Academy Arc

[Gray_Mann]

How in the world do you write an academy arc? I have plots and plans and ideas and whatnot, but the only way to get to where I want, is an academy arc....but wow. I've read some of them in other works. They can be bad. Very bad.

Any suggestions? Or maybe some resources to help me get past this?

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Time skips, short scenes that advance the story, training time, maybe have a few scenes as relationships develop.
Im kind of doing something similar right now, though my MC is faculty at the school, not a student.

Unless your story's focus is academic life, time can rapidly progress now. You really don't want to write about every time he opens a book, listens to an instructor for an hour, has lunch and chats with fellow students about... that is nothing important.

Just summarize what is happening, maybe add a few challenges they are facing, sprinkle in a few scenes where the story develops and move time forward.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

What everyone else does. Ignore the academy.

 

[Lmae]

For me, the mc goes into the academy to prevent any more deaths at the school. Going there to learn how to control his powers is secondary.
If his main purpose was to learn how to control his powers, I would just skip it and use flashbacks.

In Nano Machine, the goal of the academy was for the mc to get allies to help him in his revenge quest and to go up in rank. So the main focus was him getting allies and helping them get stronger. There were time skips.

I read one story, that treated the academy as a self taught prison, because the mc was conscripted as a magic user. There were not classes and the students were expected to teach themselves. Students have access to the library and lab. Every week a teacher would give a student two assignments. If you fail both of them, it is over. These assignments can be as easy as to killing a small bird or as hard as capturing a runaway student. If you succeed, the teacher will award you with something, it could be a spell, knowledge, or an item.

It depends on the story you want to tell.

 

[KennyCelican]

How in the world do you write an academy arc? I have plots and plans and ideas and whatnot, but the only way to get to where I want, is an academy arc....but wow. I've read some of them in other works. They can be bad. Very bad.

Any suggestions? Or maybe some resources to help me get past this?

I'm not sure about an Academy arc. I've written something where the first couple Volumes are focused on the MC attending an Academy, and later she returns as an instructor, but I wouldn't call any of them an Academy 'arc'.

When I think of an 'arc', I'm thinking of a story arc, a sub-story within a larger whole. Having a 'training arc' makes sense, and calling it an 'Academy arc' I guess would fit, but the trouble is that training is usually pretty repetitive. Which means you'll want, as others have said, to focus on what the MC is doing at the Academy, why they're there, and the moments of their training where things come together, where they learn new details that change the paradigm in some way.

Do not, except maybe as a one-line 'class was normal today' setup / filler line, go into any kind of detail on each and every nigh identical day.

Just my 2c.

 

[eagle_360]

Maybe you can delay the academy arc until the characters are older/stronger.

Then write them as instructors instead, makes for a different feeling and tone of writing instead of the traditional "Hee-Hee, I'm a powerful noble. I'm going to bully you!"

Edit : Characters can learn responsibility, leadership, being a role model etc

 

[CountVanBadger]

I'm a sucker for magical school stories. For me, they're a great way to do a deep dive into the worldbuilding. What do you mean there's too much exposition? They're literally teaching a class right now! But then, I'm the kind of weirdo who would read a fantasy history book without any kind of real plot if the world was interesting enough.

 

[Rolanov]

How in the world do you write an academy arc? I have plots and plans and ideas and whatnot, but the only way to get to where I want, is an academy arc....but wow. I've read some of them in other works. They can be bad. Very bad.

Any suggestions? Or maybe some resources to help me get past this?

What kind of story that you considered as bad for academy arc?

 

[SirContro]

Arc? If you have an academy setting, you have to go all in. Make a good portion of the story, at least a third, just the academy. Something you can do to make this feel a lot less boring is to have missions outside of the academy as part of the academy's curriculum so you can make your MC do whatever you actually want to write, and it still falls under the academy setting.

 

[Gray_Mann]

Time skips, short scenes that advance the story, training time, maybe have a few scenes as relationships develop.
Im kind of doing something similar right now, though my MC is faculty at the school, not a student.

Unless your story's focus is academic life, time can rapidly progress now. You really don't want to write about every time he opens a book, listens to an instructor for an hour, has lunch and chats with fellow students about... that is nothing important.

Just summarize what is happening, maybe add a few challenges they are facing, sprinkle in a few scenes where the story develops and move time forward.

I plan to have it where the MC is picked up by a distant relative and more or less adopted, and part of the family tradition is academy and then straight to the military. The school is filled with nobles, children of officers, and magic. It's basically a training school for the next generation of state leaders. It'll basically take up a few years or so of life, and then that's all.

I'm not sure about an Academy arc. I've written something where the first couple Volumes are focused on the MC attending an Academy, and later she returns as an instructor, but I wouldn't call any of them an Academy 'arc'.

When I think of an 'arc', I'm thinking of a story arc, a sub-story within a larger whole. Having a 'training arc' makes sense, and calling it an 'Academy arc' I guess would fit, but the trouble is that training is usually pretty repetitive. Which means you'll want, as others have said, to focus on what the MC is doing at the Academy, why they're there, and the moments of their training where things come together, where they learn new details that change the paradigm in some way.

Do not, except maybe as a one-line 'class was normal today' setup / filler line, go into any kind of detail on each and every nigh identical day.

Just my 2c.

If it was in a series of say....10 hypothetical volumes, it would only encompass 1 volume, and perhaps a few chapters of the next. It's not the most important part, it's just part of a timeline of events.

Arc? If you have an academy setting, you have to go all in. Make a good portion of the story, at least a third, just the academy. Something you can do to make this feel a lot less boring is to have missions outside of the academy as part of the academy's curriculum so you can make your MC do whatever you actually want to write, and it still falls under the academy setting.

If it was in a series of say....10 hypothetical volumes, it would only encompass 1 volume, and perhaps a few chapters of the next. It's important for its position of events in the story, but it's not the most important part, it's just part of a timeline of story arcs in succession. Certain characters get introduced and actions and events that occur later have some of their origins in this arc.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I plan to have it where the MC is picked up by a distant relative and more or less adopted, and part of the family tradition is academy and then straight to the military. The school is filled with nobles, children of officers, and magic. It's basically a training school for the next generation of state leaders. It'll basically take up a few years or so of life, and then that's all.

If it was in a series of say....10 hypothetical volumes, it would only encompass 1 volume, and perhaps a few chapters of the next. It's not the most important part, it's just part of a timeline of events.

If it was in a series of say....10 hypothetical volumes, it would only encompass 1 volume, and perhaps a few chapters of the next. It's important for its position of events in the story, but it's not the most important part, it's just part of a timeline of story arcs in succession. Certain characters get introduced and actions and events that occur later have some of their origins in this arc.

If it's not central to the story, but there mostly to define the MC and maybe some of his or her relationships, it might be best to just show it as occasional flashbacks to critical points and ignore the rest of it.

I mean, if you really NEED to depict the character's time in school, the model to follow would be Tom Brown's School Days By Thomas Hughes (published in 1847!). If important events happened there, but the actual schooling, is trivial, the Flashman Papers (a series of books by George MacDonald Fraser chronicling the adventures of Tom's school bully, Harry Paget Flashman, and only references said school days in criticizing Brown's biased account of his behavior - he does not deny any of it, just says it was not as bad as Hughes depicted, while admitting that he was, and still is, a bit of a cad).

 

[Gray_Mann]

If it's not central to the story, but there mostly to define the MC and maybe some of his or her relationships, it might be best to just show it as occasional flashbacks to critical points and ignore the rest of it.

I mean, if you really NEED to depict the character's time in school, the model to follow would be Tom Brown's School Days By Thomas Hughes (published in 1847!). If important events happened there, but the actual schooling, is trivial, the Flashman Papers (a series of books by George MacDonald Fraser chronicling the adventures of Tom's school bully, Harry Paget Flashman, and only references said school days in criticizing Brown's biased account of his behavior - he does not deny any of it, just says it was not as bad as Hughes depicted, while admitting that he was, and still is, a bit of a cad).

No, it needs to be depicted. The story is basically chronicling from a young age to adulthood. When it begins, they will be 12, when it ends, I don't know, but certainly in their 30's. The Academy Arc will need to be shown. Skipping it as flashbacks would screw up the whole thing since important events happen during as much as before and after.

 

[Gray_Mann]

No, it needs to be depicted. The story is basically chronicling from a young age to adulthood. When it begins, they will be 12, when it ends, I don't know, but certainly in their 30's. The Academy Arc will need to be shown. Skipping it as flashbacks would screw up the whole thing since important events happen during as much as before and after.

Tom Brown's School Days By Thomas Hughes (published in 1847)

Just took notice of this just now. I read it, but didn't really think much of it.

Now I'm curious. Kind of interested in what schooling would've been like back then. Does it go into any day to day details?

 

[Bayleyrockstar]

No, it needs to be depicted. The story is basically chronicling from a young age to adulthood. When it begins, they will be 12, when it ends, I don't know, but certainly in their 30's. The Academy Arc will need to be shown. Skipping it as flashbacks would screw up the whole thing since important events happen during as much as before and after.

Okay, so I'm noticing some conflicting info here. While you say important events happen here.

If it was in a series of say....10 hypothetical volumes, it would only encompass 1 volume, and perhaps a few chapters of the next. It's important for its position of events in the story, but it's not the most important part, it's just part of a timeline of story arcs in succession. Certain characters get introduced and actions and events that occur later have some of their origins in this arc.

You say here it's just an introduction to certain motivations.

The issue here is that what CharlesEBrown said is your best solution here. If it's only to introduce people, theres no point in making it an arc of its own and not something the characters occasionally talk about or is espoused upon.

The issue with having a complete arc is that an arc needs the proper framework of a story. You need the Beginning(entering the academy), Rising action (?), Climax (?), Resolution (?), and then the falling action (graduation)

Unless you have some central conflict during the academy arc that grows the characters in a meaningful way, there's not really much point to detailing it in your story if its only purpose is to introduce characters. This can be as simple as the MC struggling in an academy setting, to evil dark overlord #922 attempting to rule the school.

There are, however, alternatives to the flashbacks. One of which I like to call the 'Asian dinner friends.' Basically, it's common in Eastern novels (and I think a few of their cultures) that when old friends gather in one spot and eat, they recollect on their school days. This usually involves teasing eachother about the younger versions of eachother, talking about hopes and dreams they once had, what they do now, and just talking about important past events.

Another, more hated method is the monologue. Where the characters unnecessarily tell us their motivations.

If you find your central conflict, then I'd suggest keeping notes about several important factors.
-teachers.
-classes.
-important faculty that aren't teachers.
-important students.
-how grades work.
-how does one graduate.
-extracurriculars.
-student housing & care

Not necessarily in that order, and not all of it needs to be conveyed to the readers. But those basics, even with only a vague idea, should turn into an academy that feels similar to a real school.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Tom Brown's School Days By Thomas Hughes (published in 1847)

Just took notice of this just now. I read it, but didn't really think much of it.

Now I'm curious. Kind of interested in what schooling would've been like back then. Does it go into any day to day details?

Apparently, the sequel (a less successful book - Tom Brown at Oxford - and I only found out about it double-checking the author's name) went into that more, but School Days is based on, primarily, the author's brother's life at the actual Rugby School with a few bits of his own life thrown in where he didn't know what happened to his brother. The sequel seems more based on a fictionalized version of Thomas (the author) himself than on his brother, George Hughes. One of the school administrators in the book was an actual person that both brothers knew (Dr. Thomas Arnold, who actually ran the school until a year before his death).