Character arcs?

[writeshiek33]

I am new to arcs thing as i am been a panster my whole life where do i start. Not very organized. I use scrivener to write in and trying improve my writing style. So hard since been stuck certain mindset for so long any pointers.


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[spectre]

A character arc is the transformation of a character through a story. So for instance, in Scrooge Scrooge starts as bitter and greedy but in witnessing the past, present, and future events of Christmas he becomes humble and generous. I think an important thing for writing effective character arcs is that you are first aware that your character can grow somehow. Not all stories use character arcs also, so they are not a requirement of story telling.

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[writeshiek33]

So going from being a scared and mournful child Turing into a person who start to grip of their abilities and potential is a story arc?


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[writeshiek33]

bear with me as i have had cancer and now done with treatment and free. My mind is overacting with thoughts flooding left,right and center. trying to adjust my thought process that why trying grasp this as mind racing. thank you for understanding.

 

[CupofJoe]

So going from being a scared and mournful child Turing into a person who start to grip of their abilities and potential is a story arc?
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Yes it could be.

 

[Mythopoet]

A character arc starts at a point where the character needs to grow or change, follows the character through cycles of change, setbacks and growth to the point where the change/growth has been fulfilled within the scope of the story. Though the change and/or growth does not need to be inherently positive. It could be positive, negative or somewhere in between.

 

[FifthView]

There are different types of character arcs, and every character will have an arc.

I'd keep in mind that characters will have their own plot arcs, and this doesn't necessarily mean they'll undergo major, fundamental changes in their personalities, attitudes, growth, etc.

There seems to be a bias for that sort of internal growth, where a character starts out as some form of immature, inexperienced, weak and by the end of the story has more maturity, experience, and strength. Alternatively, perhaps that character begins the story with one type of strong attitude, like selfish self-interest, and ends up being some kind of all-loving humanitarian; or, begins the story being very prejudiced against a whole class of people and ends the story having strong, positive relationships to people in that class; etc. In other words, sometimes the idea of "character arc" is reduced to the notion that a major transformation of that character's characteristics is required.

Stories involving such a major transformation of the character work great and can be incredibly engrossing.

But alternatively sometimes the great changes are in the environment or situations the character faces while the character remains largely unchanged. An example might be a character like Indiana Jones, who doesn't change much at all as a character but who begins a story in one circumstance and then faces situations that are in great flux. Indiana Jones still has a character arc, but it's a plot arc specific to him, and the only significant internal changes he might go through might be the change from being ignorant about a situation to finding himself suddenly in an unexpected situation and then getting himself out of that situation. Does Indiana Jones "grow"? Maybe his experience grows a little bit as he learns more about his uncertain situation and as he discovers more information about his adversaries; but such growth is not a deep, fundamental change in character. (It'd be like eating a new Thai dish when you've never eaten Thai food: Yes, you'll learn something new, your set of experiences will have grown, but you won't change much as a person.)

So when thinking about character arcs, you might consider each individual character and how that character will interact with the environment/situations over the whole story and what effect that character's experiences will have on the character. Within a single story, you might have characters that undergo fundamental internal changes and other characters who do not; but all characters will have their own plot arcs, their own particular routes for navigating the changing circumstances.

 

[Dark Firestorm]

I feel the same way

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Not all stories use character arcs also, so they are not a requirement of story telling.

I imagine this would be the case in many series ... (cough* Tom Clancy * cough) or the arc is spread out over several pieces. Not sure whether that is due to run-on series being plot-driven rather than character-driven or the fact that if the MC overcame their personal flaws in book 1, there's less to write about in books 2 - 10 (unless you count backsliding).

Also important to note is that not all character arcs are positive. In Noir fiction (probably a lot of Horror and Dark fiction as well) you often see the character(s) experience a negative character arc... rather than growing as a person or overcoming challenges, the odds are stacked against them and they die or fail (sometimes gloriously).

I think it's pretty well covered here - Helping Writers Become Authors : Character Arcs/

 

[skip.knox]

>I am new to arcs thing
What story are you wanting to tell? We can talk about character arcs in the abstract, but advice will make the most sense in the context of a specific story.

Who is your character? What sort of person are they at the beginning of the story? Where are they at the end of the story?

 

[writeshiek33]

For me on this wip it necessary as it very complexed world of characters interactions still going to pants the story a bit . It just i want to have a different feel not saying going to for every story but it high time i do this. I think i am learning a way for to use. I just need find right way for me put in practice each writer has a different mindset and way of doing things. I also have dyslexia so that sometimes gets in the way. I am fighting my own mind with his i will overcome this. It just matter finding right way to implement in my own unique way so i can handle it.


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[Christopher Michael]

I imagine this would be the case in many series ... (cough* Tom Clancy * cough)

Actually, if you read the stories in order you absolutely find a character arc for almost every major character in the Clancy-verse.


That being said: You will (almost) always find a character arc. My best advice for how to figure out what a character arc is, how it works, and how to write one?
Take your favorite book. Now take a notepad and pen. Read deliberately. Follow the MC through the story. Write down where they start the journey, emotionally and personality wise. Track them through the first half. Make a note of where they are at the midpoint of the book. Follow them through the rest of the book. Make note of where they wind up.
Make any notes you want in between those points.
See how they managed the arc, and what it looks like. Don't quite have a grasp on it? Try it with another book you like. And another.
Like all things related to writing, you only get better at this through practice and use.

 

[Russ]

Actually, if you read the stories in order you absolutely find a character arc for almost every major character in the Clancy-verse.

I don't mean to derail the thread but I am curious about what you think about the last few years in the Clancy-verse if you have kept up.

 

[spectre]

So going from being a scared and mournful child Turing into a person who start to grip of their abilities and potential is a story arc?


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Yes, it's any real transformation of the character. Sorry I didn't answer right away, was very busy.

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[Christopher Michael]

I don't mean to derail the thread but I am curious about what you think about the last few years in the Clancy-verse if you have kept up.

I haven't, admittedly. Money got tight and my book addiction took a hit.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Actually, if you read the stories in order you absolutely find a character arc for almost every major character in the Clancy-verse.

I was just teasing. My father and I have a long standing joke that every Clancy book boils down to three things: Jack Ryan + action + a hate/ fear/ mistrust of Russia(ns). But you're right - I've never read them in order ... I've picked up a few here and there at used bookstores.

On a more serious note, the characters in a series need to be recognizable from one book to the next. Of course they'll have their struggles and a bit of development along the way ... I wouldn't call that a character arc though. To me a character arc is an intentional rise and fall sort of thing that's planned and self contained (not reliant on someone having read all the books in order). It gets tricky with a series because a book is meant to be a part of something bigger, but to some degree, it should still be able to stand on its own as well.

 

[FifthView]

I've been thinking that there are two broad "areas" or ways that character arcs can be designed, depending on the type of arc, type of story, and also on different types of character.

There are the more fundamental aspects of a character, such as personality traits, strong attitudes, maturity, etc. Changes to these are what a lot of people think about when thinking about character arcs and the changes a character might go through during the course of the story.

Then there are the more ephemeral, situational aspects of a character, like emotions, stress levels, fight-or-flight responses, understanding (ignorance vs knowledge, curiosity vs discovery), relationships, and so forth that a character might experience as the story progresses. These things may ride a rollercoaster, as it were, and change throughout the story, but the character's fundamental aspects do not.

So to go back to my previous example of Indiana Jones, or to use a character like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, in which the character's fundamental aspects don't change much throughout the story...well, those characters can still have character arcs that are more than simply story/plot arcs. So for instance a detective like Poirot might go from a state of uncertainty or ignorance to a state of understanding about any crime that he's investigating, and this is still an arc.

I stumbled across an interesting article yesterday titled "Does Every Story Need a Character Arc?" in which four reasons are given for not having a character arc:

1. Focus on setting or situation
2. Exploration of character or philosophy
3. Contrast to other characters
4. Mirroring the arc

I include this as a curiosity. I'd never really thought about character arcs in that way. But I think those examples are thought-provoking; at least they've had that effect on me.

Edit: Incidentally, I think a gap might exist between a consideration of what might constitute a character arc and what might make for an interesting character arc, heh.

 

[Gryphos]

I like to think of it this way: if two versions of a character, plucked from the beginning and end of a story, would react in different ways to the same event/situation, then that right there's a character arc. Specifically, I would call that an emotional arc, since there are indeed several kinds (FifthView mentioned detective stories, for example, in which there is an informational arc of ignorance-to-knowledge, but often no emotional arc).

Not every character necessarily needs an emotional arc. Side characters, for example, really don't need them (though it's often nice when they do get them). Heroes, for the most part, should have an emotional arc of some kind, though obviously this is not essential. The heroes of many ancient Epics, for example, don't really go through emotional arcs.

 

[Seph]

K.M. Weiland has a book on character arcs. I've read some of her Structuring and Outlining books, and found those to be really helpful. If you don't want to buy her book, you could poke around on her blog. She has tons of information that might be helpful.

 

[Penpilot]

I think I've shared this before, but I'll do it again. Here's part of an article I wrote on story structure. This section deals with how to organise plot arcs/character arcs using Star Wars as an example, Luke and Han specifically.

Big Picture Story Structure ? Part 3: Seven-Point Plot Structure

Now that deals with characters that change. From my perspective characters who don't change still have arcs, but their arcs are slightly different. With static characters the arc is about challenging their beliefs, about a certain subject, about themselves, about what's right and wrong etc.

Basically something wants to push them out of their static position, with legitimate and compelling reasons behind it. Obviously this something has to be story related, but in the end the character will be proven right for holding fast to their beliefs, for remaining static.

Here's a simplistic example. A character believes telling white lies is wrong. The story will show people telling white lies and benefiting from them. The character will be tempted to tell a white lie or even fall from grace and tells a white lie. The character when tempted to tell a white lie again resists temptation and tells the truth and maybe even goes back and recants his initial white lie. In the end, all the white lies come back to roost, and the character is proven right, that white lies are wrong.