Character Arcs: The Key to Relatable Stories

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Music.
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Are you a writer whose mind is a whirlwind of creativity and distraction?
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Hello and welcome to Writing While Distracted, the writing podcast that helps
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you transform your scattered thoughts into literary brilliance.
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I'm Brenda Murphy, your NeuroSpicy writing coach.
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Stay tuned as we discuss character arcs, the next step in the revision process.
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Hello and welcome back to the podcast. I'm Brenda Murphy, your NeuroSpicy writing
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coach, and today I want to dive into a topic that often confuses new writers,
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the difference between character arcs and story arcs.
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I'm sure you've probably heard about story arcs and character arcs,
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and it's very easy to get the two mixed up.
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So I'm going to take a moment and just clear things up.
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First, story arcs and character arcs are not the same, even though you will
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hear people say that character is story.
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What they mean by that is the character's development is a huge part of your
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story, whether your novel is character-driven or plot-driven,
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even in a plot-driven story,
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your character's changes over the course of the novel make it more readable and relatable.
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Your story arc is what happens overall, the sequence of events in your novel. It's the plot.
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It's how your characters deal with the plot that is the story arc.
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It's the what happens in your story, both in the story.
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Environment, around your character, and what happens to your character.
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The character arc, on the other hand, is all about what happens to your characters
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as they navigate these changes, the internal changes.
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It's about their personal growth and development, their change.
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It could even be about their downfall, and that's a very popular literary trope,
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as the result of the story's events.
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So you've got two different arcs to think about, the story arc and the character arc.
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And both of these arcs need to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
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And for a deeper dive into story arcs, I've got another podcast and an episode
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and actually a blog post too that are dedicated to that topic.
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And I'm going to link those into the show notes for you so you can have another reference.
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It can be a very complicated topic and one I think that trips up a lot of new
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writers or writers that have a hard time keeping all of the threads together.
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And many neurodiverse authors are struggling to keep their storyline straight
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because many of us are pantsers, we're not big plotters,
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and having a firm idea of what those things are is going to help you develop
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a storyline and know that when you're going through your revisions as you say
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things that you've put into your manuscript,
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does this fall under the story arc or does this fall under the character arc?
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And am I making it clear and showing my readers what's happening in the story
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as well as what's happening to my characters as a result of the events of the story?
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So here's the thing about character
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arcs. They're not limited to just your protagonist, your main character.
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If you have multiple characters in your story, each of them should have their
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own arc, especially if they're point of view characters.
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Even if it's a small change, having your characters in the story go through
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different changes makes it a richer story and and a more readable one.
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We don't function in a vacuum. Nobody changes in a vacuum.
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And changes in your character often bring out changes in other people because
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that character is not acting as they did in the past.
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The character has now changed, and that is going to influence those people around
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them as they notice those changes.
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You don't want your other characters to feel like window dressing or just cardboard
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cutouts that you stuck in their placeholders.
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I'm not saying that the guy who takes the change at the supermarket for whatever
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reason needs to have a full-on well-developed character arc.
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I'm talking about those people that your character interacts with on a daily
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basis or on a routine basis should have some kind of an acknowledgement and
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you should have some awareness of those other people in the story.
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And again, it doesn't have to be a dramatic change, but it can be part of what
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your character also notices that other people interact with them differently
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because they are changing.
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Think back to books that you've loved. Everyone in those books is impacted by
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the events of the story in some way.
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Even if the story is told from a single point of view, you often get a glimpse
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into how other characters change through the narrative.
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And that's the kind of depth you want to bring to your own writing.
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To figure out how your character is going to change throughout your story,
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doing some background work is essential.
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I've got a free workbook on designing characters, which I'll link in the show notes.
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It's based on Deborah Dixon's Goal, Motivation, and Conflict and Eileen Cook's
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fantastic book, Build Better Characters.
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And both of these are great resources to help you flesh out your characters
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and make them real as possible.
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Because when your character's actions make sense, your story resonates with more readers.
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There's nothing worse than a character who does something completely out of
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character without a good reason.
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Now, sometimes we love a surprising twist, like when the most selfish of characters
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suddenly sacrifices themselves for the group.
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But even then, we want to see hints of that change coming.
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It's those subtle, gradual changes that make a character and your story feel
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authentic and relatable.
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For neurodivergent writers, this process can be especially rich.
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Many of us have faced unique challenges throughout our lives,
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often from a young age, and those experiences can be a treasure trove for character development.
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We've often had to be more observant of the world around us,
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whether to survive, to mask, or to simply try and understand social cues.
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This heightened awareness can really help when creating characters who feel
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real and multidimensional.
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So lean into that, take advantage advantage of those skills.
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Now let's talk about how to effectively show your character's change in the
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story. Because remember, we're going to show, not tell.
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Because that's what makes a good book. We want to see what happens to the characters.
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And I use that word in that we want to have scenes that demonstrate a character's
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change and development.
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One of the first things you want to do is establish your character's starting point.
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That's the beginning of their character arc. Who are they at the beginning of
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this story? Now, don't info dump. Don't.
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Spill out a bunch of stuff and list every place they've ever gone to school
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and everything else in their lives up until that point.
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Show us who they are through their actions and their interactions.
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There's a great book called Save the Cat that explains how to do that,
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and I will link to that in the show notes as well.
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It gives examples from movies and script writing, screenwriting,
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that show the scenes that filmmakers talk into a film to show you where your character starts.
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And they do this with interactions with other characters, an elderly person,
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a child, or a random stranger.
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How they treat other people can reveal a lot about who they are as a person.
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The other part of looking at your character development and arc and a way to
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show who they are is the inciting incident, the thing that kicks your novel off.
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Now here, both the story arc is kicked off by this inciting incident and your
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character's character arc is kicked off.
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But you're going to have those viewed through a different lens.
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There's the large action happening in the background,
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the thing that kicks everybody out of bed and off to great adventures,
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and the thing that shoves your character out the door and into their next stage
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of growth and development.
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How does your character get pulled into the story? Was it by chance or did they seek it out?
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This event sets a story in the character arc in motion and it progressively
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complicates their life with various obstacles.
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Watching and understanding how they deal with these obstacles and these challenges
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show us their growth or lack of growth.
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There are those books that show you how the character tragically never changes.
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And that counts as a character arc, too. Even though it's a flat arc, there's no huge peak.
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They can just be the same-ish at the end of the book.
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They've acknowledged the events around them. It can be maddening for the other
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people expecting them to change.
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But when they go back to being their same old selves, that is still a part of your story.
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Oftentimes, you'll see this in side characters, not necessarily the main character,
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because part of telling a good story shows your character's growth over the
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length of the novel, or Or a series, you can also stretch it out.
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How do you show those moments of crucial self-realization where the character
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becomes aware of how their actions are impacting their life?
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And that's key to showing their development. When your character finally gets
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or has some inkling of what's going on around them and the world around them
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and how their actions are impacting what is happening going forward.
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Or how they're going to have to change to deal with what is now the current
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state of affairs at the midpoint of the story.
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That's the midpoint, usually, of their character development.
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Now, when you're looking at this, supporting characters play a vital role here.
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And again, how your character interacts with others shows a lot about who they
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are and how they're changing.
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If you're writing a romance, this is especially important.
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You want to show both characters realizing that they belong together,
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and it's how they react to that realization that drives your story forward.
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The climax of your story may not always align with your character's arc.
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Sometimes a character's big change happens at the very end of the story and
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after the main plot's resolution, when they take a moment to look back at their behavior.
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And I'm going to talk about the movie Backdraft for a moment.
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And spoiler alert, if you haven't seen it, turn the podcast off and go watch it.
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But for those of you who A, are not ever going to watch it, and B,
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are just interested, stay tuned. In the movie Backdraft, the main character's
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development culminates when he honors his dying brother's request to keep a
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secret for the sake of the fire department.
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And that is a significant change and marks a decisive departure from who that
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character is at the beginning of the story and where he started.
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And it happens after his brother's death, which is a huge, huge point.
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And the resolution of all of the parts of the story, they know who he now know
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who's been setting the fires.
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He knows who's responsible for all the arson.
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And he knows that his brother knew and was trying to do it.
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To solve it his own way at the very end and was unable to. And so he carried
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without embarrassing the department.
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And so he carries on that part of his brother's legacy.
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So let's talk about a series where the culminating event may not happen until
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three books along or longer, depending on how long your series is.
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Stretching out your character's growth and development over the course of several
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novels, can be challenging, but it is not impossible.
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And if you break those books up and think about your character's arc as starting
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in the beginning of the first book and not being solved or resolved until the end of the last book,
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then you can kind of plot out those changes as you go along.
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And it gives you much more room to show that development If you are into writing
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very long books, and I'm thinking here specifically of science fiction series and fantasy novels,
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where you have a great deal of time to show your character's change and development
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over the course of a series because those books tend to be longer.
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So even if you're stretching your character's arc out over several books,
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you want to have some resolution in each book so that not necessarily a new beginning,
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but a fresh challenge that's going to keep your readers hooked and turning the
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pages as they watch your character and observe your character changing over the course of the novel.
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And that's what makes you come back for the next part of the series.
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What's going to happen now? That's the first question.
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And two, how is this character going to react to this big change during the series? So.
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Focus on those things that will get your readers hooked.
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You want them to come back. You want them to turn the page. You want them to
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say, oh my gosh, how are they going to react to this?
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And you want them to feel like they know your character well enough that they're
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surprised when your character does something that's a little different or something
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that they didn't expect.
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You want your character to be relatable, but not routine and boring.
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You don't want your character to be predictable because that's when readers
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close the book and say, oh, I know exactly what they're going to do and how
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this is going to play out, or I'm not interested, or I'm not invested in this character.
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I've not finished books because I got to the middle of the book and I really
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didn't care what happened to any of the characters.
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And that's what will make me close a book faster than anything else.
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I have to feel like I'm invested in that character's growth and development
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and their character arc in order for me to continue reading a book.
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If I don't care about your characters, I'm not going to finish the book because why would I?
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Why would I? You read books to read about people and events and what happens
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to those people during the events.
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So why would you keep reading if you didn't identify or relate to or were not
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curious about what was going to happen to that character? So you want to make
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sure that when you're revising, that you polish your characters.
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Go back and add in scenes and dialogues or even events that show your character's
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progression throughout the story.
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Make sure your characters make sense and that their actions are consistent with
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who you have shown them to be and that their development feels natural. role.
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There are two different kinds of character arc when you're thinking about revision.
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And when you're doing revision, you kind of need to be aware of this.
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There's a positive arc where the character starts off flawed and grows into
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a better version of themselves.
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And that's kind of a classic character arc.
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And you can think of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, who goes from a quiet homebody to an adventurer.
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And you can also have a negative arc where
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a character starts off in a a very good place and then descends into darkness
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and becomes the villain of the story and becomes a person that you never expected
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them to become because of events in the story.
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And you can have a flat arc where the character doesn't change much,
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but the story around them does.
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And their reluctance to change and their resistance is also a story.
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So you can think about those things when you go through the revision process
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and you're looking, one, you've done your story arc overall.
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So if you have your plot kind of sorted out in your mind and you fix that,
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and remember I have a podcast that you can listen to to talk about that,
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and now you're looking at your character arc, you're looking at how the characters,
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how you're showing your characters fitting into those events.
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So if you think of them as nesting one inside the other, that can also give
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you sort of a mental model for how they fit together.
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And they don't have to exactly align, but they should be close because your
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character is changing because of events in the story. So get your story events
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nailed down first, and then look at your character development.
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How has that character changed because of events in your story?
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And again, I'm going to include a link in the show notes for a free PDF with
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50 ways to show your character's arc and build that into your manuscript.
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And that resource will help you make sure that your character's development
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is clear and compelling.
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And there's a lot of ways to do it. It can be overwhelming or frustrating at
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first because if you are first starting out as a novelist, that's one of the finer points of it.
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And it's one of those things where if you don't get it right,
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again, people close the book.
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If your characters are not compelling, they close the book.
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They don't finish. Or if you're trying to get representation,
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they stop reading. So the challenge today is that there are so many people submitting
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and seeking representation or seeking publication.
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Or if you're an indie publisher, you have about five pages to capture your reader's attention.
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And you need to do that by showing a character in those first five pages that
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your readers are more intrigued to turn the next pages to find out what happens to them.
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It used to be, they said, the first 10 pages to hook your readers.
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It is down to five because that is a result of attention span,
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decrease in attention span that's been documented, and also just the plethora
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of available reading materials.
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They can just go to the next book they're going
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to close it and go to the next book take your time build characters that are
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compelling and work to show how compelling they are in that first five pages
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before i wrap up i want to touch on a crucial point of character development and character creation,
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And you need to look for this when you're doing revisions.
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Be careful of stereotypes when creating characters.
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And I touched on that in several blog posts and another podcast I have about
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character development.
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And again, I'll link to all of these resources in the show notes.
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Stereotypical writing, lazy stereotypical writing does a disservice to your
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readers and your story. If you're writing characters outside of your own lived
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experience, please do the research.
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Hire sensitivity readers.
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Talk to people who've lived that life.
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Don't rely on stereotypes to fill out your novel. It is another way to ending
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up in the rejection pile because editors are not looking for stereotypes.
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Editors are looking for colorful, creative characters that are compelling,
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authentic and nuanced characters.
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Creating authentic and nuanced characters is what makes a book relatable and memorable.
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Memorable think back to those characters that you
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still carry with you from books that you've read characters
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that you wish you could meet
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in real life or those that you're really happy
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that you never have to so take your
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time use your tools and keep your
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characters real i've listed a bunch of resources in the show notes be sure to
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check those out and until next time keep writing and keep Keep creating those
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amazing characters and take some time during revision to make sure that your
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character's arc is front and center.
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Until next time, happy writing.
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Thanks for tuning in to Writing While Distracted, where we navigate the winding
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roads of creativity amidst the chaos of distraction.
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If you've enjoyed this podcast and found it useful, please share it and tag me, DM me and let me know.
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Give us a like and a follow so you don't miss the next exciting podcast.
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Leave a review if you can. It really helps get the podcast in front of more people.
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Remember, in the dance between focus and diversion, every stumble is a step
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closer to mastering the art of writing.
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So join me next time as we continue to unravel the mysteries of the writer's mind.
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Until then, keep writing, keep wandering, and embrace the distractions actions
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that fuel your creativity.
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Stay tuned. Stay inspired.