Have you ever had a life-changing experience?

Did someone or something show you a new side of yourself? Did the experience change your previous ideas, notions, or beliefs? Or, did that experience improve you overall as a person?

It doesn’t even have to have been a good experience. A terrible experience can be just as powerful a teacher.

The point is, you’ll always remember that moment in your life as the day you forever changed as a person.

So how does this relate to our topic?

Well, in so many words, your experience gave YOU a character arc. Now, what in the hecksville do I mean by that?

Well today, I’m breakin’ down what a character arc IS, how it affects your character and why your character needs an arc of their own. So let’s hop to it! *cracks knuckles*

So, I mentioned a character arc briefly before. But let’s break it down some more because a character arc is a vital representation of your character’s journey. In fact, it is the character’s journey.

Put it simply, a character arc is the transformation of your character over the course of the story. If a character experiences an arc, that means he began as one kinda guy and gradually became a new person thanks to the challenges he faces in your story.

Need a better understanding of what this means? Have a look-sy at the visual outline below I’ve provided (click to download your own FREE copy!) This will be your reference guide throughout this post: 

(Click to download free worksheet!)

Ok so at the get-go, your character is one kind of person and through the hero’s journey, they become a different (ideally better person) in the end. What needs to be addressed through the hero’s journey is one (or more) of these things:

• A major flaw that needs correcting.
• A major secret that needs revealing.
• A major enemy that need defeating. 
• A major fear that needs addressing.

As you can see in the downloadable diagram, my heroine is selfish. That is her major flaw that I am addressing.

Now, the green star represents the heroine accepting the primary objective. She has a personal goal that motivates her to accept this primary objective and it is a selfish personal goal- perhaps it’s something that makes her appear to be something she is not.

Let’s take for instance, Cady Heron from Mean Girls. Down-to-earth, out-of-Africa Cady meets some outcasts from her new high school who dare her to go deep undercover with the plastics, or the popular girls, and mess with them from within. Cady accepts this objective because she has finally made new friends and she wants to fit in in her new school. Her challenge that needs addressing is her secret. She’s living a lie: masking as a mean girl in order to screw with mean girls.

So, back to the visual outline. The little gray backpacking guy is a representation of the details of my character’s story. The scenes, interchange of dialogue, introduction of new worlds, characters and concepts that will motivate the plot and get our character closer to the ultimate climax.

And that’s when the first challenge strikes, our green lightning, signifying the start of Act 2. Something or someone she meets along the journey to achieve her primary objective challenges her. This challenge addresses her flaw. And, being that she’s just a newborn little character without any XP she will fail this challenge hard- thus the red ‘X’ beside the lightning strike. She will fall victim to her own selfishness. This action, though, does not come without consequences. She may not face these consequences at first, or she may but not care about them.

A totes perf example of this is when Regina finds out Cady is into her ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels and misleads her into believing she will “talk” to him for her. At the Halloween party, though, Regina steals back her ex-boyfriend!

Ooooh snap.

Now, right then and there, Cady could have ended the friendship with the plastics and moved on. But after talking to Janice and Damien, she is driven to take revenge on the girls by lying and living a double life. So, she fails her first trial by continuing to live a lie.

Now, if we peek back at our handy dandy li’l downloadable chart, we see our character continues her little backpacking journey only to meet with the second lightning strike. Now, in this second lightning strike, you can see here that the character fails but starts to see the error of her ways. Her conscience is struck, she feels a need for change, but not motivated yet to make that change.

After scheming to get Regina to gain weight eating Kalteen bars, Cady senses herself changing drastically but feeling unable to stop. Through internal dialogue, Cady admits that she’s becoming obsessed, not just with taking revenge on Regina, but with her appearance and getting Aaron to notice her. So, second lightning strike for Cady but STILL NO CHANGE FOR “AFRICA”!

The start of Act 3 includes the climax or the height of conflict. Here, the character has learned her lesson, but the opposing force- the villain, for instance- will test them the hardest, proving whether they’ve committed to change or not. Here is where your hero/heroine must succeed.

Now, I don’t mean your character must win the war necessarily. I just mean that the hero has to become a new person after this defining moment. Because this is their true arc or changing point. From here on out, they are a different person.

Cady is rejected HARD by Aaron and confronted even HARDER by Janice. Now Cady understands how steeply she has fallen. But a furious Regina explodes the Burn Book all over the school, claiming it was Cady’s book. The school erupts into chaos. Lots of kids (and teachers!) get into trouble. Grounded by her parents, Cady makes the effort to change. She joins the Mathletes again and tries to right her wrongs with her friends, teachers, and other classmates. 

Thus, Act 3 ends with the denouement, that glorious crown on our heroine’s head. This includes how the character has learned her lesson. Through a scene of reflection or a satisfying statement of self-realization, the character has shed their old skin and become a better version of themselves. That crown signifies change.

Cady re-accepts herself for who she was. She turns back into being the Cady she once was- only this time, she understands the importance of self-worth, telling the truth, and not being afraid to be who you are.

And that is a character arc. In the beginning, the character is a rough diamond, a lovable rough diamond, but by the end, the character is a pure shiny, 20 karat diamond!

Through a series of internal and external challenges, the character has successfully achieved the hero’s journey.

Now take note: your story does not have to go exactly like this. Perhaps upon facing his next epic challenge, your character chooses wisely and acts selflessly. That would be ok! This is all about your character and his journey.

Stories are about change, ultimately. And readers want to see characters progress. They are invested in your character’s journey and they want to see how this character will come out the other side a better version of themselves.

So your character needs to experience an arc. When should your character change? Well, typically an arc happens in the middle or the end of act 2. But it can depend on your plot and your story’s message.

(Don’t know what a three-act structure is? Read all about it right here and why your story needs that too!)

An arc satisfies readers and it supports the heart (or message) of your story. Without one, your character will flounder and readers will sense that biz and it’ll be off-putting, lemme tell ya.

Creating a powerful character arc takes more than writing an epic story. It takes learning how to write unique dialogue, how to give your characters a specific goal, how to give your characters truly challenging conflict and much more.