Liz Falkner: Plot Structure and Character Arc

Friday, December 18, 2009

Plot Structure and Character Arc

Holiday Season! It's great, but yikes it's easy to get behind on a lot of stuff. Housework? What's that? LOL.

Interesting thing happened to me this week though. Finishing up a story and for some reason I kept feeling disconnected front the ending. I couldn't figure out why. I put it aside for a few days and still nothing.

So, I was listening to Michael Hauge's presentation of Uniting Plot Structure and Character Arc at the 2007 RWA conference while driving home. He was talking about the meshing of plot with the character arc. The realization hit me that the reason I was not connected to the ending was because there was a turning point that didn't jive with the arc of the character. Basically, I had a turning point in the wrong place in my story. I moved it around and the story was immediately stronger.

I think if I'd use a storyboard, I'd have spotted that sooner. I do intend to use the storyboard while plotting next time.

Happy Holidays!!

posted by Liz @ 8:57 PM

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