Fichtean curve
Start in trouble and never let up. One crisis after another, climbing to the climax.
Use it with your book's length
How it works
The Fichtean curve skips the slow opening. The book starts in the middle of a crisis, and each crisis leads to a bigger one until the climax. The backstory doesn't get its own chapters. It comes out in small pieces between the crises.
The name is often traced to writing teacher John Gardner, who described it in The Art of Fiction. The curve looks like a saw blade climbing a hill: up, a small drop, then higher.
Good for: Thrillers, suspense, horror, action and short fiction.
Watch out: Nonstop action wears readers out. Give them a breath after each crisis, and make each one cost more than the last.
The 8 beats, and where they fall
| Beat | Where | In 80,000 words |
|---|---|---|
| Start in troubleOpen in the middle of a crisis. No warm-up. | 0% | 0 |
| First crisisThe opening trouble boils over and leads to the next. | 8% | 6,400 |
| Backstory in piecesSlip in who the hero is and how they got here, a little at a time, between crises. | 10% to 60% | 8,000 to 48,000 |
| Second crisisBigger stakes. The hero's first fix makes things worse. | 30% | 24,000 |
| Third crisisThe hero loses something they can't get back. | 50% | 40,000 |
| Fourth crisisThe worst yet. It looks hopeless. | 65% | 52,000 |
| ClimaxEverything comes to a head in one last crisis. | 80% to 90% | 64,000 to 72,000 |
| Falling actionA short wind-down. Tie up the loose ends and stop. | 90% to 100% | 72,000 to 80,000 |
The places are rough guides, not rules. Plenty of good books move a beat by a chapter or two. Put in your own word count and chapters to see your book's numbers.
Other story shapes
- Three acts beat sheetThe classic shape. Act 1 sets things up, act 2 is the long middle, act 3 is the end.
- Four acts beat sheetThree acts with the long middle cut in two at the midpoint.
- Five acts beat sheetRising action to a turning point in the middle, then the fall to the end. The shape of Shakespeare's plays.
- Save the Cat beat sheetBlake Snyder's screenwriting beats, as Jessica Brody laid them out for novels.
- Hero's journeyJoseph Campbell's journey, in Christopher Vogler's 12 steps. A good fit for quests and fantasy.
- Heroine's journeyA journey where the lead wins by building a team, not by fighting alone. After Gail Carriger's book.
- Story CircleDan Harmon's eight steps around a circle: you, need, go, search, find, take, return, change.
- Seven-point story beat sheetDan Wells's plan: decide the ending first, then build back to the start.
- 27-chapter methodThree acts, each cut into three blocks of three chapters. Fill in 27 chapters and you have a plan.
- KishōtenketsuA four-part shape from China and Japan with no fight at its center: introduce, develop, twist, bring together.
- Romance beat sheetThe usual shape of a love story, in four parts: meet, fall, pull apart, come back together.
- Mystery beat sheetThe usual shape of a whodunit: crime, clues, a wrong answer, then the truth.
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