Lost and found

"Lost and Found" is a story arc found in fairy tales and commercials. An important object, individual, or relationship personifies the whole dramatic arc. If the thing lost has immediate, visceral value (a wedding ring), this works beautifully.

Some variations:

• Lost/found ("...I realized the ring had fallen out of my pocket!")
• Found/lost ("I had love, but I lost it")
• Success/failure (There Will be Blood)
• Failure/success (Field of Dreams)

If you write the story in medias res, you can start with the loss, backtrack, then in a final twist, recover what was lost at the very end.