A character arc is a simple way to visualise your character’s progress through the story, whether it’s a binary comparison of their beginning and end states, or a point-by-point graph of their emotional ups and downs… Last week we studied how characters change, and this week’s worksheet offers a simple method for visualising that change.… Read More
Most stories describe a character’s transformation from one state to another, and over time, storytellers have developed plot formulas to help them understand how characters change and how this change can be related to an audience.
In general these formulas guide the character through the following steps…
It’s important to celebrate in life, and even more so in fictional life where gatherings can serve many purposes that further the plot, develop characters, and build up the story world. And unlike real life celebrations that we’ve planned, we’re happy when things go wrong in fiction!
Are you in need of a pep talk right now? Or maybe your characters are, whether in a private conversation with a mentor, or on a crowded sports pitch, or on a field before battle. Or perhaps it’s your readers who await encouragement, motivation, incentive, impetus, ignition…
The character’s home is often the main setting of the Ordinary World, and the environment in which the reader first encounters them. The people the character lives with at the beginning of the story not only help shape the character, they also help create the Stasis (beginning) state and the Resolution (end) state that define the character’s development arc, and also set the story in motion.
This page contains affiliate links which help support the site.