand years, and I'm going to tell it in exactly the same damned way."

Real life is not so neat. Real people are not so tidy. Only fairy tales for little kids have such rules.

Buffysquirrel said:

Story arc: how you kill the shark that's terrorising the beaches
Character arc: how the character changes so they're able to kill the shark

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Haha this is like the perfect answer.

Yes, story arc is what's happening in your story, what the external conflicts are and how they are resolved.

Character arc is things like character growth, internal conflicts, and how the character changes throughout the story.

Both are related and affect each other, but they are separate things.

I'd describe story arc as the events that affect the entire world of the story and all the characters within it, whereas the character arc is what one character's path through it.

So In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett's marriage, move to Atlanta, etc. are her character acts, whereas the outbreak of Civil War, the siege of Atlanta, etc. are part of the story arc.

But story arcs don't have to be huge, world-changing events; for example in a story set entirely within a high school, it could be the normal ebb and flow of first day, winter break, the big dance, a fire drill that goes wrong, etc.

Jamesaritchie said:

Beats the hell out of me. I just tell a story I like, and fill it with characters I like. For me, "Story arc" and "character arc" are just synonyms for "I'm going to tell the same damned story everyone else has been telling for two thousand years, and I'm going to tell it in exactly the same damned way."

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I don't think about it either. "Arc" is what you notice after you've written the thing and realised that your story structure is bigger than you thought.

I think I'd consider the story arc to be the impact the MC has on the world around him/her, i.e the emergence and then defeat of some external threat.

The character arc would be the growth and internal development (if any) that results from his/her dealing with the story arc.