Arcs & Growth

The chapters so far have mostly discussed character as a static point. The character is something. The character is a collection of traits, backstory, and restrictions.

That’s a fine starting point, of course. But the whole idea of stories is to change the character. The story exists to provide a catalyst for the character to change from how they started into something else.

Many stories, for example, have some big evil threat (“oh no, the world is ending!”) that the main characters fight. We know the world isn’t ending. We know the good guys will win at the end, and that the threat is a fabricated problem. So why do we care? Why do we really watch the story? Because of the characters and how they change because of the events of the plot.

This is often called a character arc or character growth.

Know where your character is now

As such, step one is deciding where your character (as you’ve defined them now, that static point) sits on the timeline. This is a step people rarely talk about, as they assume the characters you come up with surely sit at the start of the story. Chapter 1, this is what the character looks like!

But that needn’t be the case. Maybe you invented a great character … but it’s too powerful. You know this is the final stage of the character, not the start.

Or maybe you’re not sure and would rather place your character somewhere in the middle of the story. Halfway the transition, but not there yet.

You need to figure this out. So you can track back and figure out how the character should start the story, and how they develop over time.

Journeys come from restrictions

The previous example already illustrated this.

Characters arcs should be the direct result of a character’s goal and how a certain restriction prevents them from having it.

In the first chapter of a novel, you usually want to …

• Reveal a major restriction placed upon the character
• And how that stands in the way of their clear goal

In other words, you dangle a juicy journey or arc in front of the reader. You obviously don’t want to give it all away. That’s why it’s called “dangling it in front of them”, not just “telling, showing and explaining exactly how this book will play out” :p

Don’t give them the ending. Just give them the problem: the goal and the restriction in the way.

And it’s quite logical why this creates character arcs. If there was no restriction in place, no obstacle in the way, they’d reach their goal instantly. Story over! No effort needed!

Arcs are about slow change

It’s always funny to me when a character displays one trait for 90% of the story, but then something big happens (the climax, usually), and they do a 180 and suddenly display the opposite trait. “Oh well, I’ve been angry literally my whole life and the whole story, but now that I hear your inspiring words, I am suddenly cured completely!”

Nah, that rarely happens in real life. People need time and convincing to change their ways and to grow. That’s why it’s called an arc, because it usually spans across a whole story (or maybe multiple stories).

Through the events of the plot, the hero is repeatedly challenged. They see different sides of their flaw. They meet different people, trying to convince them in different ways. This is how they slowly chip away at the armor the hero has built around themselves to protect the flaw.

Yes, a big swing is needed to finally break the armor, which is usually the point of the climax. But by that point, it should already be broken enough to make that one swing enough.

That’s one of the biggest pitfalls: keeping your character the same for a long time, until they suddenly completely change or see the truth. No, you want to already change them bit by bit, move them in the other direction, over the course of the whole story.

This feeds into my final point …

Character arcs are a mini-story

I talk a lot about Promise, Progress and Payoff in the Storytelling and Plot courses. Because it’s really, really important! It’s the core of story. If you miss one element, you’re just not telling a story.

The idea of a character arc is tell a whole story (within another story).

• You promise that a character will battle certain flaws.
• During the story, you make progress on the promise (as mentioned in the section above).
• And finally you make good on your promise, as the hero either overcame their flaw, or went the other way and made it worse.

If your first chapter shows your hero having one flaw … you don’t want to reveal a different flaw later and spend the payoff on that. (Pretty funny to think about. “The hero set out to overcome their trust issues, but in the end, they learned how to be less jealous! Two for the price of one!”)

Similarly, if you do not introduce (or hint at) the flaw immediately, the reader will assume it doesn’t exist. They might even assume this character is superficial or not important based on just that.

It’s one of the reasons why most successful stories do not start with guns blazing and action all around—they start with character work. Sure, there is some interesting action, but a good portion of the first chapter focuses on promising an arc for the hero. This might feel slower or less exciting, but it’s the better choice in the end.

Stories are complex enough as it is. Keep your focus on the one thing you promised about this character. Make sure your arc has all three elements: Promise, Progress and Payoff.

What do I do when the arc is over?

Of course, you can plan the story in such a way that all arcs resolve at the same time (at the end). This is often hard to do, however, and not even preferred. If the reader knows things will only be resolved at the end, the middle of the story becomes meaningless and annoying to “get through”.

Starting and ending (minor) character’s arcs is a great way to keep the middle of the story engaging and fresh. To prevent character’s standing around and doing nothing, use the “arrive late, exit early” strategy (just like when writing scenes):

• Only introduce the character as soon as they become relevant and their arc starts.
• Once their arc is over, find a good reason to just remove them from the story.

Do not keep characters around when they’re not relevant anymore. If they’ve served their purpose, completed their arc, they become dead weight dragging the story down. (If it’s really a fan favorite, or just a character you want to keep, invent a new arc or purpose for them!)

Now you might think: okay, that sounds like characters should just die when I’m done with them!

And no, that would be the precise opposite of what I want you to do. You can remove characters from stories in much more subtle and effective ways. Have them move to another location. Have them switch jobs, take on a different mission, suffer an injury that prevents going on the next mission, get a new goal that simply doesn’t involve our main story. In stories for kids / young adults, people often just graduate and are done with school, phasing out of the story.

Most importantly, if you do kill a character, do so when they are at their most relevant. That’s when death has an impact. If the character is at the start of their arc, or already done with it, then killing them accomplishes … basically nothing.

Conclusion

I could give endless examples of character arcs, but they’d all be the same thing. A character has a trait—something portrayed as negative in the story—and by the end of the story, they’ve changed that trait. Any trait will work, as long as you can connect it to the plot and setting. The best practice is just writing a lot of stories, and consuming other stories while consciously picking out their arcs.

As long as you remember to keep empathy and purpose for your characters, first and foremost, you should be good.

That’s it for the general chapters. Now the course switches to the practical challenges.

Each chapter from now on presents one idea about how to design or write characters. One framework, rule or formula. Try to write a (short, simple) story for each one, experimenting with it, using only that tool. I can guarantee that if you put in the work, this will teach you more about writing strong characters than anything else.