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Narrative Arc Printout

The document discusses the narrative arc or Freytag's Pyramid, which is a model used to analyze the typical plot structure of a story. It breaks down the structure into exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

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Mairead Kelly
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65 views2 pages

Narrative Arc Printout

The document discusses the narrative arc or Freytag's Pyramid, which is a model used to analyze the typical plot structure of a story. It breaks down the structure into exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Uploaded by

Mairead Kelly
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Narrative Arc

Also known as Freytag’s Pyramid

cmpfr.com
Exposition
The exposition is where we share just enough information to get our story started. We want to give
our audience a sense of people, place, and things important to getting our story started. Our
exposition should also help us set a version of what the world looks like before we dive into the
conflict and journey within our story.
Note: Exposition is where a good story goes to die. Know someone who gives 10 minutes of backstory
before telling you a 2-minute story? That person is a human version of this note. And if you are
thinking “I’m that person…” that’s OK! We all do that sometimes.

Inciting Incident
The inciting incident is when our story takes off. The inciting incident begins an era of change for
our characters, locations, and/or plots. The inciting incident is the signal we give to our audience
that the story has truly begun and there is conflict on the horizon.
Note: You can spot an inciting incident in the wild when you hear someone say a phrase like “Then
one day…”

Rising Action
The rising action plays multiple roles:
• It creates meaning in the story so your climax matters to your audience. These beats of your
story should sprinkle in a mixture of hope and despair, so the climax isn’t a foregone
conclusion. We need the audience to care about what’s happening and have some
uncertainty of where these moments will end.
• Characters grow and change. Places grow and change. The audience gets to see all of these
story pieces progress, and with that build a relationship with them.
Note: Feel free to spring some exposition into the rising action as its needed. Don’t feel like all
exposition has to live in that section of the story, rather think of it as “distributed exposition” and you
are adding in these backstories when they make the most sense.

Climax
The climax is the peak moment of our story. The climax is the closure of the conflict we highlighted
earlier in the inciting incident. It is the storytellers change to create an end cap to the struggle you
highlighted. This doesn’t mean all is settled but it does mean the conflict or change you’ve decided
to tell in this story is at least temporarily wrapped-up.

Falling Action
The falling action is the utility section of our story. The falling action is our space to clean up the
mess that we might have made during our story. In all stories there are questions that get raised
but don’t get answered. We don’t need to answer them in the story, but we can answer them in the
falling action. We do this so we have clear audience minds before we deliver our final message in
the resolution.

Resolution
The resolution is where we cash in on the work we’ve done throughout the story. We’ve led our
audience through the story and journey to get to this point. The resolution is where we deliver our
message. This is our moment to tell people why our story is important and what’s most important
for them to takeaway.

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