How Do You Work Out Character Arcs And Like Who A Character Is? Ive Been Working On This Mc For Like

how do you work out character arcs and like who a character is? i’ve been working on this mc for like three days and i have a general idea but nothing figured out chronologically and i don’t even have a name for her 😭😭i have two side characters and the villain at least named and somewhat done with their character arcs but for the mc my brain won’t brain

id say the trick is figuring out what you want the ending to be. Who do you want your main character to be by the end? Now think of the opposite of that, that's your main character now. For example if in the end of a romance novel the main character is secure with her lover, and happy. In the beginning she would be unhappy and closed off from love.

Base this on whatever your plot is. You shouldn't really need to plan that much of a character arc, because your plot is how you get your characters to change. Whatever your plot is, it should force the character to be uncomfortable and make decisions they wouldn't make otherwise, eventually, that turns into your character development.

If you need help coming up with character traits check out the character traits thesaurus on one stop for writers

I'd focus more on organizing the plot points in chronological order.

For names, I love names as foreshadowing. You could do a name related to the plot or even their personality. If you want you can also play on names within your genre already. (ex: Juliette to Julie, Jules, Julia, Etta, etc)

Let me know if you have any questions or if anything isn't clear <3

(also sorry for the late reply, I had a chorus concert yesterday)

HI

ARE WE STILL MORTAL ENEMIES

HMM I BELIEVE THERE HAS BEEN A LACK OF CONFLICT

PERHAPS MEARLY RIVALS

*SOBS*

the writers block goes hard 😍 (send help)

I HAVE ARRIVED TO RENEW OUR ENEMITY

WHAT IS THOU'S OPINION ON PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA

MY OPINION IS YES. PINEAPPLE AND CHICKEN PIZZA. TRUST

me during the trial for my arson charges (I burnt my first draft) (and definitely not the still-standing-not-burnt-pile-of-ash house of my enemies)

i'm just a girl, your honor