NARRATION

Narrative arc is a term that describes a story's full progression. It visually evokes the idea that every story has a relatively calm beginning, a middle where tension, character conflict, and narrative momentum builds to a peak, and an end where the conflict is resolved.

What’s the difference between a narrative arc and a plot?

While the plot is comprised of the individual events that make up your story, your story arc is the sequence of those events. Imagine every event as a plot summarized on notecards: the entire stack of cards is your plot, but the order in which you lay them out is your story arc. 

If the plot is the skeleton of your story, the narrative arc is the spine. It’s the central through-line marking the plot’s progress from beginning to end.

How about the character arc?

The narrative arc is to the story what the character arc is to a character. It involves the plot on a grand scale, and a character arc charts the inner journey of a character over the course of the plot.

Another straightforward distinction: while the story arc is external, the character arc is internal, and each main (and sometimes secondary) character will go through an individual arc.

Still, narrative and character arcs are part of a symbiotic relationship. Each plot point in the story arc should bring your characters closer to, or further from, their goals and desires. The circumstances and conflicts your characters face are part of the arc, but the way characters meet challenges and change as a result is “character arc” territory.

doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities.

• Doctrine: the way they fight, e.g., emphasizing maneuver warfare combined air-ground campaigns.
• Organization: how they organize to fight; divisions, air wings, Marine-Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTFs), etc.
• Training: how they prepare to fight tactically; basic training to advanced individual training, various types of unit training, joint exercises, etc.
• Materiel: all the “stuff” necessary to equip our forces that DOES NOT require a new development effort; How to curbslide
• Leadership and education: how they prepare their leaders to lead the fight from squad leader to general/admiral; professional development.
• Personnel: availability of qualified people for peacetime, wartime, and various contingency operations
• Facilities: platform and video game support (e.g. ONI Discord Server, Xbox Live Clubs, Website) that support the forces.