When we read a story, we want to get pulled into the lives of the characters on the page, to connect and engage. We want to struggle with them. Fall in love. Experience everything they do. We want to see them change. That’s how their journey becomes ours.
It doesn’t matter how amazing a setting or world is if there is no character for us to identify with or rail against. It’s the characters who pull us into and through the story. Characters who prevail and share their triumphs and failures with us. Ideally, these characters change somewhere between the beginning and the end.
The course of a character’s story is called a character arc. It is the inner journey or transformation a character experiences from page one to the end.
Characters need either to change during the course of a story or be the catalyst that causes others to change around them. Without that, there is often a superficiality to the story. A lack of tension. Leaving out the transformative element results in a story that is more like showing a slice of life than telling a story. It is without purpose—more voyeuristic than engaging.
It helps if the character’s change is more than circumstantial. There should be emotional growth or change, whether for the good or bad. Maybe they grow into their potential, but sometimes characters become more evil as they go forward. They lose their humanity, make poor choices, and fall off the edge, forever lost (think Anakin Skywalker’s character arc). The key is to make sure your characters develop through the story or series if there are multiple books featuring the same character.
One way to do this is by presenting your characters with obstacles. When you pile trouble on your characters and prevent them from reaching their goals, you are offering opportunities to grow. Danger also increases the pacing of a story, which forces reactions. How your characters respond to obstacles should change over the course of the story. They should become more adept at facing dangers and hurdles to their progress. Or they should get angry and decide to fight back. However your characters respond should be a change from how they were before. The brave may become cowardly. The weak may become strong. The lonely find love. Those blocked and afraid open their hearts or minds. The point is to show development—a before and after version. They should not be the same in the first chapter as they are in the last, whether they succeed or not.
The next blog will outline how to build a successful character arc.