On Plot Arcs.

I was just reading some reviews of a few of the anthologies in which the odd story of mine appears. I didn’t fully understand many of them, since the reviewers were using a number of technical terms with which I’m unfamiliar. ‘Plot arcs’ was one of them.

What’s a plot arc, I wonder. It sounds as though it belongs in the world of mechanical engineering or the science laboratory.

The stresses on the plot arc must function in indirect proportion to…

Now children, we place a little plot arc in a test tube, add sulphuric acid – that’s H₂SO₄, don’t forget – and watch it go pouf.

So what I want to know is this: did plot arcs exist before creative writing courses did? Was Charlotte Bronte, for example, ever heard to proclaim ‘My plot arcs are my strongest suit, you know. A person doesn’t get to where I am today without having good plot arcs.’ If they didn’t, why do we bother reading literature that was written before the academic world began teaching people to write stuff in such a way that it would stand the test of correct structural analysis? Could it be that antediluvian amateurs like the Brontes just wrote well because writing well was instinctive to a person with talent?

As far as I’m aware, none of my stories have plot arcs. If they do, they got there purely by accident or the nefarious design of some third party. And when I get to heaven, my first question is going to be:

‘Who the hell assumed the right to stick those bloody plot arcs in my stories?’