the.com/narrative arc

means The underlying structure of a story as it builds, rises through conflict, and resolves — the trajectory from setup to payoff.

from Borrowed from geometry and storytelling craft rather than ancient myth: 'arc' comes from the Latin 'arcus,' meaning bow or curve, the same root that gives us 'arch' and 'arc' in physics. The term got paired with 'narrative' (from Latin 'narrare,' to tell or recount) in 20th-century writing and screenwriting theory, as critics and teachers sought a visual shorthand for the rise-and-fall shape of plots and character journeys — tension climbing like a drawn bow, then release.