Serial Structure for Fiction the ABC Way

Here’s how the serial structure works. You have three storylines, an A, B, and at least one C
storyline, or arc in each episode. I moved these arcs into my chapters in the complete book.

The A arc is a traditional structure with the central plot line going from the novel’s beginning
to its end. For instance, boy meets girl, girl hates boy, boy wins over girl, girl ditches boy, girl
realizes she loves boy, happily ever after.

The B and C arcs are traditional subplots, but with a twist in the miniseries formula.
The B story arc presents a problem to the hero or other character in one chapter. The
dilemma hangs at the end of the chapter, leaving the reader in suspense. With a tease that
carries over into the next chapter, where that story line is resolved. You recognize this from any
miniseries, of course. It’s a technique that goes all the way back to the chapter shows at the
Saturday matinee, made famous by Stephen King and Annie Wilkes in his novel, Misery.
Every Saturday, the little mini-drama chapter show before the main attraction would end with
the hero’s girlfriend wrapped in chains inside a car with the doors welded shut, the car flying
over the cliff, a literal cliffhanger. You had to come back next Saturday to find out how she got
out of her dire situation — and she always did, right?

The B story arc works the same way in a set of serial novels, enticing you to buy the next
installment. If you use this technique as a part of your internal structure in your own novel, it
invites the reader to turn the page to the next chapter and find out what happens.

In the Cstory line, a problem presents itself in a given chapter and gets resolved within the
chapter. You might have more than one such situation in a given chapter, or none at all.

For instance, you might carry a Bstory arc from one chapter into the next and resolve it. But
you invented such a great character in the course of that story segment that you don’t want to
write her out of the novel. So she crops up later in another Bstory line. And again, each time
with suspenseful teases. Before you know it, have what we call a subplot, don’t you?
The idea is not to over-complicate your ability to write a story. The idea is to simplify the way
you structure your novel from chapter to chapter by giving yourself options..

The A Story Arc carries over the course of the entire novel.
The B Subplot Arc structure carries over into the succeeding chapters.
One or more C Sub-Subplots Arcs can start and end within a chapter
Just use the ABC arcs to remind yourself to vary the incidents going on in your book.