The Shape of a Story: Freytag's Dramatic Arc

Story Shape

Climax position 62%

Conflict intensity 0.80

Complications 3

Reader's pace 1.0×

Reading Now

Exposition

Tension

0.15

Narrative velocity

0.00 /s

Story progress

How it works

Gustav Freytag's 1863 Pyramid models a plot as tension T(t) rising from an inciting incident to a climax, then falling to resolution, across normalized story-time t ∈ [0,1]. This simulator builds a concrete piecewise curve for it:

rising  (t ≤ c):  T(t) = B + (P − B) · s(t/c)^k        s = smoothstep(x) = 3x²−2x³
falling (t > c):  T(t) = R + (P − R) · exp(−5·(t−c)/(1−c))
complications:      Ci(t) = Ai · exp(−((t − c·i/(N+1))² / (2σ²))),  added into the rising branch

B = 0.15 baseline,  R = 0.10 denouement floor,  c = climax position,  P = peak tension,
N = complication count,  Ai grows with i (each raises the stakes further than the last)

Climax position — moves c, the story-time fraction where tension peaks (exposition + rising action vs. falling action + resolution).
Conflict intensity — sets P, the peak tension value the curve reaches at the climax.
Complications — adds N Gaussian bumps of increasing amplitude along the rising action, each one a small crisis that raises the stakes before the climax.
Reader's pace — the speed the amber reader marker travels along the tension ribbon; velocity readout is dT/dt at its current position.
The five acts (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution) are marked as flags along the ribbon and the current one is named live as the reader passes it.

This is the same structural model taught for Shakespearean tragedy, the five-act play, and — loosely — most modern thriller and screenplay outlines; changing c, P and N traces the difference between, say, a slow-burn tragedy and a fast, complication-heavy thriller.

Tension ribbon Reader marker Complications

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