In any interesting story, character arcs are where the magic happens. They're what give your story meaning, what communicates a message about human nature or society. They're a chance to share what you've learned with the world through little fun imaginary friends you've created. 

The saddest thing is that I've rarely seen people discussing character arcs on their books. In fact, the idea that characters should grow and change as people has fallen out of vogue on Wattpad (for example, it rarely shows up in the judging criteria for contests). But the way to give your readers a rich, nutritious story rather than an empty candy bar is to refine your characters like metal in a forge. Put them under pressure and see how they change - for better or for worse.

So, with this in mind, let's discuss how to make a character arc. First off, you need to make sure your character has flaws. Without flaws, not only will they be b-o-r-i-n-g, but they won't have anything to grow beyond or change from. (When I was searching up a graphic for this chapter, I noticed an option that said "character flaws generator". Perfect!) Here are some ideas I found to generate character flaws. Image credit to @AnikaandAj on Deviantart.

Once you've figured out a character flaw that you like, the next thing you should think about is wants vs. needs. Wants can coincide with the heart's desire - they're something the character shouldn't desire and probably won't get by the end of the book. What your character wants will often conflict with what they need to be a healthy person, forcing their heart's desire to change over the course of the book. For example, in She-Ra, Catra wants to stay in the Horde and earn Shadow Weaver's love more than anything (especially once Adora leaves). However, what she needs in order to grow and become a healthier person is to leave Shadow Weaver, who probably won't be doling out affection anytime soon.

Another interesting example of wants vs. needs conflicting is in Avatar: The Last Airbender, with Prince Zuko. Zuko's arc is similar to Catra's - he wants his abusive father's love, but needs to recognize that he's his own person and doesn't need validation from someone terrible, especially if it involves him doing bad things to earn it. Wants vs. needs are a simple way to boil down the start and end points of your characters' arcs.

We can also talk about different ways characters can change. The graphics shown below come from the website https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/. I will warn you to be careful when using these diagrams, though - don't make your characters do things they wouldn't normally do so you can push a message! Let them learn their own lessons from the plot, and don't worry if the start and end points of your characters' arcs change. (Fun fact: Light Spinner's arc in the original draft of Alura was about learning to be less of a career woman. What a change!)

Positive Arcs

The lie can also be summarized as the "want". For example, what if a woman wants to dress in a sexually provocative way in order to get the attention of a married man? You can also think of it as a lie - the lie being that she thinks she should have his attention in the first place. Her arc would probably be about learning about the value of marriage and seeing herself in a healthier light, and letting go of that attraction for the married man. (Maybe she finds a cute single guy to get with, too!)

Negative character arcs

These arcs work best for villain falls, I find. I used #3 for Light Spinner's fall in Alura, and #2 for her descent into insanity for Starwalker. These arcs are usually tragic and are best for stories with a darker tone to them, but they can also be incredibly powerful.

Flat Arc

Sometimes, your character is in a healthy place, but you still want to show struggle for the story. I like these arcs in sequels because they challenge the characters to hold fast to what they learned in the previous story. The main thing you want to be careful for is to make sure your characters still have flaws.Some iterations of a flat arc that I've seen make the character too much of a light in the dark world (I like Rapunzel in Tangled: The Series, but she has this problem sometimes). Your characters should always feel like people, and that goes for this direction of change, too.

In the next two chapters, I'll be discussing point-of-view. After that, we'll conclude this basic guide on characters with some common rookie mistakes regarding characterization.