When you want to define a character, especially the main character- the important thing is your character must have an arc.
The video format of this blog- https://youtu.be/hB8jhgW9nPg
Regardless of whether your book is solo or series, there must always be an arc. Character arc simply defines the journey of a character from a beginning point to an endpoint. This beginning point can be your story’s first chapter or the first book in the series. Similarly, the endpoint can be the last chapter or last book in the series.
A character is not just there as a punching bag for your plot. If that’s the case, then please improve your characters.
The plot might make your readers jump around, scream, cry, sleepless, and so many more emotions. But for all that to happen, the readers should first care about your characters.
If they don’t care about the characters enough, at one point they might get bored and stop reading. Readers must truly connect with the characters. And if your reader forgets your book after reading, within a short time, that’s probably because your characters are easily forgettable- meaning they are not interesting.
As much as there are a lot of things to make the character interesting, a character arc will make your characters meaningful.
Here is how you can make a character arc. A character can have a positive arc or a negative arc or a neutral arc i.e flat arc.
Your readers may read your book for entertainment. But it will help them if you could teach them something through your stories- which can be done by character arc. And adding character arc, especially to your main characters and side characters- will not just add depth but will make your book work.
In order to make a sensible character arc for different characters, follow these steps.
Step 1: Find your character’s main purpose.
Why are they in the story?
When you start making a story in your head, you know why you are making this story. For an essence, you feel- the love of two people, someone’s death, a journey with a lot of lessons, a game between two characters fighting for something. For this essence to be said out loud you form a story, and you start making characters and build both characters and the story as you go.
So circle back to why you added that character to your story- what is their main purpose?
Step 2: Decide what kind of arc will suit the character.
Now that you know why you added the character to your story, decide on the character arc type. Remember to decide the arc based on the character’s purpose. To put it simply, a positive character arc and a negative character arc both must have a set of changes in the character’s personality over the course of the events. Based on what kind of change happens in the arc, it is classified as positive and negative.
There is a simple science to understand it better:
Positive character arc– a character starts with a lie or misbelief. And as the plot unfolds they start doubting their lies only to finally discover the truth.
Lie-> doubt-> truth
Negative character arc– a character starts with a lie or misbelief. And as the plot unfolds their lies are tested time and again only to make them believe a darker lie and go deep into their misbelief.
Lie-> Test-> darker lie
But if you want to make your character with a flat arc, then there is a simple logic to make your story more interesting. A flat arc means the events that unfold don’t change the character, but only the people around them. The character’s experience or journey essentially changes other characters or even the whole world.
This is just a simple explanation of the character arc. But to know more you can read-
“Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development” by K.M Weiland.
This book is highly praised and many YouTubers have explained and cited her book contents.
In light of the character arc, I would recommend you watch the following video. This video explains all character arcs with movie examples.
Step 3: Prepare the story beats and internal journey of your character to make it fit the chosen character arc.
Positive character arc details:
- Want: Hint= Something they want based on their misbelief. It is specific and it drives the plot from the first chapter.
- Need: Hint= This is something they need but don’t realize until they understand their misbelief and get over it. It is not known to the character at least not until they find the ultimate truth.
- Backstory / Ghost: Hint= a past that haunts them. Probably the reason for their misbelief.
Negative character arc details:
- Want: Hint= Something they want based on their misbelief. It is specific and it drives the plot from the first chapter.
- Need: Hint= This is something they need but don’t realize until they understand their misbelief and get over it. The character overlooks the need and goes on to believe a much darker lie.
- Backstory / Ghost: Hint= a past that haunts them. Probably the reason for their misbelief.
Flat character arc details:
- Comparision pointers for World / Characters influenced by the main character’s journey: Hint= compare the status in the beginning and end of the story and add why it changed and how.
Character arcs are the most impacting part of your story. So, preparing a well-planned character arc, makes sure your story is not just some events that happened somewhere, but an actual emotional story that will make your book unforgettable.
