Four Steps To A Story

This isn’t your usual ‘how to write a story in X easy steps’ post, though. This is less about how to quickly sketch down a story you want to write, it is more about writing a story which will work out. We are going to explore the narrative arc and an unusual way in which it is also used.

The narrative arc, to start off with that, is the way a story is usually told: intro, exposition, rising action, and climax. Of course, you can break it up into more pieces and name them differently, but that’s how it goes.

Intro is the beginning, when the story introduces the main lead and, usually, the main problem. It allows the reader to get into the world and sets up the whole story.

Exposition is when the story takes the time to introduce everything around the main lead and the main problem, to deepen the reader’s understanding of the world. It’s usually a slower part and the real conflict has not yet started fully.

Rising Action comes as soon as the reader has enough understanding of the situation. Things get rolling, the main lead starts to act. Things go well, things to badly, but on the whole, there is progress.

Climax, finally, is when the protagonist (or main lead) and the antagonist crash in the big finale which decides how the story will end. The climax doesn’t always involve a fight, but it is the big scene or row of scenes where the problem is resolved (or the main lead fails finally, but that is much rarer).

Usually, the story is ended with a little decline from the climax, just a scene or a few showing how everything went back to normal or to a new normal. Closing time, something usually missing from short stories, where the end of the climax also means the end of the story.

Let’s have a look at it by applying those four parts to Star Wars (A New Hope, as it’s known today):

First the audience is introduced to the main problem, the Empire and the missing Death Star plans. Then they are introduced to Luke Skywalker as the main lead (the droids provide the connection between both parts of the introduction).

Exposition follows as Luke chases down R2D2, thus being away from the farm when it’s attacked by the Empire. Obi-Wan provides more exposition by giving Luke his father’s lightsaber and providing some background information (faulty, as it turns out) on his own past and that of Luke’s father. The exposition also includes the bar scene where Han and Chewie join the hero group.

This is the point where the action starts rising. Han shooting Greedo (yes, he totally shot first) is the start. Parallel to this, Alderaan is destroyed. But it’s once the Falcon has been pulled into the Death Star vehicle bay when things really start moving. Obi-Wan disappears to disengage the tractor beam. Luke finds out Leia is on the Death Star and wants to save her, taking Han and Chewie along. Leia joins the group, proving her worth right away. Things go up and down (into the prison block, being discovered, defeating the guards, finding Leia, ending up in the garbage chute) and the odds are rising. Obi-Wan’s death provides a black point, the moment of despair showing the main lead that backing out is no longer an option. The escape brings the Rebellion the plans to destroy the new weapon.

The climax, finally, is the battle against the Death Star, having to defeat it on a tight schedule (before it can target the Rebel base). This raises the odds once more and makes it clear that this battle will make or break the Rebellion (since all important leaders are in one place here).

After the battle, the medal award ceremony provides a little closing for the audience.

The climax doesn’t always have to be a fight. In a political thriller, the climax is when the intrigues spun throughout the story come to fruition. In a slice-of-life story, the main character’s change finally happens. In a romance story, the destined couple finally comes together and become a couple.

But what is the unusual way I hinted above? It’s … quests in RPGs, especially in computer RPGs (since the pen-and-paper variety always depends on the GM). A quest chain usually is made up of four types of quests which often follow the same sequence: Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate.

Explore is usually the first type of quest you get. It introduces you to the world of the game or to a new area you haven’t entered before. Explore quests usually send you around a lot. They allow for you to familiarize yourself with the area.

Expand is often the second type of quest you get. By telling you to deliver something to someone or to speak to someone or to get those X whatever-horrid-creature-bits-the-game-has-to-offer, you have to expand your knowledge of the area and of those within. You are sent around, talking to people, taking small jobs, delivering stuff, and fighting the regular enemies there.

Exploit will happen as soon as you have expanded your knowledge of the area. You have learned who will pay for what, how to craft things with the specific resources of the area, which monster brings most experience or leaves the best loot. By giving you jobs which demand you use that knowledge, the game forces you to use all that knowledge extensively.

Exterminate, finally, sends you out against the big bad (of the game or the area). You might have to go into a dungeon and fight your way to the very last room or you might be sent out to kill a specific, very dangerous monster somewhere on the map. By using the knowledge and the skills you have developed during the quest chain, you can manage this final mission and end the quest chain. If it happens to be the main quest, that will end the game, in other cases, you will get a lot of rewards and be better prepared for what lies ahead.

If you really look at those four types, you will see the same things as with the narrative arc: first the introduction, then the expansion of the knowledge, then the use of the knowledge (which leads to rising action in a story), and afterwards the climax where the evil is exterminated (or, less martially, the problem is solved).

The real reason for this is that the narrative arc is how stories work. You need to establish the plot of the story (and, please, stick to it afterwards). You need to give the reader all information on the situation and the main characters. You need to get everything going, give the reader the fun, action, and thrills they came for. You need to end the story with a bang, resolving the plot. And that is precisely what those four parts of the arc stand for. The closing scenes in the end are optional, but a standard for longer stories. And since quests are the way to tell a story in an RPG, the quest types follow the same line.