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The arc of a story points in one of two directions: upward, lifting your spirits as the characters struggle toward a particular goal, or downward, your spirits drawn into an abyss with the characters as they try to keep their footing while falling ever closer toward disaster.In Francine Prose’s After, a dark harbinger of the future, you can see this downward arc play out in the aftermath of a
Interesting distinction on up and down arcs. I've never thought of it that way before. Now that I have, though, I realize I tend to prefer books where the character is struggling up the cliff, starting at the bottom with everything gone wrong. I tend to like those better than books with a downward arc, where I often find myself frustrated with the character's lack of action, of control. Not that
Laura,Here's another distinction to think about in terms of upward vs downward arcs:in upward arcs (as you point out) the characters are responsible for the upward movement, and that's because their actions determine the direction of the arc. But in downward arcs--at least in After--the story's downward spin (and the characters' descent into the abyss) results from events imposed on the
Hi Bruce, Interesting distinction. And probably in the excellent books that employ downward arc, you're right about the characters not being passive! Passive characters are really my biggest pet peeve. I'm afraid I just want to slap them. They do not bring out my good side:>/P.S. I haven't read After yet, so none of this is a comment on that book!
Passive characters... they're a little like reluctant swimmers, don't you think? They'll stand on the side of the pool, never getting into the water. Or, if they make it into the pool, then they'll just stand there or tread water, never swimming anywhere. You're right. They're enough to make a reader close a book and jump into another one.