6 emotional arcs in storytelling?

[Brian G Turner]

The BBC reports on a study which highlighted 6 main emotional development arcs in major films over the past 80 years: The emotions that make a film a hit... or a miss

The six main emotional arcs identified were:

• Rags to riches: a continuing emotional rise (eg The Shawshank Redemption, Groundhog Day, The Nightmare Before Christmas)
• Riches to rags: a continuing emotional fall (eg Psycho, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Toy Story 3)
• Man in a hole: a fall followed by a rise (eg The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Sixth Sense)
• Icarus: A rise followed by a fall (eg On the Waterfront, Mary Poppins, A Very Long Engagement)
• Cinderella: "rise-fall-rise" (eg Rushmore, Babe, Spider-Man 2)
• Oedipus: "fall-rise-fall" (All About My Mother, As Good as It Gets, The Little Mermaid)

 

[Joshua Jones]

The BBC reports on a study which highlighted 6 main emotional development arcs in major films over the past 80 years: The emotions that make a film a hit... or a miss

The six main emotional arcs identified were:

• Rags to riches: a continuing emotional rise (eg The Shawshank Redemption, Groundhog Day, The Nightmare Before Christmas)
• Riches to rags: a continuing emotional fall (eg Psycho, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Toy Story 3)
• Man in a hole: a fall followed by a rise (eg The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Sixth Sense)
• Icarus: A rise followed by a fall (eg On the Waterfront, Mary Poppins, A Very Long Engagement)
• Cinderella: "rise-fall-rise" (eg Rushmore, Babe, Spider-Man 2)
• Oedipus: "fall-rise-fall" (All About My Mother, As Good as It Gets, The Little Mermaid)

I mean, apart from arbitrarily increasing the number of rises and falls, I'm not sure there are any other possibilities if you narrow it down to emotions simply being positive or negative... but I think the picture is more complex than that. I mean, what about costly gains, or readers feeling differently than the protagonist (anti-heros)?

 

[Luiglin]

I understand this is a more serious thread but can't help but add the below.

It's a flowchart of b movie sci-fi plots.

 

[Writersmirror]

And what about "The Quest"?

 

[Luiglin]

And what about "The Quest"?

It got lost

 

[Cathbad]

Oh... I thought you were gonna talk about the author's emotional arc.

Excited to start the story --> hate and anger at the opening --> crying over the struggle to get into the 'meat' of the story --> anxiety over which characters live/die --> self-doubt ("This is jut a piece of rubbish!!") --> pure disbelief you're finished -> so you start over.

 

[CTRandall]

And here I thought an emotional arc was that jolt of electricity that strikes you when you first realize you love someone.