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| - Arcs are good. They keep a series moving at a good pace, give it a greater sense of purpose, unity, and forethought, and generally help keep up interest in the story as a whole. Unless they go on and on. And on. And on. For months, if not years. When this happens, a story has succumbed to Arc Fatigue. Possible reasons for this are: Note that in particularly ridiculous examples, a series may suffer from Myth Stall because it's laden with Filler Arcs suffering from Arc Stall. Examples of Arc Fatigue include:
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| abstract
| - Arcs are good. They keep a series moving at a good pace, give it a greater sense of purpose, unity, and forethought, and generally help keep up interest in the story as a whole. Unless they go on and on. And on. And on. For months, if not years. Suddenly, the arcs stop keeping up interest and instead lead to fan outcry for a conclusion already! Eventually, the pace of a story may become so monotonously slow and/or repetitious that the fanbase at large basically give up on following the series directly, and instead rely on Reader's Digest versions of the stories, as told by their friends who still give a damn. When this happens, a story has succumbed to Arc Fatigue. Possible reasons for this are: Arc Stall: An individual story arc has carried on for an annoyingly long time, and yet there's still no end in sight. This usually occurs when the amount of time taken to tell an individual arc becomes horrendously disproportional to the amount of time that's passed in-universe (for example, taking several years to publish a story whose events supposedly happen within the span of a few hours), leading to a critical breakdown of Suspension of Disbelief. This form of stall is most common in "The Continuing Adventures of"-style stories, which chronicle the many exploits of a character or group of characters, rather than have a set end-goal planned. Myth Stall: The story has been going on for a long time. A loooooooong time. Your teenager wasn't even born when the story began. And yet the characters are no closer to their final goal than they were five years ago. Mostly, the story is riddled with storylines which may be little more than a prolonged Monster of the Week story with no significant Character Development or Plot Advancement at all. In extreme circumstances, the series might "end" only when the author does... This is, naturally, most common in "quest" stories where the characters have an over-arching goal to achieve or MacGuffin to claim. See The Chris Carter Effect. Note that in particularly ridiculous examples, a series may suffer from Myth Stall because it's laden with Filler Arcs suffering from Arc Stall. The reasons for a series slipping into Arc Fatigue are many, but the most common are that either the author is stalling for time while trying to figure out where the series is heading, or that someone higher up wants to carry on the series for as long as it's profitable. Alternatively, the author may be Writing for the Trade. Compare Four Lines, All Waiting, which moves at this speed by definition. Compare Ending Fatigue, Prolonged Prologue, and The Chris Carter Effect. Examples of Arc Fatigue include:
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