In every story, there is an arc that the main character is going to undergo. This is what helps readers attach themselves to the character and relate.

As people living non-fiction lives, how many different ways we might be changing at once can get pretty complicated. Who you were five years ago is different from who you are today. And it is different from all the future versions of yourself.

Fiction, on the other hand, has no time for that.

Stories take the human process of growing and learning and make them a little simpler to help convey a lesson within it for others to learn and grow from. Time in stories travels way faster than in real life.

The human brain, complex thing that it is, is very good at visualizing and playing pretend and it likes to put itself into the shoes of a character so it can learn. If people can't attach themselves to the content, they won't remember it after they're done, if they even finish it.

Let's go into the steps of change. There's a particular technique you might use where you work backwards from the end state of your character to figure out where they need to start. For example:

By the end of the story, your character is more confident in themselves and more experienced in using their magic. In order to change into that, they will have to be the opposite when they start: nervous, self-doubting, untrained in using their magic properly. Let's say they want to win an ongoing war in their world. Specifically, they want to ensure they and their family make it out safe. So your character is nervous and self-doubting and can't control their powers well enough, and that is blocking them from fighting against the Evil Leader who is leading the uprising against non-magic.

We have an endpoint, a beginning and a motive in that order.

Another common one is rising to become a hero in the face of adversity. In order to be a hero, the character will have to change something about themselves. If they start a hero, ready to slay dragons, then their change will have to be away from the hero they were at the start, perhaps becoming more compassionate and down to earth.

With a beginning and endpoint for your character, they're going to need some emotional moments along the way to help move them towards their change. Nobody just changes on a dime. In reality, people often take a long time to change and have to go through a lot of lessons and self-reflection. Fictional characters too have to go through some trials.

Let's go back to our nervous magician with a hero factor and use them as our guide through emotional points. Here are the things we'll need to know:

Why are they the way they are at the start?

Like a psychological profile, this is what caused your character to be the way they are. It may never be explored in the story but it will inform how you think about them. Did something happen to them that makes them doubt themselves? Have they always been this way? How did they get their powers?

For example, the character, we'll say, lives in a world where magic is forbidden and only used by the bad guys, so they've got to hide who they are. They've found it easier to just do whatever everyone else is doing to fit in and be normal.

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What will they have to overcome?

Why haven't they just gone ahead and done the things they need to do already? What will challenge them to become that person?

Example character needs to show that magic isn't always bad. The big blockers in their way are their personal history of self-doubting, plus they have a family who could get hurt in the process. Now the war between magical and non-magical people is getting worse, and they would need to stand up to people they care about, which is inherently hard for them to do (not every challenge needs to be slaying a dragon).

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Who will be their catalyst?

Who else are they going to encounter on this journey that is going to push them towards changing?

Our example will have the Forest Witch who had once been the kingdom's well-known healer but was later shunned for using magic in an allegedly harmful manner. The Forest Witch came to despise non-magical beings for blaming her for something she didn't do, unhappy with the fact that she was shunned, and joined the uprising against them.

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What will be their catalyst moments?

Here, the character might have some other people who will push them. They may also have big moments where they have to make a choice and learn something.

They can fail to grow, they can grow a little, or they can grow a lot. It could be a moment that teaches them something but it takes them time to figure it out.

Example character can realize that the non-magical people were wary of magic because they did not understand it. They could try to explain, and we can go from there, or they could try to bring back the Forest Witch who the people once knew. This could open up more opportunities to introduce new motives and emotional points, even relationships and betrayals.

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As some additional advice, you can also draw this out on paper, making a line and putting who they are at the end and then going backwards to figure out who they are at the start. Then start filling in what's in between as major emotional points.

You might've noticed that as a function of Character Development, you get a plot.

This is very important. They're involved in it. They drive it. If the plot isn't related to them, then the reader won't be able to connect to it.

You'll know that plot happens around a character and not through them if you're able to switch them for any other character in the story and it doesn't change anything.

If your character is the 'Chosen One' (we see you, Potter), if you make a different character the chosen one instead (Malfoy, perhaps), does the plot still play out the same?

This is the last component of character arcs: the flexibility of them.

As each thing happens, check back to your character's psychological profile.

Who are they and why are they that way? How would they react to this emotional situation you've put them in? Learn? Grow? Resist? Miss it entirely? And now that they've changed a little bit, what does that mean about the next step they will take?

If our nervous magician starts to show their magic to others, what will happen next? Will they finally stand up for their place in the world? Or will they suppress their powers and try to fit in again at the first sign of difficulty?

All these choices might start to affect your plot along the road and you'll start to get a clearer picture of the ending. This is also how you end up in situations where the ending changes a little.

You might realize that your character has grown to a point where they actually wouldn't agree with the rules of the magical beings and end in a surprising, but earned, twist.

Our example character is probably supposed to end the war between the magical and non-magical world; they have learned to control their magic properly and they might finally stand up to the leader of the uprising and defeat them.

Instead, with the help of the Forest Witch, they defeat the leader misguiding the troops and bring both the magical and non-magical community to settle with peace, showing them that they were all humans and magic doesn't change the person they once loved.

Growth is organic so it unfolds in unexpected ways. Even if you plan every detail of your story, you'll find that when you write the scenes, characters have their own will.

Never neglect your character's will and their growth.

The plot is tied to their lives and their development. Yes, everyone remembers the moment when someone strikes down the evil leader. But everybody forgets the stories where the character didn't have any connection to the plot, even if they too have big, exciting moments.

And if you writers want a fun challenge for the weekend, why don't you try writing a scene with that replaced character and see how that plays out :p

Until next week then.

Happy learning. And happy writing!