The Character Arc: 101

The Character Arc: 101

As opposed to the plotline, the character is a description of what ahppens to the inside of the character over the course of the story.

Your lead character should be a different person at the other end of the arc.

The character has a build to it. It must, or the change will not be convincing. A good character arc has:

A beginning point, where we meet the character and get a sense of his interior layers (more on layers in a moment)

A doorway through which the character must pass, almost always reluctantly

Incidents that impact the layers

A deepening disturbance

A moment of change, sometimes via an "epiphany"

An aftermath

Layers of a Character

The layers get "softer" (easier to change) as you move outward. The point of the whole character arc is to crack these layers one by one with external pressure until the character changes in a major way.

As an example: Scrooge from <A Christmas Carol>?

Core Image = miser, misanthrope

Beliefs = pointlessness of charity

Values = money over people

Attitude = profit is more important than good works

Opinion = christmas is a humbug

The Beginning = The character is, well, what he usually is.

Impacting Incidents = There's pressure for the character to change.

it is best to underplay such moments.

Overdo it, and you will lapse into melodrama.

Deepening Disturbances = The initial "lesson" is followed up by an even more shocking pressure

Aftermath = There is an action which indicates that the character is changing, reacting to the external pressure.

The Epiphany = The big moment of change.

The Character Arc Table

List the impacting and deepening incidents in your novel in a table

Add the first (starting) and last (ending) points of your plot

Now, list how your character's inner world changes along with the external changes that take place.

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These things aren't really filler either, characterization is important to the story and plot! Let the main characters talk about their algebra homework, have the siblings argue over the last slice of pizza, it's all just as important as naming a magic system

Working on my novel and couldn’t figure out why it felt so empty. I didn’t have any filler. It was all 100% plot. The characters only interacted when necessary. I didn’t prattle on about the scenery or how the birds sounded. I had all my fuller stuff that I loved saved in another file because I “didn’t need it”.

Y’all, I knew this existed in TV shows but it didn’t hit me until this that everything is being whittled down. We are so starving for filler that we snap up anything. I unload all mine on Tumblr or keep it in a massive Google Docs. It SUCKS.

Honestly? Death to plot necessity. Revive filler. Revive unnecessary interactions. Revive just vibing with characters sometimes. I don’t want to just consume the plot and I don’t want to just create the plot either.

I'm trying 😭😭😭

I don't know who needs to hear this, but...

go finish your book!!!

(writer scrolls through Tumblr) (writer scrolls through Instagram) (writer enters Pinterest) (writer does the dishes) (writer cleans the desk)

Am I the only one that wanted or expected Alador to be just as bad as Odalia? Like before their official introduction they were made out to be equally abusive towards the kids but then he turned out to just be more neglectful and emotionally absent than actively abusive. I just feel like that was a more last minute desicion.

Just found a greattt fanfic on ao3 by WhimofaVim called Don't F**ck Your Coworkers with everything I mentioned previously. It's also Heffie, 48 chapters and unfinished. I highly recommend.

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