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Dramatic Structure|The Dramatic ArcGood drama is built on conflict of some kind — an opposition of forces or desires that must be resolved by the end of the story. The conflict can be internal, involving emotional and psychological pressures, or it can be external, drawing the characters into tumultuous events. These themes are presented to the reader in a narrative arc that looks roughly like this: 
Following the ArcAlthough any story may have a series of rising and falling levels of intensity, in general the opening should set in motion the events which will generate an emotional high toward the middle or end of the story. Then, regardless of whether the ending is happy, sad, bittersweet, or despairing, the resolution eases the reader down from those heights and establishes some sense of closure. Reaching the climax too soon undermines the dramatic impact of the remaining portion of the story, whereas reaching it too late rushes the ending and creates a jarringly abrupt end to events. For convenience sake, I'll take a familiar story — third season's "Bitter Suite" — as my example during the following discussion. This will be an examination of the storyline from a *writing* perspective, not an evaluation of the episode as visual or musical drama. |
