Hello! Today's lesson is going to be intense, and long. Make sure to grab your comfiest blanket, a hot cup of coffee, or tea, and start learning. It's going to influence your plot structure further on.

Let's talk about character arc.

A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to changing developments in the story. In most stories, lead characters and protagonists are the characters most likely to experience character arcs, although lesser characters often change as well. A driving element of the plots of many stories is that the main character seems initially unable to overcome opposing forces, possibly because they lack skills or knowledge or resources or friends. To overcome such obstacles, the main character must change, possibly by learning new skills, to arrive at a higher sense of self-awareness or capability. Main characters can achieve such self-awareness by interacting with their environment, by enlisting the help of mentors, by changing their viewpoint, or by some other method.

Example of character arc: In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, the protagonist Raskolnikov commits a murder that leads him on a path of redemption and, after an intense inner struggle, he realizes that he needs to be punished for his actions, reporting himself to the authorities.

[Section from Masterclass]

Types of character arcs:

1. Transformational arc: A transformational arc is a character arc in which the main character goes from being a regular person at the beginning of the story to a hero over the course of the story. This type of character arc is associated with epic stories and the archetypal hero’s journey story structure. Example: At the outset of the Harry Potter series, Harry is an orphaned young boy living with his cruel Aunt and Uncle who treat him like a servant. By the end of the story we’ve watched Harry summon his inner strength and become the savior of the wizarding world.

2. Positive change arc: A positive change arc is similar to a transformational arc but usually not quite as dramatic. A positive arc requires that a character experience positive change over the course of a story. Characters generally start out with negative outlooks or characteristics and develop a positive worldview by the end of the story. Example: In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge starts out as a rich old miser consumed by greed. Over the course of our story, he comes to change his views and becomes a benevolent and charitable person.

3. Negative change arc: As the name implies, a negative change arc involves a character starting out as good or benevolent and descending into evil or ill fortune over the course of a story. Example: At the beginning of The Godfather, Michael Corleone is a squeaky clean army veteran who enjoys a good reputation despite being from a New York organized crime family. By the end of the story, Michael’s path has followed a negative character arc and he finds himself at the head of the crime family, consumed by a bloodthirsty need to maintain power and control. Similarly, in Breaking Bad, Walter White starts out as a down-on-his-luck public school chemistry teacher who is struggling to provide for his family. By the end of the series, Walter has betrayed his morals and become a successful drug kingpin at the expense of his happiness and family’s well being.

4. Flat or static character arc: A flat arc is a much less common form of character arc that can mostly be found in action and thriller stories. Example: Indiana Jones remains an emotionally stoic, highly capable adventurer regardless of the danger in which he finds himself. A tendency of action-adventure writing is the creation of flat protagonists who maintain a calm and cool persona under pressure.

How to Write a Captivating Character Arc

Once you have an understanding of how character arc works and the broad categories that most character arcs fall into, it’s time to think about how you’ll chart out your own character arcs. Whether you’re writing a good character who will undergo a negative character arc or vice versa, here are some tips to consider as you plan out your character’s arc and flesh out your character development:

Think about genre. Genre often informs the way that your character arcs will unfold. If you’re writing a tragedy, your protagonist will most likely undergo a negative arc—ending the story at a much lower point than where they began. If you’re writing an inspirational story, you’ll probably have a character change for the better and follow a positive character arc.

Consider the character’s role in your story. Some characters have more elaborate character arcs than others. A good story generally has a strong set of well fleshed out characters in addition to the protagonist. Knowing what role characters play in your story will help inform what character needs they have and what shape their arc will take. For instance, if your story has a clear-cut protagonist and an antagonist, they will most likely have opposite character arcs.

Have a strong story outline. It’s important to have a strong outline with a clear first act, second act, and third act before you start mapping out character arcs. Characters change alongside your larger narrative. Knowing where an important plot point or turning point might be will help you map out a corresponding character arc.

Let's now see how you can develop your character in (classic) three acts.

First Act — How Your Character Starts

We have already created a detailed character sketch in the previous chapter. Use the information to create a comfortable, starting image of our lead. They can lead their life in a casual, not-so-adventurous, absolutely normal manner. Meet a crush, go on a date, read a book in comfy clothes by the window, sing on road and smile a lot! Anything, literally.

The arc begins (as does the plot of your novel or story) when the character’s normal life is turned upside down by a trigger event or inciting incident – say, a murder in a crime novel which sets the detective on the hunt for the killer. As they do this, like any lead in any genre, they need to be proactive in going after their narrative goal, entering each scene with the intention to get their story arc aim or move nearer to it, only usually to fail or to make some progress, only to face an even bigger obstacle.

Second Act — How Your Character Develops

You’re not the same person you were yesterday, and you’re certainly not the same person you were last week, or last month, or last year, and so on — and neither are your characters. As things happen to them (or because of them), their world changes and how they respond to those changes is key to developing their arc.

Maybe the milquetoast office drone thrust into a plot of murderous high-stakes intrigue has discovered that she’s actually really good in a knife fight. Maybe the fast-and-easy pirate has developed feelings for his first mate, despite saying that he’d never settle down. Whatever the case may be, these developments and discoveries aren’t happening in a vacuum: the character is going to have some feelings about what they’re going through! So it isn’t just that office drone turns out to be good with knives, but also that she’s morally conflicted about how exciting she finds it. Authors often forget that there needs to be this emotional reaction after action to make their characters feel human to the reader, but then the planning part too, so the story arc has a causal connection and we see why one thing happens after another, this set-up ensuring the protagonist seems energetic and plucky and which keeps the story arc full of drama and an obvious forward-moving purpose. 

Third Act — How Your Character Ends Up

As your plot builds to a climax or conclusion, the changes your character has undergone will be brought to the fore. How do they react to this new situation, with everything that’s happened to them? Do they accept it? Do they fight against it? How will they attain their goal — and how might their goals have changed, as they have changed?

Bilbo Baggins is not the same hobbit when he comes home to The Shire as he was when he left. Some of that is obvious, but some of it lives in the background: he’s traveled, he's seen horrible things and wondrous ones too, and now as the book comes to a close, he returns to a life that doesn't look familiar any longer.

Your character doesn't have to go through such immense changes, but chances are they will whether you planned for them to or not. As your story comes to a close, your characters will have been pushed to their limits in one way or another and become someone new. It doesn’t have to be satisfying, necessarily, but it should be real. It’s unlikely that the knife-wielding office drone is going to be quite such a shrinking violet after everything that’s happened to her — and even if the pirate doesn’t stay with his first mate, his heart might not be so freewheeling now.

Conflicts – Internal And External

An antagonist for your protagonist — an opposing figure or force against your main character — is a great way to help build out a character arc because it gives your character something to fight or push against, adding tension and strengthening the lead as the story arc progresses.

However, there can be other causes of external conflict than the villain figure, such as a confidant(e), which may be a best friend or family member, who acts as a sounding board for the protagonist and offers support, but who can also accidentally cause trouble for the lead due to well-intentioned meddling. This is something we sometimes see in chick lit, where the boozy best mate might tell the lead’s love interest they’re seeing someone else to create jealousy and supposedly add to the dreamy guy’s interest, but it just leads to a misunderstanding between the would-be couple and scares him off. 

Indeed, terrible weather, a rough environment or even disasters can also be ways of preventing the lead from going after their goal, but they can also show their mettle too as often they will carry on anyway.

In terms of external conflicts, things get much more interesting when we put our leads in situations which are utterly hellish based on their past traumas or personal phobias or fears and make them face them! Say, in the simplest terms, someone hates spiders and then our protagonist has to crawl through a web of poisonous arachnids to save the kidnapped girl which has been the goal of his or her story arc – not only will the reader be sat on the edge of their seat, wondering if the lead will finally overcome their terror for the sake of their bigger plot aim, but we’ll also be privy to the inner world of the lead and the immense inner pressure not to do this scary thing and this is called internal conflict. 

It can feel mean to writers, as they are often so attached the characters, but the best thing you can do to create a compelling character and story arc is to put your protagonist in the midst of an external situation that makes them quiver (public speaking is more scary to more people than death, believe it or not!) and ensure that you’re also showing the internal monologue of your lead as they fight against their fears. You can even make them self-sabotage en route to their goals as humans often do. For example, a detective character could be out to make a big break in a case and then he’ll go out on an alcoholic bender which makes him lose the trail of the villain. 

A Basic Example Of A Character Arc: Cinderella

Her nasty step family (the opposition figures) are treating her like dirt when a handsome prince comes looking for his ideal dame (the trigger or inciting incident). The mean girl stepsisters try to force Cinderella aside, but she’s determined to catch her man (the lead sets her story goal and her character arc flows from here).

She may be getting grubby scrubbing floors, but she schemes her way to the ball (character takes dogged action to get her goal and grows in defiance and strength). She gets to the ball and catches the eye of the prince, only to have to return before her carriage turns into a pumpkin at 12 (external conflict). However, she leaves her glass slipper behind and the prince is now so infatuated with Cinderella that he scours town looking for its wearer – and as much as the mean stepsisters may try to force their feet in, only Cinderella’s dainty foot is a match (she gets her story goal and her character has grown from subservience to power and from loneliness and contempt to love).

Daily Activity:

Plan out your character arc. How do they appear to be in the beginning, what are the inciting incidents, the change in character, their turning point, etc,. Plan out their development. Utilize the character sheet that we prepared in the last lesson.

Comment and tell us about your characters (main leads & antagonist, if any), their positive and negative traits, and something unique (trait) about them. Let's see how compelling your lead sounds!

Keep writing and improving!