Sharing with Writers: Your Characters and Story Arc
By Donna Schlachter
Merely giving characters something to do doesn’t make a good novel. It doesn’t even make a good short story. Or a good television comedy. Unless you’re Seinfeld, which the majority of us are not. Thus, we cannot simply write a novel about nothing happening.
Action and activity don’t translate into something going on in the story. The reader doesn’t want to meet the main character or characters in the opening line, only to find out that while there was plenty of action and activity, the characters are exactly the same at the end.
That’s not real life, is it? Every single event, every word spoken to us or about us, every dream we have that we achieve—or we don’t—changes us in some way. And readers expect the same of our characters. Otherwise, why bother?
A story where the character doesn’t change isn’t real. Your story and character arc start in the character’s real ordinary world, and are propelled in an entirely different direction because of the circumstances and situations facing them, and their decisions and reactions to those changes.
Ask these questions about your hero, heroine, and villain to ensure they are forced to change: (I am using the masculine pronoun only to keep it simple. These questions apply to whatever gender your characters inhabit or adopt)
1. What does he want?
2. What will he die for?
3. What would he never do?
4. What would he never say?
5. What is one good thing about him?
6. What are three bad things about him?
7. What is his one redeeming feature?
8. At the end of the story, what does he really want? What can he not live without?
Now you can place your characters in circumstances, events, and situations that tear at the thread of their core, threaten their stability, and that bring out the best and the worst in each character.
For example, let’s look at a police officer who is squeaky clean but knows half of his department is taking bribes from the mob to look the other way. He says he’ll never accept dirty money, but:
· What if someone close to him needs an operation or medical treatment? His mother? His wife? His daughter?
· What if the police medical care insurer won’t cover the cost because they say it’s a pre-existing condition, or brought on by poor lifestyle choices?
· What if he needs the money, but he can’t beg or borrow enough for the treatment to commence?
· What will this good guy do to change the inevitable outcome? (Think Breaking Bad)
And once he steps over that line into the grey area, how will that change him? Will he apply this new thought process to his everyday beat cop duties? Will he try to stifle his rage over the unfairness of how he’s treated? Will he lash out? Will he give up?
As you can see, every choice our characters make changes them for better or for worse. Every time we put them between a rock and a hard place, they discover new strengths and new weaknesses about themselves that will now be reflected in their actions and thoughts. Usually what happens in a good story is that the main characters realize that what they thought they wanted at the beginning isn’t what they want now. Perhaps they’ve had to let something—or somebody—go. Perhaps they’ve had to admit that their dream wasn’t worth pursuing, but something else was. Perhaps they understand that dying isn’t the worst thing that can happen.
Whatever this discovery is, by the end of the story, the reader should find the outcome satisfying. They should have been able to see it coming, and it should resolve any questions they had about the character’s motivation.
More About Today's Guest Blogger
A hybrid author, Donna Schlachter writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both. Learn more about her at www.DonnaSchlachter.com where you can stay connected with her to learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and find a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for her free newsletter!
Donna blogs at www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog and is the author of Time Will Tell. Find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MNX4SKV .
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