…if I hear the phrase “story arc” one more time!
Or “character arc.” Or any other reference to an arc as it might relate to writing.
An arc is a section of a circle. It’s a very simple beast. Any arc can be fully and completely described by naming three points anywhere along its length. On the other hand, given any three points, anywhere in space, there is one and only one arc that passes through them.
When you talk about the “story arc” or the “character arc,” you are talking about a completely predictable path. Sorry, but that’s not my story you’re reading, there. Not my character.
If your story, your plot, or your characters are moving in such concrete, inevitable, and predictable manners and paths that I can predict the whole thing,
then why am I going to finish your story?
