What the Heck is a Character Arc?

One of the fundamental things that you should understand to help you write a great story is the character arc. The term character arc embodies all of the internal changes that the character goes through as a result of the story’s actions. Many novice writers and even published genre novelists leave this out, but I believe that it is crucial and helps to take your story to the next level.

Do I Really Need a Character Arc?

Although it is quite possible to write a story without a character arc, I would advise against it. The character arc is one of those things that satisfy the reader on a deeper level, one of those things that can leave the reader thinking about your story long after they’ve finished reading it. 

I’ve heard it said that some genre conventions dispense with the character arc, detective series, for instance. I’m not sure that I agree. Yes, you can pull the story off without an arc, but the story will always be more satisfying with one, even if it’s the same character arc in each story of the series.

Nameless Hard-boiled Detective gets a new case, but there is a trick to it, involving a mysterious woman. She seduces him, or he wants her to. He solves the mystery despite significant opposition. He does not end up with the girl. That’s the surface story. Underneath, our detective will change, though. He may go from hopeful to hopeless in every novel. He may go from a nice guy to a ruthless curmudgeon. The change can be subtle, but it should be there.

So, How Do I build a Character Arc?

Simple. We’ll go over this further when we get to outlining, but the gist of it is that you should build your character arc into your scene outlines. Show the protagonist acting and reacting to all of the stimuli that will force the change. Why do I say force? Because people are creatures of habit, and most of the time they will require a significant push to make long-lasting changes, even if they want the results of the change. Everybody wants to lose weight. Nobody wants to diet.

In Story Genius, Lisa Cron goes over it very well and in detail, but I’ll give you the nutshell version. Your main character has had something happen to them in the past, before your story begins. (You may not even want to share what the event was, to avoid making your reader sleepy, but you do need to know what it is.) This event instills your protagonist with a misbelief. This misbelief clashes with the external story goal and prevents the character from achieving it. Everything in the story goes wrong (plot conflict) until your protagonist is internally awakened by some story event, comes to see that their misbelief is false, and is then able to move forward with the external plot.

Here’s an Example

Jessica wants to get married, but has no takers. The external plot is about all of her exploits involved in finding a husband. But inside, she feels like an ugly duckling and thinks she will never find a man because she is too plain. Maybe she thinks this because she was bullied in grade school, or maybe her stepmother berated her about her appearance. Then she meets a man who keeps calling her beautiful, and she smiles, but inside does not believe him and therefore has trouble trusting him and committing to the relationship. Something has to happen so that she starts to see herself as beautiful. Maybe she gets a makeover. Maybe she is scouted by a fashion photographer, and when she sees the prints, she realizes that she is beautiful. Or maybe something happens to make her realize that true beauty comes from the inside, maybe she meets a model that she idolizes that ends up being a total bitch.  She could make the realization that physical beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

The above is just an idea. I am not a romance writer.

I do think, though, that we will run with the above loose plot, and in our next article, we’ll apply the three-act structure to it, and I’ll show you how I like to outline.

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Happy Writing!