The Fichtean Curve and How To Use It

If you’ve ever felt the grip of a good book, unable to put it down, you understand the pull of a well-told story. Behind the scenes of your favourite books, you’ll often find plot commonalities and narrative techniques. Some will be immediately recognisable, like The Hero’s Journey, or the ABDCE structure, but if you’ve ever attended any writing seminars or taken a writing class, you may have heard of the Fichtean Curve.

What is the Fichtean Curve?

The Fichtean Curve is a narrative structure first penned by John Gardner in his book, The Art of Fiction. He named it for the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who was a key figure in the German Idealism philosophical movement and the originator of the dialectic method (often summarised as thesis → antithesis → synthesis).

The dialectic method is a way of thinking through ideas by setting up a tension and resolving it into something more complete. The thesis starts with an idea, position, or claim (example: “Technology improves human life.”) The antithesis is the contradiction or opposing idea to that thesis (example: “Technology harms human connection and wellbeing.”). Then, with synthesis, you resolve the tension between thesis and antithesis by forming a new idea that incorporates elements of both (example: “Technology improves life when used intentionally, but can harm wellbeing when overused.”

The Fichtean Curve takes the dialectic method and applies it to a plot development model that emphasises a rising action peppered by a series of crises leading up to a climax and eventual resolution. The curve represents the intensity and pacing of the story, suggesting that tension should rise progressively with periodic peaks of intense action or emotion to keep readers engaged.

Key elements of the Fichtean Curve

The Fichtean Curve is a simple idea that comprises three principal components: rising action, climax, and falling action. The reality, however, is a little more complex, as these elements must be bookended and punctuated for greatest effect. It’s a lot like a wave in the way you can visually imagine your narrative (which is how you’ll often see it represented).

A story written using the Fichtean Curve must have the following elements:

• Inciting incident: This is the event that sets the whole story in motion and introduces the initial conflict. It occurs during the exposition or setup of the story, where characters and settings are introduced.
• Rising action: This makes up the bulk of the story through a series of events that build tension and further complicate the situation for the protagonist.
• Crises: These are significant turning points that dictate the direction of the narrative and deepen the conflict. In the Fichtean curve, these happen regularly through the rising action, as the tension is ramped up.
• Climax: This is the point of highest tension and the moment of greatest conflict, where the outcome of your story is in the balance.
• Falling action: This is the sequence of events that follow the climax of a story, where the conflicts or problems begin to resolve, and the story starts to wind down toward its conclusion.
• Resolution: After the climax, the story moves towards a resolution, tying up loose ends and concluding the plot arc and your character’s journeys.

Why use the Fichtean Curve?

The Fichtean Curve is a strategic blueprint designed to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Your story’s pace and overall arc are kept captivating through the strategic use of mounting tension and occasional crises. It’s all about creating a rhythm of excitement and reflection that keeps readers engrossed and emotionally invested in the characters and their journeys.

What the Fichten excells at includes:

Maintaining reader interest

Thanks to a repeating sequence of dramatic crises leading up to the climax, the Fichtean Curve helps to keep a reader’s attention by progressively raising the stakes. Readers are constantly anticipating what will happen next, which drives the narrative pacing forward with breakneck speed.

Helps with pacing

By using the Fichtean Curve, you can avoid long stretches of inactivity or uneventful narrative in your story. The cyclical nature of rising action and crises lends itself to a natural rhythm, which can help to prevent reader fatigue and keep them invested in your story.

Creates emotional engagement

Through the ups and downs of the crises and the characters’ responses to them, readers develop emotional attachments to your characters. This investment makes the climax (where the tension is at its peak) more impactful, because your readers will be more deeply concerned about the story outcomes for characters they’ve come to care about.

Helps build plot

The structure of the Fichtean Curve lays out a clear framework for your plot, so that each event has a purpose and contributes to the larger narrative. It encourages you to think about cause and effect, making sure that the plot is cohesive and that each event logically leads to the next, helping you avoid irrelevant subplots or extraneous details. Think of it like an excited reader sitting next to you and constantly asking, “and then”?

Helps with character development

The constant challenges and setbacks faced by the characters force them to grow and adapt. These moments of crisis reveal character traits and motivations, allowing your readers to understand and empathise with the characters on a deeper level.

Builds conflict

By its very design, the Fichtean Curve emphasises conflict as the driving force of a story. This continuous conflict keeps the story dynamic and fast-paced. By emphasising conflict, your story will have a lot more forward momentum, making the eventual resolution more satisfying.

How to use the Fichtean Curve

Unlike other plot structures, the Fichtean Curve can be applied using only an outline, without having to create an extensive plan. Bullet point your inciting incident and three or four major crises that your character will face as they escalate towards the climax. Note down what you want your character to gain from the crises they have endured, and have an idea of how you want your story to end.

That’s all you need! The rest you can discover as you go.

Not every crisis has to be earth-shattering. Some can be internal and personal, adding variety to the types of tension your character encounters. This diversity prevents the story from feeling dull and means you can keep the plot unfolding naturally. A mixture of conflicts ensures the audience stays intrigued and guessing.

For each plot point on your curve, consider the cause-and-effect relationship. This keeps the story logical and believable. Actions should have consequences that lead naturally to the next crisis, keeping the momentum going, but don’t forget to allow space for character reflection, giving your readers a moment to breathe. Reflective moments are an opportunity for characters to process events, make decisions, and set up the next stage of the curve.