6-ARC STORY STRUCTURE (character driven + pantser friendly) | with template 📝

hey guys it's Shaylin and I'm here today with another writing videos so today I wanted to talk about a plot structure that I have personally been using because I created it but it's not that complicated but it's been really working for me and I'm calling it the six Arc story structure even though this is just a little creation from my own brain and something that's been helping me I thought I was shared in case it helps you too because I think that what's unique about this plot structure is that it works really really well for Discovery writers or pantsers like myself um it's a plot structure that I think you can utilize really well and really easily even if you don't outline your work which I think is not unique to this plot structure but a lot of plot structures aren't really made with pantsing in mind which makes sense because those things seem a little counterintuitive so this is a plot structure that I just kind of created by accident because I basically realized that I've now used it just kind of intuitively for two books like I wasn't planning on using this pod structure because it didn't exist prior I've just written two books holding a ghost in the book I'm currently drafting consult birds and I realized both of them fit this same structure it's been really really helping me I think as a little tip to begin this video in your own writing I think a really great thing to do as you start to complete and revise novels is to reverse engineer plot structures from your own books because that can give you an idea of how your brain intuitively and naturally structures a book you can start to make your own plot structures by reverse engineering them from your own work so the idea with this plot structure is essentially that your book is split up into six different arcs each one is fairly compact so I personally prefer it to something like a 3X structure because as a pantser the 3x structure is very broad there's like so much room to wander through the 3x structure whereas with six acts where I call them six arcs with six arcs it's a lot more Compact and you can basically just start writing the first Arc and I mean if assuming you're Discovery writing you can also just plan this out in advance if you wanted to do this for an online but if your Discovery writing you can just start with the First Act and even if you don't really know exactly what's going to happen or exactly where it's going to go you have this clear objective for the first Arc and then when you're done that you know you have a clear objective for the second Arc so this plot structure isn't built around plot beats it's built around plot arcs so there aren't necessarily specific Beats at specific points it's more this section of the book focuses on this and so within that you have a lot of structural freedom because the arcs themselves aren't really divided up into specific beats so personally I find it's really helpful as a discover grader because I can have a general idea for what each Arc of my book is going to be and the arcs are fairly short and fairly Compact and so I think that that really helps with the pacing so it doesn't get too Meandering and everything kind of stays on point and you know that at these points you're going to have kind of a narrative shift and the plot will continue to develop and move and you won't get like stuck for too long on the same notes of the the story as a discovery writer I don't have to think about getting a specific beat in the story at a specific point because that's kind of hard to do and doesn't really fit how I personally like to see structure like to see structuring my books as a form of internal structure so I think of external structure as something like save the cat right it's an external structure that you're bringing into your book and trying to fit your book to that and that kind of structure it works for some people but it doesn't work for me or the type of work I write so I use what I call internal structure which is the idea that your book has its own internal structure that is specific to your book and I think of it less as specific beats that need to be hit but more a rhythm or a pattern this is how structure works in my book this is how pacing Works in my book this is that chapters work in my book scenes work in my book and if you understand those pieces they can fit together so this is kind of a form of well now I'm making it an external structure but it began it began as an internal structure it's like a pattern rather than necessarily beats that you have to hit because it's like this is what each Arc does and understanding the motion that the book has this this entire plot structure is built around how relationships develop so it is specifically I think most helpful for a very character and relationship driven plots which is what I write I don't write very plot driven work so that's why my plot structure is very relationship driven and it is based on the movement of characters and relationships so I just quickly wanted to mention that I've actually made a Google doc that covers all the information from this video actually goes into more detail and stuff I didn't have time to go into in this video so if you want to reference this as like an outline template even it breaks down the six parts and what each one should accomplish which I'm about to go to go into in this video and then it also kind of just defines a bunch of vocabulary of all the elements relating to the structure that you might want to consider kind of just defining those things what I mean by those things in relationship to this structure and kind of how I'm specifically using those terms in this case and then it also goes into some tips that I didn't have time to go to in this video if you want to reference anything from this video or if you want to learn more about the structure if you're interested in trying it yourself then that document is just Linked In the description part one is the introductory part and the main question here is who is this character and the main focus of this Arc is figuring out and understanding who our protagonist is we want to understand and establish why we're following this person why this is someone that we want to spend an entire book reading about we want to see why is this person interesting and why is this someone that we've never seen before what does this character want what do they yearn for what is the source of their loneliness the one plot beat that you want to make sure happens here is the inciting incident where in this Arc is really going to depend on your book personally I prefer to have fairly early inciting incidents but that also doesn't always work for a book it really does depend on the book sometimes you need more context for an inside incident so that's up to you it should be in this part of the book so we've been introduced to a character and we have a sense of who they are and why they have a sense of loneliness or you know something tangible that can be felt there and the inciting incident creates narrative movement that will allow us to explore these characters desires and yearning and showcase why they're so interesting the inciting incident is kind of the beginning of an opportunity to explore and develop and peek into the most interesting compelling aspect of this character so they may have had these qualities these desires these yearnings beforehand but now they're in a like tangible situation where they're going to be tested and changed and revealed I like to think of part one as a bit selfish the scope is fairly small and tight in on our main character we might introduce other characters but it's fairly tight in the focus the focus isn't really on other people yet the focus is really on this character and why are we paying attention to them and really getting a sense of who they are I think that a really developed intriguing unique protagonist is one of the most important qualities in a book for me I really want to feel like I'm about someone I've never read before and so that's why in this plot structure the First Act of the book is really focused on the protagonist before we start to expand the scope to other relationships in part two we set in motion the main relationships so some other characters and relationships will be introduced in part one but I view part one as quite protagonist Centric so we're seeing the character in their world in their mind and now we're gonna start bringing in other relationships to complicate that and bringing in these other relationships will test them and kind of start like picking away at their psychologies every relationship introduced here should be a driving force of tension so each relationship that you introduce should complicate and expand upon the tension in the novel if a relationship doesn't provide added tension it's probably not really a key relationship to the book maybe it doesn't need to be there or just doesn't need to be given that much time on the page the key here if you're introducing multiple relationships is that each one should provide a different way of looking at the protagonist and reveal something about the protagonist that the other relationships couldn't so you might introduce a few key relationships and I do usually view a book as having one core relationship but you know there's probably several relationships in a book the whole focus of the second Arc is introducing and setting in motion these relationships each one should serve a different purpose in revealing your protagonist and exploring different facets of them part three is complicate the main relationships so we've introduced the main relationships and we've set them in motion now it's time to complicate them so the relationships themselves will complicate each interaction between the characters should raise the stakes as well as create a tangible change in development in their Dynamic you don't want to be repeating the purpose of a scene or a beat so each time the characters interact it should develop the relationship in a way that is unique to that scene the next scene between these characters should develop it further like we shouldn't be having multiple scenes that develop the relationship in the same way each scene should create a tangible step forward in the relationship even if it's quite subtle if your Discovery writing that can really be your goal you might not know the exact scenes that will happen but just get these characters to interact and each time they're interacting ask yourself how is the relationship changing in a way that no prior scene has changed it before and that's a good way to keep up continual Forward Motion continual development even if you haven't planned the scenes I find it essentially impossible to outline this type of Novel where it's just about like subtle character relationship developments because how do you really plan for that it almost I personally feel for me has to happen organically so with this type of structure you kind of can just allow I find that organicness to happen and um then you just have these like gen quite General markers you know throughout the book you have these like six distinct arcs and within that you're kind of free to just play around and develop the relationships as they develop and kind of let that organicness emerge the relationships should also complicate each other as well as complicating themselves so while the relationships do complicate themselves they should also start to complicate and Tangle each other via how they're complicating the main character right like even if these care even if these different characters don't meet there's that intersection point where they do you all meet which is your main character part four is kind of a similar idea as part three so the idea with part four is to complicate the key relationships but in a shifted Direction there should be probably at the end of part three and this isn't a necessary thing this could I think manifest differently depending on your book there should be somewhat of a turning point at each the end of each part like it could be quite subtle but the end of part three should Mark a bit of a turning point that shifts the direction of the relationships so this is a noticeable tangible shift in the relationships and the direction in which they're developing it could be fairly obvious for example characters who previously disliked each other now like each other or characters who previously liked each other now just like each other or it could be you know shift in the nature of the relationship a friendship is now you know developing into a romance or it could just be a shift in the characters you've used towards each other's their intentions and goals and desires infused towards the other that create a noticeable change in the direction of this relationship there needs to be a really a clear shift in development in these relationships or else this section of the book will really drag because then part three and part four will kind of just blend into one long part without any feeling of clear development so I do think part three really should Mark a clear turning point in the relationships and there should be a noticeable difference in these relationships and how they're interacting and how they're complicating really keeps you make sure the tension is continually building here throughout the middle of the book can be easy for the tension to start to dissipate so it's really important to keep up the tension and you know keep each interaction between these characters building the tension you don't want that shift to be one that decreases the tension but rather one that increases the tension part five is the turning point and culmination of the main relationships so this is where whatever potential energy these relationships have is acted upon whatever the question of these relationships is specifically the main relationship whatever has been building towards it's going to be actualized this could happen throughout part five it could happen at the end it really does depend and I think there's a lot of flexibility here and it just depends on the structure of your book The culmination of these relationships may not be exactly what was expected or it could be what was expected but there should be some sense of combination there should be some sense of actualization we've been dealing with potential energy building for a long time through Parts three and four so this is really where we get payoff for these relationships so then this leads to part six which I'm just calling Fallout consequence conclusion so whatever that actualization of those relationships was is going to lead to consequences and this is where we're going to see those consequences playing out we see tangible emotional Fallout for the characters this is also where we really want to see threads meeting and being tied off as it is the last part of the book you do want to be tying off threads and when possible tying off threads by bringing them together rather than just tying them off individually especially because we've been dealing with this like web of interconnected relationships it's really satisfying if they can be tied off in a way where it does all feel connected rather than just having these distinct threads that didn't really have any magnetism between each other this is also where core questions about the character are answered a lot of the time I think the actualization of those relationships provides the avenue to now answer core questions about the character so we got questions answered about the relationships in part five and that's going to allow us to now see some kind of Truth be revealed about these characters based on the choices that they have made within those relationships and and the consequences you know those choices and their consequences are really allowing us to kind of have that final reveal of these characters and what we want to say about them and what's most interesting about them and what has changed about them in part six I think we return a bit to that protagonist-centric view from part one in a lot of cases we had the culmination of the relationships in part five so the middle of the book was very relationship Centric but now we're asking ourselves what does that say about the character the relationships have met their potential so how is that going to lead to a reveal or unpacking or extraction of this character obviously relationships might continue to develop you know you're having the consequences of the actualization so that can still lead to changes and shifts in the relationship but I think now we really return to those questions we had about the protagonist they were posed at the very beginning we were shown an interesting person and so now we want to really see the true almost like thesis to why we've been following this character the whole time so that's my overview of the different parts each part is fairly flexible and I do think it's with any plot structure the most important thing is always to listen to your story what your story wants the main distinctive quality of this plot structure is the six distinct parts and the general focus of each part so introduction to the character introductions to the relationships relationships develop relationships develop in a shifted Direction relationships meet their potential followed consequences concluded within each part it's very flexible and it really depends on you and your story and your characters and I like that in a plot structure I like a lot of freedom because I'm not going to sit down and pull out of my book beforehand I want something that I can kind of just explore as I write and see what develops but still feel like I have a general structure to keep me on track each part I personally think should be between 10 and 15 000 words if not less and I am ballparking here because word count depends a lot on the style of your book and your writing style and there's a lot of factors but personally for me that's what I aim for I think that if the parts are starting to get much longer than 15K you should add an extra part rather than letting the parts get too long I think that 15 000 words for most authors should be enough to unpack one of these arcs on the page I think that if it starts to get longer it starts to drag because there hasn't been a distinct shift or distinct turning point for too long and I think the novel can start to feel bloated so I think that if you're writing a longer book you probably want to add a seventh part it would probably be a continuation of parts of part four so you would have part four relationships develop in a shifted Direction part five relationships developing another shifted Direction however if each part is 15 000 words then your book is ninety thousand and I think for this type of plot that this structure is built towards which is a character in relationship driven plot that probably has a fairly tight scope in most cases you don't really need a longer book anyways if you have a longer book you're probably dealing with a more epic scope and this structure may not be the right fit anyways however for a much shorter book I think the same thing could apply for a shorter book each part could just be shorter they could be 10K each or even shorter 7K if you're dealing with a novella or you could cut apart I think that if you're writing a shorter book you could cut part four so you would just introduce the character introduce the relationships set the relationships in motion culminate the relationships explore the consequences um so part three and part four would just be one part I wanted to just quickly run through what type of book I think this structure works for which versus doesn't work for keeping in mind that I only have two case studies for this so I'm sure that there are other ways that this could be applied but personally based on the way that I'm thinking about the structure this is what I think it would be well suited to versus novel so to do I think this structure would work best for character and relationship driven plots obviously since that's what the whole focus of the structure is around how relationships develop and reveal characters single narrator books maybe you could do it with a dual narrator if the two narrators were the core relationship but I really don't think this structure is very well suited to a multi-pop novel and also books that are less than 90 000 words I don't think it works well for plot-driven work because it doesn't really give you many plot markers it's not really about plot it's about relationship as plot if your book isn't really relationship or character driven and it's more plot driven so the relationships and the development of the relationships aren't the driving force of the story I don't think that this structure really works I still think you could use a six Arc structure but you might have to change what each of those arcs mean in relation to your book which is also something you could totally do six arcs for me as a discover writer and just a writer in general is easier than three acts because it gives you more distinct parts and just keeps you a little more on track which I like but you could totally just use the same idea of six arcs and just change what each Arc needs I don't think it really works that well for books over 90 000 words like I like out um I did talk about there's maybe a way to work around that like adding a part but I do think that this is meant more for books that are on the shorter end and even 90 000 words feels long for a book of this structure so that's my chess engineering Applause structure from your own work especially once you start to complete work and like revise it is really helpful this structure first occurred my novel holding a ghost as I was writing it because it was in these shorter Parts I found that really really helpful for me so I started doing it again in my novel Salters I started to then notice this similar pattern of what each Arc was doing as I started to figure out what my overall Arc for saltbirds was going to be and I kind of realized oh this is kind of the same plot structure and I've kind of used it twice so I think that if you don't really like any existing plus structures it might just be because there isn't one you've found yet that is right for you and so I think it helps to just make your own so this is the one that I made years ago I actually did reverse engineer Applause structure from honey vinegar which was actually a lot more specific like it had like specific plot beats but I never shared it because it was so specific to Honey vinegar that I felt like it essentially spoiled the plot and I also don't know if I would ever use it again because it just felt so specific to that book so anyways guys that's all for this video thank you so much for watching and also see you in another writing video bye [Music]

Channel: ShaelinWrites

Views: 34,825

Keywords: writer, writing, author, novelist, creative writing, writetube, writetuber, writing advice, how to write a book, how to write a novel, writing vlog, creative writing degree, books, nanowrimo, authortube, writing tip, plot structure, story structure, how to plot a book, how to structure a book

Id: foxHoS1BrzY

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023