How to Write a Tragic Story
Understanding the difference between tragic and non-tragic story arcs.
I have a theory that one reason why stories are such an important part of the human experience (and have been, through time) is because they are so familiar.
There is a rhythm to them, and the human brain is wired to appreciate rhythm.
I read recently that music is stored in procedural memory — a part of the brain that remains intact for patients who have Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, even as their episodic memory is destroyed.
Maybe the rhythm of a story is story is stored there, too. I don’t know. What I do know is that human beings have storytellers (and consumers) for as long as there have been human beings. Longer than recorded history.
Stories have a rhythm that we call a story arc.
Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. The story starts, some things happen, the story ends.
I went out hunting today, a wooly…
