Developing a character - Gradual or sudden changes?

[Bearman1]

Hi Guys,

Throughout my WIP one of my MC has always fascinated me. He is quiet and an outsider and I have spent the first 10 chapters of my story highlighting how he is bullied but does not let it get to him.

He's mentally tough but physically weak. Most of the time he simply takes his bullies' punishment and moves on with his life. But every so often he will break out and get angry in a fit of rage. Its been as if this aggression and anger is bubbling under the surface.

So when he gets left behind in an escape away from a beastial monster who happens to serve a god, his entire life changes.

He gets taken over by this god, and the idea is he gets corrupted and all of his rage and aggression gets brought to the surface.

.................​

I want to write this as a gradual change, where he slowly spirals out of control. But I am not too sure how to write that. I don't want it drag on and on, with little happening. And yet, I don't want him to just suddenly change his character.

Any suggestions or recommendations on how to go about this development?

Thanks,

 

[Terry Greer]

It's a nice idea and the gradual change is a good approach - snapping when he wouldn't have done before and hitting out when before he would have just accepted things. It's almost the classic 'Spiderman' approach.

A good example of superpowers spirilling out of control can be seen in the excellent film Chronicle Chronicle (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First thoughts are if it's an external force taking him over then how does he fight it or does he embrace it? Is the character progression to get it under control or fight against this? If not then how can we empathize with a good guy gone bad?

To use an example the Hulk is the embodiment of rage of Bruce Banister - but we know he continually fights to get it under control - otherwise he wouldn't be a tragic sympathetic character.
And of course Spiderman eventually channels his new found strength into good (after first being a dick!).

Or is your intent to take a good guy and just turn him bad (as with Walter White in 'Breaking Bad')?

 

[Bearman1]

The idea is for him to eventually embrace the changes he is going through, enjoying the new power to exact some vengence. At the same time though I am trying to make him a sympathetic character.

I've tried to lay the groundwork for this already by having his bullies come across as truly vile people. So vile that when the MC gets his revenge his motivations are understood by the reader.

Although I will eventually have him break away from what is controlling him. I like the idea of this god honing the MC too well and losing control of him.

I like your suggestion of having him snap over something that previously he had simply accepted. I'm going to try and work that into the early stages of his change.

 

[AngelBlue]

One thing I have found with my own work is that, after my MC has done something caused by her sudden change, she is in a state of shock at what she has done in her changed state. She does get used to it, over time, but then when she does something more (or differently) horrific, she is shocked all over again. Eventually she tries to overcome what she sees as negative behavior, but often relapses, like most people do when trying to change. It helped me to learn a bit about the psychological stages of change, and how the human mind works through sudden shock, loss or change in circumstance.

 

[Addison]

There are only three ways a character has a sudden change.
1. Life or death situation where the former was right in their face with the reaper standing over them with that evil grin.
2. A person who has been their rock, foundation, the one they know will always be there to help either gets killed or is revealed to be something else that pulls the character's world out from under their feet.
3. If you've seen General Hospital then you know who Jason is. For those who don't, your character gets in an accident, or foced intoa labotomy, where their entire personality changes.

Aside from that, characters change gradually as the story progresses.

 

[Penpilot]

When I write a change, I start with two things, the beginning and the end. What I mean by that is first understand what the character is like before the change, then figure out where you want them to be at the end of the story, which will most likely be opposite of where you began.

Now that leaves a lot of blank space to fill in in order to get your character from beginning to end, but at least now you have a definite and clear direction.

Once you have those two things, think about the middle of their journey from where they were at the beginning and where you want them at the end. I treat this as like a point of no return. Here they do something or make a choice that there's no turning back from.

This can be a obviously triumphant moment, or a moment where they feel failure.

Take your character, at the beginning they're in control. They don't let the bullying get to them. Maybe they have their moments but they always regain control (what ever that means).

Now at the end or at their lowest point before they pull out, flip that and have things be opposite. Every slight gets to them now, and when they lose control, they leave devastation in their wake.

At the mid-point, maybe this is where they go too far and give the bullies what's coming. Maybe the character kills one or all of them, and there's no coming back from that.

To me, the biggest trick is to find scenes that embody these key points, but once you find them, they're really fun to write.

One thing I do wonder about though. Is it necessary that the bullies be truly vile? To me the changes would be much more tragic if they had their own motivations that made act the way they do. It's still no excuse, but I think it's more of a tragedy if someone gets, say, their life ended before they have a chance at redemption versus someone just getting their just desserts because they're just plain vile.

One makes the audience cringe because this character is heading down a dark path versus the audience cheering because "Yay, take that vile bully monster."

Any way my 2cents

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

My thought would be to use the god as a character. Maybe let him whisper into the character's head every so often. And slowly let him convince him of the motivations of others. Of the foolishness of simply ignoring bullies. And little by little encouraging him to engage in retaliation. Minor retaliation at first. Things that won't be noticed or attributed to him. That he won't have to feel guilty about. But which make him feel powerful. Think of this as a seduction. Teaching the character little by little of the joy of power. At first it's about self defence. Then slowly it becomes about getting a little bit of justice for what's been done. And in time it shifts to all out vengeance. While at the same time the MC goes from being shy and a victim feeling as though he deserves what happens to him, or that it's normal, to slowly becoming in his own mind, better than the rest. More deserving of the gifts of life.

And yes Chronicle is an excellent movie for showing this. For showing what happens when someone who was bullied suddenly gains power but no wisdom. And one of the things you see in it that affects the kids differently is the use of their powers. To create magic acts to impress, and to play pranks. For two of them these things are minor enjoyments, and they take them no further. For the third they are the start of his decline into homicidal madness.

Could I also suggest Lawnmower Man - Stephen King. Although the superpower given him is intelligence, the look through the eyes of the MC is telling as he goes from being dumb but satisfied with his lot in life, to super-intelligent and godlike. As they say power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Steerpike]

Once you impose a supernatural element on the character, like being taken over by a god, the change can be written as sudden or gradual. Normally, a character changes over time, but it seems to me a god could exert enough power to force an immediate change.

If you go with a sudden change, then I think the struggle to adapt to or fight against the control serves as the basis for an internal struggle, and the character's adaptation over time, and how he copes with or overcomes this sudden control, serves as a secondary change that is more gradual. Instead of slowly moving the character into the change, he's thrown right into it because of circumstances beyond his control. The outward manifestation of the change is sudden, but the character's dealing with, reaction to, or attempts to control the change mark an internal struggle that then progresses more slowly over the course of the story.

If the change is gradual, which is what you say you prefer in this case, then the manifestations of the change and the character's internal struggle to deal with them proceed over the same gradual course.

In a case like this, you can do it either way and have it make sense in terms of the story. You're faced with describing how the character deals with the situation over time in either case.

Having a sudden change doesn't mean that nothing really happens while you're drawing out the change and its effects. Whatever other plot elements you have going, it seems to me that the character's transformation is really the story here, so while you're exploring that you shouldn't feel a though nothing is happening. What is happening is actually the crux of the story in many ways, and it is simply up to you to draw out that change over time in a way that is interesting to the reader. I think this is best done through a combination of highlighting the character's internal struggles, and using events that also force an outward reaction from the character and keeps the external events of the story flowing.

So, for the gradual change, I think I'd simply show the transformation over time. Use of internal monologue as the character is confronted with events over time gives us the internal struggle that is going on within the character. External events that the character reacts to gives us the external manifestation of what is going on inside of him (and these external events don't have to always be significant in terms of the overall story plot - so long as they're developing the character in significant ways to show how he is changing, they push the story forward). Contrasting the two things - internal struggle and outward manifestation - in ways that set up conflict can be used to make this part of the story very interesting to the reader, so even if you feel like the external "action" of the story isn't moving ahead, if you're doing interesting things to advance the character as he goes through the changes, you'll be developing the story and keeping the reader interested.

It is also important, in my view, that you've established a connection between the reader and the character early on, before all of this change starts happening. Something that makes the reader care about what is happening and how the character is going to react to deal with it. If you don't have that, then any approach to dealing with the development of the character as he undergoes this change is going to be flat because the reader isn't invested enough in the character to really care, on a deep level, how the character is dealing with the change and whether he's going to be successful during the transformation from point A to point B.

 

[Helen]

the classic 'Spiderman' approach.

A good example of superpowers spirilling out of control can be seen in the excellent film Chronicle Chronicle (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's good advice. See how it's done in real examples. You'll find the process in both movies has a lot in common.

 

[Bearman1]

Thank you for all the great advice everybody! Really appreciated!

I was actually inspired by comic books when i created this character so I am definitely taking clues from Spiderman and Chronicle. A the moment I am using a voice inside the characters head as a device to really understand the changes he is going through.

The voice is that of the god who is taking him over. When faced with a tough decision shortly after the initial changes, this voice pushes the character into actions he would not normally do. However once he gives into the voice inside his concious, he discovers that it is all too natural to him to commit some rather dark sins. This shocks and scares him, however the voice is their to comfort him.

So from that I hope you can see what I am going for now in terms of how he is going to change as a character. His development is in no way complete though, as I am planning a few chapters in advance before writing the 1st draft for them. I just find it more exciting to write the novel this way, although it does mean I am unsure of where his character is going to end up!

 

[Addison]

Your character sound like a mythical variation of Bruce Banner. As for when and how fast the character changes depends on your story. Is it balanced between a before possession and after possession? Or more one than the other. If you want the god driven spiral to be gradual perhaps the act of possession was so fast, vigorous and maybe painful that he blacks out and doesn't remember. As he starts expressing his rage more often and brutality he sees the problem and tries to fight the beastly god inside whom is slowly gaining more control. You have a great story idea. Happy writing!

 

[Bearman1]

I never saw the Bruce Banner link until you said that Addison, but rereading my first post I can definitely see where you got that from! The story for this character is more heavily focused on the events after the possession, but they are only important because of how different he is when compared to the beginning of the novel. So the earlier chapters (pre-possession) are some of the most important in the story.

I like the idea of a complete possession being too much for him, making him black out. I have gone for a more gentle initial take-over but now that I think about it I could introduce a scenario later on where the god needs complete control for the character to survive. This would then result in the black out and a slow discovery of what actually occurred during the complete possession.

That way the reader could discover the lost memories along with the character, which is something I always find really immersive when I'm reading a book.

Thanks for the great idea!