Story Arcs and Narrative Structure

While both are similar, they can also be very different. One event or scene in the story provides a peak for both a story arc and the narrative structure.

Story arcs are how emotions ebb and flow throughout the story, rising to a crescendo when emotions are high at the crisis point and flowing down as the crisis is resolved for the characters and the reader. Story arcs provide the why behind someone’s actions in the story. There should be about three arcs in a story, more if it is a longer chapter book. That is, three times the emotions generated by the characters are felt by the reader, rising to a peak before the final resolution. The narrative structure provides the events for the characters to feel emotions. Good writers can plot story arcs and narrative structures to provide excellent stories.

The narrative structure is the telling of the story – the events that happen. It’s about the how, who, and what. A writer can move their story on quickly using narrative structure to make things happen and provide the emotional story arc for the reader using other techniques, like an internal monologue remembering the event later in the story.