Screenwriting : Interesting question — What is the purpose of an Arc? by Sandeep Gupta

Nice one! The arc could be a composite parabola or zigzag of all the changes in value charges / personal fortunes / emotions and setbacks that represent the characters' paths through the story world and perhaps intersecting with the plot lines per se.

That's not a purpose as such but rather a perception I think.

The purpose though of contriving or constructing a character arc falls to us as the writers, and it is to represent a facsimile of real life that is condensed and cinematic and resonates with the characters' roles, growth in their journey, and dimensionality, i.e. we are building a fictional life for these characters so we want to pretend and represent that there is a "real"-seeming kind of flux and sense of changing fortunes, thus creating suspense that more things could go wrong or right.

That way, we and our readers / audience might actually care and pay attention.

Without an intentional arc being imparted through craft, the writer risks portraying a character's story line that just ends up being unrelatable, episodic, unsurprising, boring and irrelevant.

No one wants to ride a rollercoaster that only goes in a straight line. And no one can get excited about a story that lacks volumetric displacement.

Even in minimalist music of Philip Glass, there is intentionality. In Andy Warhol's film of the Empire State Building, similarly, there is almost no arc except for pigeons flying around, clouds blowing by, maybe that's enough but not many people watch that anymore, and it's arguably not a story.

So I would say, assuming intention and perhaps desire to entertain on the part of the writer, story arc and character arcs carry a purpose of relaying a journey that relates to the emotional changes of real life.

Since I see that you are an IT person, perhaps I could add, in the ways of object-oriented programming, being scalable, modular, granular, nested and hierarchical, the design of a story arc could relate to the user's path through navigating an application or IT construct, so as a programmer you might want to know that the user has available an active and multivariate set of pathways through the functional elements of the interface, and so in our story maybe that's an analogous kind of micro-journey?

So many vibrant visuals! Thank you. I don't remember reading the phrase "composite parabolas" anywhere — it is plain brilliant. I also like your making the arc's purpose malleable, from versimilitude, interest-technique, unity (non episodic), growth and even change in dimensionality. I hope this isn't a mic drop even though it seems such complete answer.

Daniel, I am laughing — you wouldn't believe this, yes I almost summarized the thanks for your take on arc in one line as making it a "first class object with intensional and extensional definitions" : ) then decided to summarize so I remember. Listen, I get all your OO references as valid and applicable, I noticed your change in dimensionality observation means a composite arc doesn't have to be only hierarchical.

This is what I hate about theory — just when I think I swam enough, there's a new stream back to the ocean.

An arc shows audience character growth or change in usually protagonist but can also be antagonist or both. Arc's can be major and life changing or something simple but a change must take place. The nemesis forces protagonist to face a crucible which brings about the change. Nemesis does not have to be another person or villain, it could be the system, the force of nature, or even monsters. In a rom com change could be minor such as a shy left footed guy who hates dancing suddenly grabs his girl for a tango. A more serious film could be a total reversal of prior values, personality and life style. Often in tragedy the protagonist does not arc, which in turn leads to their downfall.

Thanks Debbie! Yes, not only multiple arcs, clearly many forging forces to remember as well. I'd add to your last thought there, that unchanging characters are also as often for heroes and superheroes as changing characters are for declines and falls, right?

Daniel, re your second comment, would you care to elaborate on "multivariate set of pathways through the functional elements" and "micro-journey" maybe with an example?

@Sandeep Excellent point and true in some cases but usually protagonist arc is for change leading to triumph as is refusing to change leads to tragedy. EG The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke tragedy and Andy in Shawshank Redemption changes so much he baptises himself in river. Some films though as you point out character is in “stasis.” This is typical of old westerns where a stranger rides into town and leaves unchanged despite major conflicts but on his departure whole town has changed. Or in comedy Mr Bean is unchanged yet whole world has changed around him. Some characters are “an agent of change” albeit they never change themselves.

Wow Sandeep Gupta thank you, what an exciting interchange! I suppose this also has implications for transmedia / game design, mainly I am a screenwriter and I've been applying these OO structural ideas to my projects because it seems to work and obviously a database approach helps one keep track of a great deal of story information.

I think with that second comment, re: "multivariate set of pathways through the functional elements of the interface" and "micro-journey" I'm saying that as a programmer you would "guide" your user along functional and diverse sets of actions and interactions in an application, and with your authority and responsibilities there I see it comparable to the screenwriter's way of trying to shepherd our viewer/reader through an intersubjective transference - composed of many small journeys if you will, such as an emotional sequence, obligatory familiar segments such as character intros and montage training sequences, on and on throughout the cinema story;

to me the two relationships ... programmer / user and writer / reader ... carry many wonderful similarities, and visiting with these ideas helps me devote myself to what I consider an immense responsibility in my art forms.

I must thank you for so generously activating my mind on these topics and creating a forum for me to wax loquacious in such a way, Thank You and I look forward to discussing these perhaps esoteric approaches with you further!

Hope one can transcendence into something better...sometimes worse...otherwise not so much crucial point when creating protagonist...

To arc or not to arc, that is the question.

There will be a change in state for character. They die, they get rich etc. But and arc normally means that there was a change to them as a person. They learn something about themselves which brings about a change in them. This normally done in a “story arc”.

I am not much of a arc person. I don’t know people that have changed that much. I believe in a change in state. I give a character a belief, they punishing them for that belief. I give them opportunities to make a smart choice. But they don’t. Safety is right there, if only they could grow (if only they had an arc). But tragedy strikes and they go down with the ship.

A story is a life lesson that uses the protagonist as a proxy to teach the audience. They rely on a thesis and an anti-thesis. No arc, no change, no lesson.

Sandeep, I've been finding out that in my own scripts, my secondary characters are more likely to go through arcs than are my major characters...my main characters are more likely to teach each story's lesson(s) than to be the students.

If you've seen "Breaking Bad" Cranston's character, Walter White, is a classic example of backward arc meaning instead of empowerment and positive change, he gets darker as the series moves forward. Gotta love Vince Gilligan..brilliant!

So many perspectives on arcs — I hope this continues. Most of these do not overlap what I had read in the reddit exchange, and it is clear to me we all construct our own remarkable meanings and vocabulary ( @Jonathan Kramer's 'backward arc' has a slightly different semantic if you think about it from his choice of the word)

For each of us it seems to come with the storyworld we live in or register. @JimBoston , @CJWalley thanks — you both have a completely different take.

I think James Bonnet uses an expression "entity under transformation," hinting at this.

@Craig and @Kiril, you seem to have the same priority for arcs but different than Jim and Jonathan for whom it is the summum bonum.

Question, Debbie Croysdale why is it mostly only boys are talking about it? I am trying to think if other than Dara Marks any women screenwriting author even mentions the word arc, even though most I know of have a strong transformations each, in their models.

Daniel, you are welcome, and thank you for firing up so many ideas, I seriously hope it doesn't stay esoterica — so far when I am writing, even far less esoteric theory has to leave me alone and entertain itself somewhere else. I dearly hope it returns to help when I review my work! You are right,.abstractions from other fields help. E.g., it is possible to think of Billy Mernit's romance beat set in terms chemistry, i.e., interaction of ionized rings of a pair of atoms.

This is where my beardy bro CJ and I differ. I am a window in time story teller. I don’t teach lessons (often).

Thanks Dan, it also invokes a different construction technique than the term "negative arc."

Michael Hauge recently posted an article on transformations¹ with SIX transformations that can be in each story, viz., protagonist's (outer, inner), characters' around them, audience's, impact, and lastly that of the author.

Means five potential arcs, and purposes. Any thoughts?

Screenplays look deceptively simple ... when done.

¹ https://www.storymastery.com/writing-fundamentals/story-essentials-9-tra...

Yes, interesting, sometimes side characters "arc" often in westerns where stranger comes to town and everyone changes but they ride out the same. Or duo scenes like in Pulp Fiction where Jules and Vincent are in a gang shoot out, a bullet narrowly misses and suddenly Jules "Sees God" and converts to reversal arc. John Truby has a masterclass whereby Antagonist AND Protagonist arc together at a pivotal moment called "Double Reversal." Probably some writers also arc but we won't see this. Audience too should be made to feel at least an attitude shift and maybe even a deep organic "journey" of their own. Don't forget too, visual art can come into play with props and makeup artists to show a mind shift, off course shift in dialogue also has to accompany. This is the same girl who has character arcs in upcoming Transmedia The Smooze.

Thanks for the examples Debbie Croysdale , and for the double reversal concept. Right, visual, while a consequence is an important consideration.

@RobertClark — thanks, succinct and easy to remember.