Dramatic Arc and Structure

November 6, 2009

 

Mary Rosenblum:  Hello all.  I wanted to talk about dramatic structure and arc tonight. We toss those words around a lot, but not everybody really understands what they mean.  Dramatic arc is the rise and eventual fall of tension within a story or a nonfiction narrative. It can be a life and death moment as a fishing boat sinks or a hijacker tries to take over an airplane.  But it might be nothing more than a sizzling look between two star crossed lovers.  In the story....or the nonfiction narrative for that matter....the tension slowly rises to a peak moment, then subsides.
In a short story, you may have a single arc of tension, the peak is the climax, and then the story ends.  In a novel or book length nonfiction, yoiu will have many small arcs....usually one per chapter or even one per scene, with an overall arc that peaks at your climax and declines to the end of the book.
Where a lot of nonfiction personal narrative writers run into trouble is that they neglect arc. They don't pay any attention to dramatic tension and the narrative seems flat
Could one have several major peaks?
Mary Rosenblum:  Yes, David. In a novel or book length NF piece, you had better have more than one! Ideally, you will have an arc in every scene, an arc in every chapter (your chapter may be only one scene long, of course, and then you have one arc in that chapter), as well as an arc for the main plot line.
Thanks, Mary, I want to learn more about arc, never did understand it. Is it also called the crisis?
Mary Rosenblum:  Iamm, the crisis can be an event that propels the main character toward the climax of the story.  Although some writers may call the climax the crisis. Terms are a bit fluid in this universe!  It is arc...the rise and fall of dramatic tension...that tends to keep readers engaged. You create a 'something is going to happen' feeling as tension builds. That keeps your readers waiting to see what that 'something' is.
Mary, is it discouraged to slowly, but gradually, rise into conflict, and therefore tension, at the beginning of the story? Literary stories tend to begin slowly, from what I've noticed--especially in novels.
Mary Rosenblum:  It varies widely, Jerry. Certainly, leaping into action is a great way to hook readers. But as long as you engage readers, you don't need to start by 'shooting the sheriff'. And some established writers tend to start slow. They have a reader base that has come to expect good writing and don't mind a slow start.
But if it seems to take forever to get some action into the story..don't you risk losing the reader before the "good stuff" happens?
Mary Rosenblum:  Of course, David. There is always a fine but definite line between enough and too much, no matter what you do.  And this is where novice writers often suffer. : The start is full of backstory, descriptions of the characters, the town, what have you. There is no rise in dramatic tension, so there is no arc. The story is flat.
How do I/we know where that fine line is?
So the backstory should have a little tension, but not too much?
Mary Rosenblum:  The only way to learn the line between enough and too much is to write a lot, give your work to readers, and listen to what they say. When you hear again and again 'well, I really liked it after I got into the story' maybe you're starting too slowly or too soon and your arc is flat.
With so much emphasis on the hook these days, in media res at the beginning seems to be encouraged these days.
Mary Rosenblum:  Bss, you need your backstory to contribute to the rising tension.  Anything in that story should contribute to the arc by building tension. Or at least should not flatten the arc!
Jerry you don’t have to leap into action at the start (in media res).  But if you don't, you do have to hook the readers.  This is where craft comes in.  If you're building your world, introducing characters, setting up your conflict, you need to find ways to do it so that you build tension and contribute to that arc.  Information is not particularly interesting unless the reader has a burning desire to know that information.  When you're just introducing characters and story, you have not yet created that burning desire, so don't dump in a lot of information!  Structure is a bit different than arc.  It's not specifically about the rise and fall of dramatic tension.  It's more like how you decide to put the lego pieces together to build the story shape.
Can we leave the readers asking questions about what happened in the past or things like that?
Mary Rosenblum:  Of course, DLB. As long as the questions don't distract from the story. You need to decide what the readers MUST know in order for the character and story to work. Don't add much other than that.
An example of what, bss?
A short example of backstory-tension
Mary Rosenblum:  Ah. Okay, say that you need to let the readers know that your POV has a dark past. He has come back to his home town, but nobody recognizes him. He's changed his appearance, has been a hit man, is on the run. But he wants to see his sister once more. So as he's interacting with people in town, he's going to do or say things that let the readers begin to piece together this backstory. Uh oh, he's not who he says he is. Uh oh, he's been here before and he has an agenda. Wonder what it is? Uh oh, he was in prison... With each new piece of knowledge, because we haven't yet put the story together, our curiosity increases. And at the same time, the 'jigsaw' picture begins to take shape. The last thing we find out, the dramatic tension having risen steadily, is that he's here to see his sister, and to settle a score. Tada. Dramatic high point. He's going to kill someone?
So it's ok to tell the readers the mc's parents are dead but not how or that she has issues with her grandfather but not why?
Mary Rosenblum:  DLB, whether you need to include those details or not depends entirely to their importance to the main plot.  In the example I just gave, we need to know all this in order to know what the central conflict of the story is. But we don't need to know that his cell mate was named Jeff or that he was a very good prisoner, or things like that.  Often you'll create TONS of interesting details about your character. That's part of building a rich and three dimensional character who seems real to readers.  And it is SO hard to leave all that cool stuff out.  But if it's not pertinent to the plot or the characterization, then it probably weakens your arc.
So all that cool stuff needs to be left out, hard that may be?
Mary Rosenblum:  If it's not contributing to THIS story. Yes.  But let's look at my example again.  Maybe Jeff, the cellmate IS important.  Turns out Jeff was a Christian and was innocent, got framed, and he taught our POV compassion.  So at the climax of the story, he does not shoot the man he came to shoot, instead, he lets him live. Now it was important to get to know Jeff, right?
How do you put in an arc while showing a scene on how the MC has some skill needed for the climax.
Mary Rosenblum:  You come up with a situation, Charie, that requires him to demonstrate that skill in a way that builds tension.  Say that we need to know that he's a karate black belt. You may have to create a scene where a mugger jumps him on the way back to his hotel and he takes the man out with his skills.  Ideally, find a way to tie that mugger in with the main plot.  The bad guy has started to suspect our hero is trouble and sent this guy to teach him some manners.
I see where this would ratchet up the story tension. But where is the arc in that scene?
Mary Rosenblum:  Ratcheting up tension is the arc. Dramatic arc is the rise and fall of dramatic tension. It can be through physical action, as in this scene. Or it can be from other types of plot tension. Our hero here realizes the mugger had to be sent by the bad guy and maybe his cover is blown. That increases dramatic tension.
Again, Mary, we are talking about dramatic tension for the reader, which may reflect tension a character experiences but is really the result of needing to know what happens next-how is this particular dramatic question going to be answered, and so on?
Mary Rosenblum:  That’s essentially it, Dale. (I think I'm parsing your question correctly, tell me if I misread). It's all about 'what happens next'? Whether that is subtle -- one character snubs another -- or a car chase. It's very important on the character level, too. If your character is going to do something apparently unexpected at the climax, you are going to have to build to that moment, making the motivations for that 'unexpected' action clear enough to the reader so that the action itself seems plausible and not just the author's whim.
There are also stories where the tension rises quickly and doesn't drop for a long time (National Treasure, the Divinci Code etc)
Mary Rosenblum:  Yeah, you see that in thrillers David. Dramatic tension alone can take the place of depth of characterization and complexity of plot.  Pulp fiction was famous for car chase after shoot 'em up, from cover to cover.  Doesn’t mean the book or the writing is good, just means the author works at keeping the reader reading.
In novels aren’t periods of low action or tension necessary?
Mary Rosenblum:  Generally speaking yes, DLB.  You can desensitize readers to anything.  When it's nonstop car chases and fist fights, it just gets boring after awhile.  It's like the chainsaw horror movies. After the tenth chainsaw killing, the audience is giggling or yawning. Let's talk about structure. We're getting into that arena.  This is part of structure...contrasting tension. You have a light moment, a bit of humor.  When things blow up in the next scene, it's much stronger than if your characters had been running and fighting the whole time. Structure isn't usually intentional or even something you're aware of when you first start writing.  It takes some experience to learn to plan the structure of your story at the start so that your story will do what you want it to.  Often this is why some stories just don't work.  The structure may prevent you from making things happen the way they need to.  Let's look at a story where the climax requires one character to sacrifice herself for another, because of love. That's very romantic, but it's not going to seem particularly real to the readers unless that love is apparent and real enough that we understand why she did it.  BUT....say you have structured the novel so that the plot requires the two characters to be separated most of the time.  WE never see them together, we never SEE what the nature of the love is.  The character can think 'Oh, I love him more than life itself' but we should we believe her?  We don't see any evidence of that love in action, so to speak.  Here's where you really need to let us see what's going on here. The story needs to be structured so that we have a chance to see that love in action at some point.  So that her decision makes sense to us and we can really be moved by it. Then it's powerful.  It is a good idea to give some thought to key components at some point, either before you write or in the revision process.
Key components?
Mary Rosenblum:  What MUST the readers internalize?  That this young man is afraid of his father? That he loves this woman more than life?  That she hates her sister?  That the two brothers are bitter rivals?  The key components are the reasons...the main reasons...that your conflict and resolution happen.  They can be external reasons.  Why is the wizard out to destroy this kingdom? Why is the local sheriff out to destroy the local ne'er do well? Usually, you're going to structure your story so that these things are set up and revealed for the readers unconsciously. They'll make the story work, you'll do them.   We all right by 'what feels right' when we start. The more you learn about 'why' it feels right, the more you can make stories work every time.  We all start out writing some great stories, a lot of mediocre stories, and some really bad ones.
Let's bring in personal narrative here...memoir...before we run out of time. I see a lot of very FLAT memoir.  That's one of the things I work with a lot, with my personal narrative and memoir students. Yes, you're telling real stories, using real events, but you STILL need to develop dramatic arc. Or it's just a bunch of information.  If you're telling the story of the Thanksgiving dinner, decide what the 'climax' of the dinner was. What was the funniest, strangest, most aggravating, or silliest moment of the evening? Okay, that's the high point of your arc. Build to it.  You can't make up events, but you can use your writers tools -- word choices, pacing, tone -- to create that subtly rising tension. And then Aunt Gertrude rises to her feet, waving the gravy ladle, and delivers the lecture about whatever to Uncle Harry across the table and he throws the cranberry sauce at her...
Or he doesn't, but then the narrator tells us that this began the famous feud that was to last for the next 25 years and resulted in two tables at every Thanksgiving dinner thereafter.
So dramatic arc is the arch of rising tension that starts with the first sentence and builds to the climax, falling off at the end.  Structure is how you put your scenes together to tell your story -- what happens when. You're building a cottage or a mansion, but if the walls are crooked or you forget that central bearing wall, it's not very stable and might fall down. It's mostly a matter of beginning to understand what you're doing automatically when you tell a story, a real one or a fictional one. And then you can do it better.