Your turn to write. I will hand you the setting and characters, and a short refresher on narrative arc.

Before you pick up your pencil, check on the important parts of beginning, middle, and ending and don’t forget to make use of sequencing words (first, so, then, next, after that, finally) ….at least that’s what I hear they teach in 2nd grade these days.

Setting: a garden, an enchanted wood with a white giant guardian of the path, a clearing and a mysterious pond with golden flowers.

Beginning: good for exposition: introduce the actors and the main conflict.

The heroine and her mother:

Middle: rising action can enhance the conflict – surprises, complications, challenges….eventually getting to the greatest tension, forcing a critical choice.

A magic flower and a magical pathway that narrows:

End: path towards resolution, implied change, punishment, reward. Or just a big gaping hole that leaves the reader wondering….

Alternatively, you can watch Kurt Vonnegut explain it with delicious wit.

*

Arcs have multiple and predictable directionality, as A.I. discovered by crunching through thousands of narratives, in case you hadn’t already figured it out yourselves during a life time of reading.

The Heroine’s friend and her mother and father

1. Rags to Riches (rise)

2. Riches to Rags (fall)

3. Man in a Hole (fall then rise)

4. Icarus (rise then fall)

Villains: A sneaky muskrat and a thief of the (golden)goose egg – loudly protested:

5. Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)

6. Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

Various supportive characters and sidekicks:

Compose! Just make it a happy ending – the little heroine fell out of her nest in my garden. She deserves the fledgling in a hole arc!

And here is a gorgeous operatic fairy tale: Strauss’ Frau ohne Schatten with English subtitles.