Story Arcs and Scenes

Q & A
#1

Perhaps someone has faced a similar problem and already has a solution.

I need an understanding of the meaning of a particular story arc in a particular scene.

I have scenes and I have story arcs. I’m tying them up. This is understandable. But when I look at the spreadsheet and see a list of story arches in a particular scene, I also want to see what exactly is a sign of the presence of this arch in the scene

That is how I’m doing now. I create a mindmap of each story arc and link a mindmap card with a description of an action and a scene. This method is not flexible enough, it is difficult to remove or move some positions.

Maybe there is an easier solution that I don’t see.

#2

I’m not sure what you want to achieve and I’m not familiar enough with AT3 to know the options.

But personally I wouldn’t gain much from seeing arcs in the spreadsheet view.
Other programs deal with this type of issue with a view that combines scenes with arcs. There’s a lot of flexibility in how they are used, but they are very visual; in Plottr, hover brings up the full description in the card. The most equivalent view in AT3 is the narrative, but I haven’t recognised the same functionality. It’s one of the reasons I don’t see myself using this view.
I suppose that, if you were using an actual spreadsheet, you could just add an extra column. Here you’re limited to the inspector where you could put a link to your mindmap card (I assume this would work, since you can link external files).

#3

I would filter by arch and could read all the iterations of the arch.

I can add an extra column in AT3, by addung extra field to the inspector.
But what if I have 6 story archs in the scene?

Previously, I created a field for each arch in the Scrivener and prescribed a value in it.
Perhaps it is worth doing so in AT3

I made story archs mindmaps in AT3. When i connect mindmap node and scene and story arch then the list of iterations appears in the inspector of the story arch.

#4

“I need an understanding of the meaning of a particular story arc in a particular scene.”

This characterises the bidirectional relationship. You can look at the story from two sides:

  • Which events belong to an arc?
  • To which arcs does an event belong?

"I create a mindmap of each story arc and link a mindmap card with a description of an action and a scene. This method is not flexible enough, it is difficult to remove or move some positions.

Maybe there is an easier solution that I don’t see."

My method of assigning an event to an arc is from Aeon 2 and also works with Aeon 3:

    • Create the arc in the main menu under Item.
    • Then you can assign any event to this arc in the Relationships tab of the Inspector.
#6

Oh, that is what I know and do.

I meant that each arch has a certain list of components (iterations) and I would like to see in the scene not only the name of the arch, but also how it appears.

#7

If the same components may exist in a number of arcs, you could use tags?

#8

" I would like to see in the scene not only the name of the arch, but also how it appears."

What exactly do you mean by “how it appears”?

Maybe it would help if you split the timeline view into stacked groups. To do this, click on the corresponding icon at the bottom left and tick the “Story Arc” checkbox in the “Group items in timeline” dialogue.
Then (as in Aeon 2) you have sorted the events on the timeline by story arcs. Events that are assigned to several arcs then appear in each group.

#9

Another option is to tick the “Story arc” box under “Choose columns” in the Relationship view. Here you can easily add new arcs and assign events.

#10

@Peter_T @Dormouse @ortgard
I’ll try to explain by example what I would like:

Scene 1 - “A happens to B” (Story arc 1)
Scene 1 - “C learns a terrible secret” (story arc 2)
Scene 1 - A Hurricane is approaching (story arc 3)

Scene 2 - “B turns to C for help” (Story arc 1)
Scene 2 - “C goes to an island to hide a secret” (Story arc 2)

That is, there can be several arches in one scene, and at the same time, in each of the scenes, each arch has its own unique meaning.

I know how to make it so that I can see in which scene which story arcs. How to make connections. But I do not know how to make sure that I also see the meaning of the story arc in each particular scene

Now I’m trying to do it with a mindmap, but it’s not very convenient.

I’m adding scenes to the timeline, not individual events.

#11

You could use the Notes column. Though that wouldn’t be an elegant solution.

#12

Yes, this is absolutely not the case. In this regard, the mindmap is more convenient. I link the mindmap card to the scene and the story arc and see the information I need in the inspector in the scene. But in spreadsheet and other types - it is not available.

#13

Presenting it exactly the way you describe is intrinsic to Plottr and other programs such as Jutoh 3, Writer’s Cafe etc. I’d see equivalent view in AT as being the Narrative, but what you describe isn’t apparent there either.
Maybe this eventuates in a feature request.

#14

“I’m adding scenes to the timeline, not individual events.”

I think I understand your problem now. Since the focus of Aeon Timeline is on events, I do the same and assign exactly one event to each scene. Then I find these “scenic” events in all views of Aeon in a central place and get the perfect overview of their relations to characters, locations, story arcs etc.
Maybe it would help to colour-code events that belong to scenes?

I have to say that my point of view comes from working with Aeon Timeline 2. For me, the narrative structure is only an addition that allows events to be sorted according to dramaturgical rather than chronological aspects.
I am currently writing a programme that will turn Aeon’s narrative structure into a synopsis for a word processor.

#15

It sounds interesting, but I didn’t really understand how it looks practically. Can I ask you to show a screenshot?

I was thinking of making child events to the scene.

Now I understand that it is more correct to plan timeline events. One event is associated with one arch, split them up. And then combine it into a story in the narrative.

#16

Hoping my screenshots will be displayed in the forum, I will show you with the example project “Wuthering Heights”.
In the outline view, I unfold all the scenes. Then I mark everything with Ctrl-A and select the colour red in the inspector.

outline
outline1105×662 55.8 KB

Now all events representing a scene are red. In the relationship view, you can now see by the colour which scenes belong to story arcs.

story_arcs
story_arcs730×857 38.3 KB

Cheers,
Peter

#17

I thought about it, but I didn’t understand the essence of the color designation.

But nevertheless, our reasoning led me to the fact that all these moments should be on the timeline or in the spreadsheet. This is the simplest and most logical thinking.

So I created an additional item and converted all my mindmap nodes.

That’s the beauty of using one program. I didn’t have to move anything anywhere, I highlighted and changed the view, created connections.