Writers: The World in Six Stories

Or, Abolishing the Greatest Cause of Writer’s Block

Photo by Matt Howard on Unsplash

‘Writer’s Block’ is an umbrella term much like ‘I’m sick’ is a vague admission of illness. And just as there are thousands of possible causes for feeling sick, so too are there a variety of reasons why a writer cannot pursue her craft.

I think most writers find themselves unproductive not for a lack of ideas but rather for how to best express them as memorable, meaningful narratives.

It’s not enough to devise a plot to challenge your protagonist, the key to their success must result from a symbiotic journey of emotional evolution.

What if you knew the secrets of emotional arcs in the narrative? Buckle up, boys and girls.

There are SIX Basic Emotional Arcs in Stories

Think about that. Virtually every story in human history — all of them — follows one of six emotional narrative shapes.

In 2016, Andrew J. Reagan of the University of Vermont and Lewis Mitchell of the University of Adelaide led a team of researchers who used artificial intelligence to analyze a huge sample of fiction titles in the Project Gutenberg collection.

I have included the link to the study at the end of this article.

I’m no data scientist, but I accept the validity of their conclusions and, what’s more, see how these emotional paths might help writers determine (or choose) an emotional arc for their protagonist to match the plot.

3 Pairs, Positive and Negative

Being data scientists, they have their own dialect, and name each pair of arc-types ‘modes.’

‘Mode 1’ arcs are simple and direct.

Image-based on the study, simplified by author

Rags to Riches: The character begins in a position of want, disadvantaged or oppressed. Through the narrative, their fight against adversity succeeds better than they imagined. This reflects emotional RISE.

Riches to Ruin: Also known as ‘Tragedy.’ The character is well-set as the story opens, but through his own actions eventually loses all he had. This is an emotional FALL.

‘Mode 2’ arcs introduce a reversal of emotional fate.

Image-based on a study, simplified by author

Man-in-a-Hole: The character starts out in a position of comfort, then loses it or has it taken from him, but manages to make a comeback. This emotional arc is FALL/RISE.

Icarus: The character begins in a disadvantaged state, then succeeds before suddenly failing. Icarus escaped his prison using wings he fashioned from feathers and wax. Though warned not to fly too close to the sun, he did. The wax melted, his wings collapsed and he fell to his death. This arc is RISE/FALL.

Mode 3 arcs have two reversals.

Image-based on a study, simplified by author

Cinderella: The character is oppressed, to begin with, then finds happiness or success of a kind, which she loses. Like the Mode 2 ‘Man-in-the-Hole,’ she is able to facilitate an even greater comeback. This is the RISE/FALL/RISE arc.

Oedipus: Initially in a favorable position, by his own action or mistake, the character falls. He succeeds in regaining what he lost, but learned nothing from the experience and loses a second time, to greater consequence.

Using These Modes

I see two strategies for implementing these emotional arcs.

1. Which arc best suits your protagonist's journey?
2. Spend some time considering each one and make a list of books or movies that follow that arc that you can use for reference. This exercise should spark your imagination.

Regardless of which path you choose, you should be able to defeat your writer’s block.

Below is a link to a printable .pdf file of the infographics in this article. Please help yourself:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpzjeqkzti17hjn/Six%20Emotional%20Arcs.pdf?dl=0

The link to the study:

https://cdanfort.w3.uvm.edu/research/2016-reagan-epj.pdf