The story arc is the plot of your story. There are many different types of plots (The 8 Point Arc, The 3 Act Structure, The Snowflake Method) but basically, they all boil down to a combination of the diagram below and the seven basic plot types.
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| Taken from http://www.arghink.com/ |
1) Story Arc Worksheet
2) Plot Tree Worksheet
3) Novel Diagram Worksheet
Character Arc is just another name for the character's growth process between the beginning and end of the story. Writers throw all kinds of tough decisions at characters to show how they respond/decide at the beginning of the story versus at the end. Even if the character has "grown" into a worse person than they were at the start, they should have learned something from past decisions which makes them choose they way they do at the end.
I've compiled various character arc and character worksheets which I thought you might find useful:
1) Generalized Character Arc
2) Detailed Character Worksheet
3) Basic Character Worksheet
4) Hero's Journey
5) Character Arc and Character Worksheet all-in-one
6) Character Chart
Do you use Character and Story Arc worksheets for your novels? If not, how do you keep track of everything - I'd love to hear about new methods :)
Today is day 1 of the blogging from A-Z blogfest! And since this is a blogfest, don't forget to check out some of the other participating blogs to see what they've come up with.
