Character Arcs (Part Two)

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January 24, 2025

You’ve determined which characters should have some sort of character arc, and it’s time to start writing. But wait. What if you aren’t sure what types of arc each character should have? What if you don’t know yet how your characters are going to change throughout the story? 

That’s okay. 

Here are a few simple ways to determine how, why, and where you want your characters to change and grow. 

  1. Do a character journal. 
    This may sound silly, but it works, I promise. Write a journal entry from the point of view of your main character at the start of the events that take place in your novel or short story. What are they afraid of? What do they feel? What do they wish would happen right now? Before you can think about how your character is going to change, you have to know who they are when the story begins.
     
  2. Go to your plotting worksheet. 
    What are the major events of your plot that lead to the climax? What are your characters doing during these events? What are they feeling? What events or actions might change their minds or establish a new mindset about something?
     
  3. Understand your characters' internal and external goals. 
    An external goal is a concrete objective like saving the puppy from a tree, preventing the bad guys from blowing up a space station, or rescuing a school of salmon stranded on the banks of a low-lying river. Internal goals are more subjective and fall along the lines of learning self-acceptance, reconciling relationships with estranged relatives, or finding out they had the power to get home all along, they just needed to click their heels together.
     
  4. Consider failure. 
    In any character arc, there are going to be low points and high points. We don’t all just become incredible people in one straight line. Your character should have moments of self-doubt, moments where they go back to being the person they were before, or moments where they almost decide saving the puppy isn’t worth it after all. Giving your character an occasional chance to fail makes them human and adds tension to your manuscript.
     
  5. If you truly aren’t a plotter, just start writing. 
    At the end of the first chapter or maybe your first twenty pages, go back through your manuscript with a close eye for anything that comes up about your main character’s core personality traits. What are their politics? What are their flaws? Highlight this information and decide if these are things that should remain consistent throughout the story or if they need to change as events unfold. If they need to change, you now have a starting point for creating the character arc. 

Whether you are a planner or a pantser, you should at least have some idea of who your character is and who you want them to become. Once you’ve established that, the rest is just a matter of taking them on the journey to get there. 

⤟ backstory ⤠

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