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How to Set Up Your Story Arcs When You Are Writing Serial Fictions Online

ameron-werschrux

September 11, 2024
7 min read

Hello again everyone! It’s me, Ameron, and I’m back for more! If you managed to prepared your storyline from the previous article, then great! If you haven’t, be sure to check out my article on storyline, plot, and characters.

Now, this article is going to focus on story arcs. What are arcs? Well, arcs are the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, video games, and films with each episode following a dramatic arc. (And yes, I googled that so you didn’t have to.)

Take head, this is my formula for creating a story arc, and you can choose to revise it in your own way. Outlined in this article is simply a hypothetical structure. With that said and done, let’s dive into it.

The First Arc – Introductions of the Characters

The first arc of the story, naturally, is where the story begins. In the first arc, readers are introduced to a vast array of characters that, as stated from my last article, should be lovable or memorable. However, limit the amount of characters introduced. It’s best to stick with 2-3 characters in a single episode and flesh them out for a few episodes while slowly adding one character at a time.

The first arc is also going to be perfect to prepare foreshadowing of important details you as a writer will show later on. It’s important you do this, since the readers will not know what’s going on and how your story will go.

Overall, your first art is the setting up and introduction phase. There is nothing too much else to be said here except prepare, introduce, and flesh out the characters.

The Second Arc – Beginning of Minor Conflicts

In the second arc, things start to heat up here. One or more of the set-ups you prepared in the first arc will come into play. Typically this means that there will be things that create problems for the main cast and their surroundings. In these types of story arcs, most writers should use this chance to further explore their personalities in face of trouble. In the second arc you should try not to kill any characters… yet 😈. Why? Well because this arc is the time to give any characters of importance more loveable traits so when a conflict like their death approaches, the audience will be gripping the pages, eager for more!

The Third Arc – My Infamous Technique

This is where I catch most of my readers off-guard, I call it my infamous technique, and it’s apparent in my novels. This might possibly be a me-thing only, but I will still relay it to all of you, regardless. What I do in this arc, is to use many of the set-ups created and… perform a tragedy. Kill a character or more, and don’t be soft about it… make it gruesome. Show them a face of reality they have never seen before in their normal every day life and how powerless they would be to overcome it. Like the unbeatable first boss of a game. You can introduce a major villain here to showcase their power gap. The tragedy will force the main character to grow up. You can interchange this with a world-building arc, but the reason I perform this type of arc is because it gives thrill to the readers, not only that, it gives a sense of danger and urgency; a world-building arc is a slow grinder and it would take a bit of time for the reader to get hooked. This is just my opinion though, but see to it if it’s within your type of story-telling.

The Fourth Arc – Redemption

Simply said, your cast will suffer from the aftereffects of the tragedy. This is the perfect time to provide the main character a goal to follow through and expand their personality for one more time.

The Fifth Arc – World Exploration

Once you have elaborated the personality of the main character, you may proceed to provide the history of the world they live in. Nothing much to say other than… well, of course… world-building. Bring some weak villains to grind through for the cast to gain power. People need some fights here and there. Or… some minor conflicts if your novel isn’t an action novel.

The Sixth Arc or More – Progression

This is where the story begins to dive in deeper. It may take one arc or more depending on your style. The farther you go through your novel it becomes a mix of the techniques, world-building, large conflicts, and character development. As you noticed, I begin to have less and less of a say, because as your stories progressed, you may as well have already branched off or may know what to do with the story. All in all, aside from those developments that happen above, more of the mysteries of the world begin to uncover. The fights progressively get tougher, the mysteries either get more hints about them or get more complex, and the characters’ bonds either get stronger or weaker as more conflicts pass their way. Also, no definite number of arcs are measured from this point on.

The Different Focus Arcs (Optional)

Since you have pretty much developed your cast to a certain extent, it’s possible for you to add another protagonist, if its a lengthy story, a side character, or just focus on the villains for a change, since this provides a different view and a different way of thinking. You may show how different they are from the protagonist of from the main cast and possibly set-up encounters in the future. I won’t connect this type of arc to the other incoming ones, since this is simply optional.

Tragedy Number Two Arc

So, your cast has gone through a lot, defeated a lot of the enemies and uncovered a lot of the mysteries. But, are they truly powerful enough? This is where they stop having even matches and regain that feeling of danger and wariness. A confrontation with a major villain may occur here. They will feel once more the pain of loss and that they still haven’t reached their goal.

More Grinding Arcs

This may be a repeat of The Sixth Arc or More – Progression. The only difference may be that they will finally solve the final mysteries of the world and get strong enough to fight the main antagonist.

Confrontation with the Antagonist Arc

Well, here we are, this is where we finally confront the main antagonist after all that grinding. Emotions here and there. You can choose to kill or spare the main antagonist based on their antics. Your stories have already diverged pretty far at this point. This is usually where the main story ends.

More to the World Arcs

However, if you choose that it is not the end. This is where you show another part of the world that hasn’t been explored well yet. You can keep expanding the world, prepare the twists, and set another antagonist for this side of the world.

Repeat of the World-Building, Grinding, and Mystery Solving Arcs

I’d be surprised if you hadn’t figured out the formula of your story by this point. You basically do the world-building, grinding, and mystery solving again for the cast as they explore another side of the world they live in. Any future arcs will follow through a repeat similar to what you did in the past or maybe you can even clarify details not explained well before.

That’s it for now! Sorry if it dragged out a bit, but I still do hope this article helped all of you out!

Now I sign off!