Due to bike problems, our trip ended early. I took a couple weeks break to relax but now I am back in the swing of things. Not only did I get a lot of first draft writing done but I also edited the first three chapters. They are at the point where I doubt they will need much more work except for fine tuning the language as my final step.
One thing I've been considering lately is tone. My story takes place in a less civilized location so the mood is more grim. It isn't as big a deal if someone were to die. Life for these characters is hard. But I'm trying to undercut the serious tone by using humourous scenes. I worry that it will feel jarring to go from grim to light, but it might also provide a relief for the reader. Instead of constant darkness it provides a moment to relax and breath before returning to the high tension parts.
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Everyone goes through changes in their lives. I was not the same person as I was ten years ago, five years ago, I’d even say one year ago. Depending on the experiences that we’ve had we will constantly be changing our perspectives on things. It is part of being human. As Tennyson said in Ulysses, “I am a part of all that I have met.”
So if we are
constantly changing, it makes sense that our characters will as well. It is not
enough to have a really cool character who is quirky and fun. For a few
chapters the reader will be hooked but eventually they will be boring and two
dimensional if nothing in their lives ever have an impact on who they are as a
person. Overnight they won’t suddenly be a public speaker if for their entire life they
were frightened of talking in front of anyone that isn’t their family, or they
use sarcasm if they don’t enjoy jokes. Fundamentally they will remain the same
person, but small details will change.
This is what
a character arc is meant to do. The protagonist at the start of a novel will
not end up the exact same. Therefore if they were approached with the same
event at the beginning and the end, their reaction will differ. Now, it is up
to the writer as to how drastic that change will be. If the story takes place
over a week there will only be superficial changes, maybe one aspect thoroughly
different. But if the story takes place over months or years then more
differences can have developed.
If they were
always a controlling person, they might have learned to give up that control
and accept that all things are not in their control. If they have had horrible
experiences with dating in the past then maybe they learned to give it one last
try. If they always wanted to become a professional basketball player but were
always too shy to give it a try, perhaps they decided to go to a try out.
There are
three major categories for character arcs.
The first is
the “hero’s journey”. The protagonist starts off as an Average Joe and over the
course of the story they become a leader and a hero. They take control and
prove that there was always untapped potential within them that they never
exploited. This happens a lot in fantasy. It is a drastic change because most
of the story is about this simple farmer taking on the mantel of Supreme
Fighter and defeating the bad guy to save the day. Basically they start off as
a nobody and become a legend.
For this arc
to work it is important that it is made clear that the protagonist could not
have beaten the villain in the beginning. They weren’t wise enough. They
weren’t strong enough. Perhaps they were too rash and would have failed because
they did not plan their strategy through. The villain can even appear earlier
in the story and defeat the protagonist, who is then able to escape, so tension
can begin to rise. Whatever the case may be, when that final battle begins, the
protagonist must use everything they have learned from their arduous journey to
defeat the villain and prove that they were powerful enough from the start but they were not prepared.
The second
arc is when the character starts in a happy place, but slowly descends into
madness, violence or even death. A great example of this is Hamlet. As all
of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the characters end up dead rather than vanquishing
their foes. They are doomed from the start even if the character or the reader
doesn’t know it yet. For these arcs to work, the reader has to be invested in
the character or else their huge downfall at the end of the book won’t matter
because nobody cares. Therefore they have to have some redeeming qualities, at
least at the start.
Some
external force has made this character begin an internal conflict. As they
debate and react to what has happened, they slowly become corrupted. The key
here is for it to be a slow shift so that the reader can follow it and
understand why this is happening. If a high school science teacher goes on a
mass murdering spree one day then the reader will have no idea where it came
from. But if the teacher has been stewing in frustration and agony over the
past few years at work because of the way they are being treated by the
students and coworkers while being unable to find another job, which all finally surmounts to
an emotional explosion when a student blackmails said teacher for a better grade because
they want to go to an Ivy League school and they never paid attention in class…
the reader can at least understand why it happened.
These arcs
don’t usually need endings because it usually ends in death, incarceration,
insanity, or any other unpleasant situation, the book can finish right after
the climax. Otherwise you can stew in this character’s tragedy for a bit
longer. Either way, be sure to have them doing uncharacteristic things up to
that point, more frequently as the story progresses, so the reader, and maybe
even the characters, have a heads up as to what is about to happen. One thing I
love about Hamlet is that it tells you at the very beginning that Hamlet will
die, and you know that he will, and yet you still don’t want to believe it at
the end. You want the reader to be begging you not to do it, even as it’s
happening.
Finally, a
character arc doesn’t need to be positive or negative. We don’t always change
in a good or bad way in life. If so we would constantly be becoming amazing
people or criminals. Most of us undergo changes to our personalities to become
more complex people. Perhaps we have changed perspectives on an important
matter or gained a new skill. We aren’t better or worse for it, just different.
You might
want to use this one if your characters aren’t that important to the story
because you really want to highlight the setting and the conflict. Perhaps your
characters could be anyone, and you want to have some character growth in there
to make it a fuller story. Then you don’t need to have your characters all
becoming great leaders or scary villains. Instead one can learn to be more
patient, or another could learn a new skill.
To make it
interesting, the character needs to resist this change, as with all the character
arcs. We all think we’re perfect just the way we are, and so does you
character. They are presented with an instance that they can change but instead
they revert back to their usual ways and it proves to fail. Then from there
they can learn that if they want to succeed the next time then they will need
to make some changes.
Of course,
while you are implementing these character arcs it is necessary to keep in mind
the personality of your character. They will always react to things differently
so you have to be mindful to keep them consistent. Now I will go through some
of the ways that they might react to their arcs.
A steadfast
character will not accept change right away so they will hold onto their
original beliefs, but subtly without them even noticing a change they are
slowly evolving to their situation. Then, one day, they will have a moment
where they can make that change, whether it is for the better or the worse, and
they can either do it or not. Entirely up to you as the writer. If you are
writing a tragedy than this might be the perfect way to have your character
begin their descent into villainy, just at the moment where they could have
been that amazing hero.
Perhaps a
character is as steadfast as the one I just described, but this time they are
also very self-aware as to what is happening. They are constantly struggling
with themselves as to whether they should stick with what they know or take a
leap of faith and embrace the new. This character might have some inner
monologues, just like Hamlet, where they weigh out the pros and cons, slowly
becoming more and more convinced of one side.
Now imagine
a character is not the steadfast one that we have known before. Instead they
are undecided. They are constantly flipping back and forth between two ideas
because they can’t decide which one is best, instead going with the one that is
easiest at that moment. Eventually they must make a decision as people around
them, as situations, prove this technique to be impossible. Either they are
going to become more firm in their decision, or their indecisiveness will be
their downfall. As a writer, you can decide if you want this character to be
sincere, or opportunistic and takes advantage of those around him. Whether they
are selfless and want to do what is right, or just does what they want whenever
the situation presents itself.
Characters
don’t always have to go through permanent changes, especially if there is going
to be a sequel or series. Or just for fun. The character has changed and
defeated the villain because of these newfound skills. But in that resolution
something happens, an opportunity presents itself for the protagonist to go
back to their previous habits and, just like an addict who can’t resist temptation, they repeat what they have just learned not to do. Everything that
they learned in the entire book has been unraveled and perhaps at this point
the character has fallen to a new low. Cue the end of book so that it can be
resolved in the sequel.
It is
important that not only the main characters get a character arc, but the minor
characters as well to some degree. While not all books need this it does add a
richness to your world and a believability because you are not the only person
that changes in real life. But if character is not important to your story then
having all these arcs also isn’t important.
Even once
it’s plotted out, it is important to revisit your character arcs at the end of
your first draft to see how well they have succeeded. Pick one character and go
through the entire book to see how they have changed. If it doesn’t follow what
you initially wanted you can either go back and make changes, or even adapt it
to what you have written if you think it fits the story better.
Just make
sure that it fits with you character. If you character is ignorant of how
they present themselves to the world, then don’t have them debate in the
narrative as to how they should react. Don’t have them self-reflect if they
don’t do that. Instead show them struggling in their actions. This is a
technique for enhancing characters so it should not be more important than
keeping the characters consistent.
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