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A narrative arc is a necessary part of fiction and is often a key component of nonfiction, especially narrative nonfiction. The arc indicates that there is some sort of progression.

Emotional Progression. The most common sort of progression is for the emotions to build to a climax. If two characters are arguing, the intensity, complexity and depth of the argument grows over the course of the story. It is mad, madder, maddest. If it is a verbal argument, it spills over into physical actions.

Character Progression. Similar to the first is the progression of a character through stages of change. This could be a change from doubt to faith, or loyalty to betrayal. The direction of the change can be in any direction, from moral to immoral or vice versa. The main thing is that there isn’t a steady state for the character, but there is change.

Plot Progression. This is partly the time-line of the story, but plot progression also implies that the events included int he story are intertwined in some way that leads to a bigger event or an event that means more than the previous events.

For narrative nonfiction, there can be other sorts of progressions, which will mimic or replace the narrative arc. Fiction writers will want to pay attention to these, too, because within a story, there may be places where some information would benefit from strategic organization. For example, my first picture book, THE RIVER DRAGON, had a series of descriptions of a dragon’s voice. Here’s the progression I used in which the metal mentioned became more base and the sounds became louder: a voice like the clink of copper coins, voice like the gong of a brass cymbal, and voice like a hammer on an iron anvil.

Here are some other options for progressions.

Time-line. The life and times of a scientist, for example, may be enough of an arc for some articles or simple books.





Physical progressions. For some nonfiction, it may be enough to organize the information around some physical characteristic. Perhaps discuss birds in order of size starting with the tiniest hummingbird and progressing through condors and other large birds. Or, you may discuss birds beaks and organize on that basis.

Logical progression. Often narrative nonfiction attempts to logically explain some issue. Here, the organization revolves around the logic of arguments, that of laying out the basic thesis and then providing supporting information.

Spatial progressions. Little used, but often effective, is a spatial progression. Here, you may describe the countryside to the north, then east, south and west. The progression may go from a person’s hat to their shoes.

When we write and readers read, we are looking for meaning, for coherence and cohesion. We want the writing to make sense of events, rather than a random collection of facts. Even browsable nonfiction imposes some sort of organization on facts, by grouping elephants on one page and mice on another. Look for narrative arcs and progressions to help you create the strongest organization possible.

I’ve said it before: it is easy to write a great chapter, it’s hard to write a complete novel.

Good writing can get you through a chapter that shows interesting characters, local tension and a nice writing voice. But to write a great novel, you must envision the character across a wider canvas than a single chapter.

To do that, you can use several approaches.

The Crucial Story Arc

Plot. First, you might want to look at the 29 options for plots and the 9 ways of plotting to see if your story falls into one of them. There are hero’s quests, friendship stories and more. You care about these different plot paradigms because one of them will allow you to structure your story so that individual events add up to something more than just one incident. It prevents you from an episodic story, which adds up to nothing more than one episode after another. You could say that this is the outer plot.

Character. Second, character arcs are the inner plot, or the development and change a character undergoes because of the story’s events. Here, you care about the progression that happens to a character. They start out lonely, but find friends; they start out shy, but find a bit of daring; they start out__________ but become _____________.

One thing I have noticed about dealing with the larger issues in a novel is that you must think in general terms. A scene demonstrating that a character is lonely can take place in a million different ways–that’s good, of course, you want your story to be unique. But on the level of outlining, it must be general, no way around it, it’s the only way to discuss it. But it demands that you be able to generalize about the events, a logic ability that is difficult for some. And it matters how you generalize: does this event mean the character is lonely or does it mean they are scared of crowds?

Why does the interpretation of the scene matter? Strong plots match up the beginning and ending. What you set up in the opening scene is solved by the climax. If you are fuzzy about the opening and how you want it interpreted, then you can’t hit bull’s eye with the climax. It also means a more difficult time in developing a believable character arc, a series of scenes which inexorably force change in a character.

On this continuum of stories which we call novels, there is room for lots of variation for outer and inner story arcs. Some will be strong in one and not the other; some will be weak in both or strong in both. But writing a novel demands that you look at this structure. Anyone can write a great chapter.