Character Arc ! ! A well done character arc is a mark of good fiction. If you’re unsure about just what a character arc is, think of it this way: Are you the same person you were three years !ago? Ten? I’m guessing the answer is no. Your life has unfolded and you’ve changed and possibly grown in response. Those internal changes have brought on new external realities, !which in turn causes even more growth on your part. And the beat goes on… The same is true for your novel. In the beginning of your story, while your character is still in his ordinary world, he is at one end of this arc. By the end of your story, the !events and what’s been required of him have brought him to the final point on this arc. Your job is to clearly establish where he begins, where he ends, and the major turning !points in between. At this point I’d like to bring up something that may be controversial in writerly circles. While I do believe that every MC needs a character arc, I don’t always think that arc needs to involve major transformation. Do our characters need to grow? Yes. But not all growth is transformative. This may be splitting hairs, but it’s an important enough !element of good story-telling that I want to be as clear as possible. There are countless stories of MCs who hold their ground. I’m thinking most specifically of thrillers and detective novels. Take Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs, for instance. Clarice grows, to be sure. But does she change in a fundamental way? Is her worldview different at the end of the story than it was at the beginning. My answer to !that question is no. I bring up this example because if you’re writing such a novel, I don’t think there’s a need to manufacture change if growth will serve your story just as well or better. However, even in a growth arc, it’s still necessary for your MC to be tested. This testing usually results in the MC firming his resolve and becoming a better version of who he !was at the beginning of the story. The change arc is usually a version of what Joseph Campbell refers to as The Hero’s Journey. The transformation is often radical and affects not just the MCs world, but those who inhabit it. Think: Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. My own novel, Gateway, has my protagonist, Ember, in a change arc. At the beginning of the story she is suicidal, !and by the end, she very much wants to live. There’s one other arc to mention: the fall arc. The fall arc is less common and usually used in tragedies. If you expect your lead character to end up aligned with the darker forces (whatever they may be) of your novel, your story contains a fall arc. Think: Black !Swan, where Natalie Portman’s character goes mad and possibly dies. If you’re a plotter, you probably already know something about your ending and are writing toward it. Knowing who your character will be in the end makes it easier to !reverse engineer his character arc. But don’t be concerned if you don’t have a clear idea of where your story is headed. Simply craft your character arc based on what you do know, and make !changes as necessary. It may be helpful to begin brainstorming on the 2-3 scenes that will clearly show your MCs arc, be it growth, change, or fall.