It’s been more than a year since we studied plot arcs and even then we didn’t grab the recordings and add them to our podcast service. So we’re reviving those conversations for a few weeks to get some good episodes for the podcast.

Missed a week of Write On SC? Nostalgic for those oldy-but-goody topics? Check out our podcast library on Apple, Google, and Amazon.

ProWritingAid’s take on this story arc conversation can be found here. But here are some notable highlights:

1. Stasis. This is the current situation you find your main character in.
2. Trigger. This is an inciting event that changes the course for your main character.
3. Quest. The trigger results in a quest for your main character to achieve a goal.
4. Surprise. These are complications that prevent your main character from achieving his goal.
5. Critical Choice. This is when your main character chooses what path to take and confronts the obstacles.
6. Climax. The critical choice results in the climax, the peak of tension in your story.
7. Reversal. Your character is changed in some way.
8. Resolution. The story ends with a satisfactory closure.

These are high-level plot points. The Save the Cat beat sheet is more detailed:

(15-beat structure of Save the Cat!)

1. Opening image – catapult your audience into the story
2. Theme stated – what is this story about?
3. Set-up – includes the “old” world or the regular world, how things are before the disruption; establish place, characters, and hint at conflict
4. Catalyst or inciting incident – disrupt the status quo, but protagonist isn’t in it quite yet
5. Debate – will they or won’t they? What’s at stake? Should the protagonist get in this fight?
6. Break into two – the clear choice between the protagonist’s options and the choice gets made
7. B story – whatever subplot you have planned should commence here
8. Fun and games – protagonist learns new tricks, advances in new skills, starts to figure stuff out
9. Midpoint – this may be a realization, may be a complication, may be the end of the escape hatch
10. Bad guys close in – something has happened that brings the danger closer
11. All is lost – the inevitable moment where the protagonist realizes this is just too hard (impossible!)
12. Dark night of the soul – protagonist has actually lost hope
13. Break into three – character claws around looking for options and trying to salvage the mission, possibly having to overcome some deep fear or damning belief
14. Finale – character synthesizes what they’ve learned and applies the solution to the problem
15. Final image – leave the reader/audience seeing/feeling the theme of the story

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