The Art of Writing, Protagonist Line II

This chart is an even bigger mess than for protagonist I, but so is the story line for protagonist II.

Again, let's look at this analytically. Briefly, the straight line is our daily life (black), the line going up at an angle (blue) begins at the star (green).  Conflict enters our protagonist's life at the peak, pale yellow star.  The line drops down to join the straight line (yellow and black), when our protagonist has resolved the conflict and is ready to resume daily life.

The squiggly lines (red), are the valley and peaks representing the protagonist's struggling to find the antagonist.  This is why you have all of the ups and down, because if you don't have the conflict and just have a straight blue line, what is the point of writing the story!   After all, the protagonist does not arrive at the scene and knows who caused the demise of the person.

The yellow star, as English teachers like to say, is the Denouement when your protagonist has found a solution, except in mystery writing, were the attempt at resolving the problem starts right at the beginning and at the end the hero can prove the who is the antagonist.

This type of story line is generally used in mystery, murder and spy stories.  Example, a murder occurs and the protagonist must solve the who done it.  Along the way our protagonist encounters all kinds of problems before he/she can unravel the puzzle. 

One final note, the person who invented this basic story telling structure for mysteries is non other than Edgar Allan Poe.