What We Need to Know About Character Arc
A character arc is an important tool for adding an emotional layer to a story
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Narratives infuse all facets of human life. We tell stories to teach cultural standards, amuse, to help create collective perspectives. We structure stories to make meaning out of past events and to create new realms and possibilities for ourselves and others. The design of narratives is a basic human behavior that traverses recorded history.
I have read books so engaging that I had difficulty putting them down. More akin to physically ill when I reach the final page. I have read books that made me shed tears, laugh, and feel feelings. Those are the kind of books I like to read.
The hard truth is that I rarely find these kinds of books. It takes a certain skill level to create a work of fiction that drains you emotionally and grabs you by the heart, making it impossible to let go.
We read stories because they allow us to live through the lives of others, and reading about their struggles can teach us, shape our opinions, and broaden our perspectives.
We read about a character who starts weak and unmindful of their world but then, through numerous trials and hardships, grows into a better person who can save those around them from evil forces or themselves.
During these challenges, cognitive tension forms in a narrative — characters must actively process their scenarios, resolve conflict, and form new ways of understanding their worlds. While staging and plot progression are present throughout a narrative, the mental tension that occurs from conflict is positioned to be present throughout a story, even to some degree at or near the very beginning.
For such a novel to be compelling, it needs more than a fascinating plotline and relatable characters. It involves a rock-solid emotional core that resonates with readers on a very intimate level.
We can often find this core in the character arc.
What is a character arc?
We all go through different life stages, whether graduating college, finding a profession, getting wedded, or having children.
In your narrative, the character arc is your protagonist’s journey from Point A to Point B. These arcs are often represented as progress since characters will likely learn something during their daily struggles.
Emotional arcs raise broader questions about narrative structure. Narratives are much more than sentimental experiences presented in such a way as to encourage information about the characters, conflict and resolution, and several other story-specific features.
Therefore the focal point of a story is the central conflict or mental tension that the characters must grapple with and ultimately resolve.
Towards the end of the book, they should reach the point at which they’ve changed. That’s not to say they’re perfect or have become their idealized selves, but rather that their lives have improved significantly.
These arcs can be uncomplicated or complex and have joyful or sad endings; they can be understated or apparent. In each case, they are valuable parts of creating realistic characters that readers care about.
How will you get there?
Character arcs begin with a problem, then comes the turning point, and finally, the resolution. What’s different is that this arc is personal and specific to a single character, and the problem and solution are defined by their thoughts, feelings, or personality.
By understanding how a character arc works, you can ensure that your character development takes readers on an emotional ride with them and ends up at a stirring destination they’ll be able to understand and where they can appreciate being.
The more challenges the protagonist faces, the better for the story. Bestselling novelist Dean Koontz recommends plunging your character into serious trouble immediately.
That’s not to say that every character requires to have a painful childhood experience or a dark and terrible secret. Many ways exist to explore what makes us who we are.
Example,
In one of my novels, Bree doesn’t wait for the police to find her newborn baby. That does not constitute a character arc because that would require an external change to solve her problem. She, instead, chooses to embark on a quest.
That’s a character arc. To solve that problem, Bree’s priorities or need to be proactive establishes an arc that sets readers to journey with her.
Facing problems can give characters new insights or bolster their confidence the next time they deal with it.
Since most people would rather not deal with things they hate, fear, or are uncomfortable with, forcing them to do that is a way to accelerate change.
Forced to face something she’d rather avoid, Bree must confront her driving phobia. Living in a rural area and without support from police, friends, and family, Bree is forced to drive a car she hasn’t used in a long time. As a former mechanic, she had to fix her vehicle as yet another step toward a problem she had to solve. Along the journey, her panic attacks become weaker and weaker, and she grows stronger and stronger.
Like a plot, the character arc has several turning points at specific structural moments throughout the novel. At some point, Bree realizes that she can no longer rely on a man to improve her life or on friends and family to rescue her. We follow her as police and family look at her as delusional.
But the struggle within her is more relevant — as it is in real life than the external conflicts. Bree is a woman whose perceptions you doubt — just as do all the people she’s trying to convince that she’s been married, pregnant, and had a baby who has disappeared along with his father.
Hurdles keep compiling as her sister lures her to a hospital, where she is committed to a psych ward. There, Bree is teetering at the edge of a whirlpool of self-doubt. Eventually, she explores all avenues and finally triumphs.
The lesson I’ve learned through writing this heroine is that picking ourselves up again when we fall is possible. I know that to manipulate Bree’s fears, I had first to learn to master my own. I also understand that it’s not who you are underneath. What you do defines you, and that transformation can become part of a more significant cause.
This is what it boils down to
The most interesting plot, filled with twists and turns, won’t matter much to readers unless they are invested in your hero.
As stories reach a high point, the characters and narrators work through the concerns they face in a progressively active fashion, cognitively speaking.
It’s the emotional layer that makes readers care, seeing how a character grows and how they handle the emotional trials of the story. We want to see characters fail or thrive, and we want to see them face the consequences of wrongdoing or get rewards for doing the right things.
It’s simply the difference between the character at the beginning and who the character is by the end.
Otherwise, what’s the point of a story if nothing happens?