Writing Character Arcs for SIDE CHARACTERS (Fiction Writing Advice)

character arcs are something we often associate with the main character of your story but side characters need arcs as well and today i'm going to explain how you can give them arcs and how you can use those arcs to make better stories what's up guys my name is brandon mcnulty i'm a writer i'm the author of bad parts and welcome to my writing channel last week i did a video on bad dialogue versus good dialogue and that video was pretty popular it was one of my subscribers who requested it so today i'm doing another subscriber request and this video is on side character arcs these are something that are very important to your stories i think again we often get bogged down and thought that okay well the main character is the one who needs the ark and sometimes the villain needs an arc as well but side characters also need arcs of different varieties i will be explaining that today i'll be explaining a lot of different things and i have examples from the original star wars movie as well as from lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring so we're going to have a lot of fun today and i want to start off by by answering the question what are character arcs and in simplest terms i'm just going to say that they measure how a character changes or doesn't change over the course of the story and one other important thing that character arcs do they express the story's theme a lot of people forget about this but character arcs should be contributing to the story's theme whatever it may be now i'm sure some of you are thinking okay great now we have a definition but how do you actually identify a character arc like i'm not even sure what i'm looking for and i think the easiest way to figure out a character arc is by looking at the before and after snapshots of your characters and this is because typically at the beginning of your story your character will have a flaw or a weakness and this can be anything that it could be like a negative habit like a gambling addiction it could be a negative belief like self-hatred it could be a negative trait like impulsiveness it could be temptation something like like lust for power there are many different flaws out there and usually at the beginning of the story a character has a flaw and over the course of the story they have this opportunity to grow toward a strength and a strength is the opposite of the flaw now not all characters will complete that growth toward the strength sometimes you'll have a before and after snapshot where they're they're miserable at the beginning of the story and they're happy at the end other times you'll have a before and after where they're miserable at the beginning and they're dead at the end so i mean there's a lot of different possibilities and i think it's also important to say that not all characters need to change i'm going to talk about that right now because we're going to look at the three types of character arcs now the first character arc is the positive change arc and this is where a character overcomes their flaw and develops a strength in its place usually this earns that character a happy ending or it might offer them the opportunity to make a sacrifice for someone at the end and thus make other people happy now the second type of character arc is the negative change arc and this is when a character succumbs to their flaw and fails to develop a strength typically what they do is they actually double down on that flaw so if they're a vengeful person at the beginning of the story and they get back at people in little ways maybe at the end of the story they're getting back at people by outright killing them or something way over the top and usually these types of characters will earn a tragic ending oftentimes they die sometimes they lose someone they care about or they lose some part of themselves or they lose a job or whatever it may be there's usually some kind of loss that defines the ending for a negative character arc and then the third type of character arc is the flat arc this is where a character maintains a flaw or a strength from beginning to end without any change and sometimes it's totally fine for a character just have a single strength that is consistent over the course of the story and maybe they use that strength to influence other characters to make them change or sometimes they have that strength and they try to spread the truth in a world full of lies an example of a character with a flat arc would be r2d2 from star wars he is consistently loyal over the course of the story now let's talk about side character arcs side characters and their arcs typically have less screen time or less page time than your protagonist and your villain they're usually going to have fewer growth beats in the middle of their arc and growth beats of course are these moments that lead them toward potential change and story length will determine how much time can be dedicated to side character arcs if you have a very short story it might only involve three beats we might just see who the character is at the beginning what their flaw is then maybe one growth beat in the middle and then at the end we get to see the outcome is it a positive change is it a negative change is it just flat or if it's a longer story maybe you're writing a novel that's several hundred pages you might introduce a side character we might get to see their flaw then we get to see multiple growth beats along the way until finally at the end we see how things play out for them now before we get into the examples i want to talk about one more thing and that is group dynamics oftentimes when you have a fantasy story or any type of quest story you'll have a group of allies working together in order to achieve some kind of goal and when these allies are working together they can challenge each other to change over the course of the story so you can have these different scenarios where characters are challenging one another to overcome their flaws sometimes the flaws are what cause the most conflict within the group it's not so much about the enemy they're trying to go up against but the fact that they're just trying to work out their own issues among the group all right now let's get into the examples we'll start with star wars a new hope and let me say right up front that we need to keep in mind that theme i mentioned at the beginning of the video and with the theme of star wars a new hope it's that you need to have hope and you need to believe in what you can't see whether it's the force whether it's your inner self whether it's the bonds of friendship whatever it may be so keep that theme in mind as we're going over these different character arcs because they all tie into it now the first one we're going to take a look at i know he's the main character but i want to just look at luke just for reference luke has a positive change arc he starts off with the flaw of self-doubt and he grows towards self-acceptance early on he's portrayed as somebody who doubts that he's anything special he believes that he's going to be stuck on his uncle's farm for the foreseeable future but this changes over the course of the story as he's tutored by obi-wan i'm not going to go through all the different growth beats that luke has but you know that he does change and eventually at the end he blows up the death star and he redefines himself as this great pilot and he's more than just a farm boy now let's take a look at the side characters we'll start with leia leia has a flat arc and that is because she has the strength of fearlessness throughout the story she's portrayed early on as somebody who is cool in the face of a crisis darth vader doesn't scare her over the course of the story she maintains her toughness while being interrogated by the empire while being threatened by tarkin and at the very end she remains strong as the death star approaches the rebel base she embodies the spirit of the rebellion with her fearlessness and that does not change over the course of the story if you want to see leia change you have to watch empire strikes back that's where she has a positive arc where she sheds her pride in order to be with han now speaking of han han solo in a new hope has a positive change arc he starts off the story being self-centered and he grows toward becoming self-sacrificing at first we see him as this mercenary who will do any job if the money is right but over the course of the story he is challenged by luke to become self-sacrificing the first instance of this is before they rescue princess leia once they find out that she's about to be executed luke says they're going to kill her we got to do something and han doesn't want to stick his neck out for later on right before the death star battle han is about to leave with his reward he doesn't want to get blown up in this battle so he's just trying to keep himself safe luke again challenges him to become a better person and eventually it pays off at the end when han sticks his neck out for luke and the rebels during the death star battle the other major side character is obi-wan kenobi he has a flat arc he is defined by his strength which is wisdom and he's introduced as a man who is knowledgeable of the force and he teaches luke about the force over the course of the story and in the end he aids luke as an unseen ghost obi-wan's wisdom allows him to exist even after his death so if you're looking at the side characters in star wars a new hope han is the only one with a positive change everybody else is flat this helps keep the story simple and it also helps make han stand out more at the end his self-sacrifice factors into the theme of the story which is that that belief in what you can't see that hope and what you can't see and the other characters with the flat arcs their arcs also contribute to this theme with their fearlessness their loyalty their wisdom holding out hope for a better tomorrow now let's take a look at fellowship of the ring and this applies to the movie not the book i don't want any book fans yelling at me so this again applies to the movie and we're going to say that the theme of fellowship of the ring is that those who underestimate power are destroyed by it now keep that in mind as we're looking at these different arcs and we'll start off by just taking a quick look at frodo frodo i would say he has a positive arc i know some people say oh he has a flat arc but i'd say is a positive arc because his flaw at the beginning is that he's indecisive and he grows toward becoming a decisive person at the end of the story early on he's portrayed as somebody who's afraid to leave the shire he's afraid to bear the burden of the ring he wants other characters like gandalf making decisions for him but over the course of the story we see him making more decisions as he goes along at the midpoint he decides to take the ring to mordor and he makes this decision because he wants to stop everyone from arguing a little later on he makes the decision to enter the minds of morya but this is only after gandalf encourages him to decide and then at the end of the story however he makes a choice that he doesn't have to make he becomes decisive and he decides that the ring is dangerous and he doesn't want it tempting his friends like it did with varamir so what frodo does is he decides to set out alone now let's take a look at the side character arcs we'll start with sam sam has a flat arc and his strength is loyalty and wow it is loyalty through the roof because his loyalty only intensifies to the point where he is willing to drown rather than leave frodo on his own at the end next we'll take a look at gandalf gandalf has a flat arc he is wise and responsible those are his strengths and they are consistent throughout the story at the very beginning he's shown as being wise enough to know that the ring will destroy him over the course of the story he manages the fellowship he directs them he makes decisions he's a responsible guy at the end or at least at his end he sacrifices himself to protect the fellowship and protect that hope of destroying the ring next we'll take a look at mary and pippen they're a package deal and i would say that they have a positive arc they start off with the flaw of immaturity and they grow toward becoming more mature initially we see them as this carefree pair of hobbits they're first shown as being troublemakers lighting off fireworks having a good time that sort of thing and their immaturity causes some problems over the course of the story we see them being timid in battle and of course there's consequences to that immaturity in the minds of moria when pippin tampers with the corpse at the well and his childlike curiosity sets off a chain of events that puts people in danger and it leads to gandalf having to sacrifice himself at the end now the last time we see mary and pippin in the fellowship movie they are growing up quickly they're fighting off works with boromir eventually they're captured but during this capture they are putting up a fight they are showing that they are much more serious people speaking of boromir he has a negative change arc his flaw in this movie is arrogance and the strength that he should be growing toward is him becoming more humble him recognizing that the ring is too much for him that it could corrupt him however he fails to develop that strength and he meets a tragic end now when we first meet boromir he's portrayed as being arrogant yet honorable he's got this strong loyalty to his home kingdom of gondor but over the course of the story we see him constantly being tempted by the ring especially when frodo momentarily loses it on the mountain and his arrogance and his lust for power eventually get the best of him he betrays frodo and he attempts to steal the ring toward the end and he gets his tragic ending where he's punished by death now that being said his death is an honorable one he fights in the end to protect the two hobbits mary and pippin and this honorable death highlights the complexity of his character yes he does get punished but at the same time he does redeem himself to an extent in his final moments next we'll take a look at aragorn aragorn has a positive change arc he starts with the flaw of self-doubt but he grows towards self-acceptance at first he portrayed as this gritty ranger named strider the fact that he goes by the name strider instead of aragorn that signals self-doubt it signals an identity crisis over the course of the story we learn that aragorn is the heir to the throne of gondor we're constantly reminded of his lineage he's challenged by boromir at one point and toward the end we see him stepping into the shoes of a leader after gandalf falls into the pit aragorn is the one who leads the fellowship after gandalf is out of the picture and at the very end aragorn declares that he will allow frodo to head out on his own and instead the remaining group will focus on rescuing mary and pippen and this is of course aragorn taking those steps toward becoming a king using power in order to protect the weak accepting who he is and then lastly we'll take a look at legolas and gimli together as a package deal i will say that they have a positive arc they start off being resentful toward each other's cultures but by the end of the story they become accepting early on gimli doesn't like elves legolas doesn't like dwarves but they end up supporting each other in battle these kind of beats really help develop them as characters toward the end of the story gimli learns that his kinsmen didn't survive in the mines moria and that really hits him hard because that's the home of his ancestors and when he finds out that it's been overrun by orcs and trolls that really breaks him afterwards lady galadriel and elf shows gimli some sympathy and this moves him he really starts accepting elves at this point and then legolas and gimli eventually recognize the power of friendship and they come to accept one another so with fellowship of the ring this is a larger story and a larger cast than what we had in star wars a new hope and because of that we have different character arcs for these supporting characters we have flat arcs we have positive arcs and we even have a negative arc and the variety here makes the group dynamics compelling it creates conflict and intrigue and gives us different outcomes we get to see what happens to people who refuse the rings temptation and we also get to see what happens to those who succumb to it so i hope this helps if you want to learn more about character arcs take a look at either of these two books i will link them in the description below the nutshell technique by jill chamberlain simplifies the approach it works with flaws and strengths like we talked about in this video also you can take a look at creating character arcs by km weyland this is a great book very detailed a lot more in depth so if you want to take the next step with your character arcs definitely check out this one question of the day who is your favorite side character from a story and what is their arc let us know in the comment section below thank you guys for watching if you want to support the channel please pick up a copy of bad parts if you haven't already also be sure to check out my other videos hit the like and subscribe buttons for me share this video with a friend and as always remember to keep on writing

Channel: Writer Brandon McNulty

Views: 109,254

Keywords: Writing, Writing advice, Writing Tips, Fiction, Creative Writing, How to write a book, How to write a novel, novel, book, star wars, Lord of the rings, Fellowship of the ring, leia, han solo, aragorn, arcs, character arcs, side characters, How to Create Character Arcs, negative character arc, positive character arc, flat character arc, flat characters, character development, supporting characters, arc, writing character arcs, writing characters without character arcs, LOTR, character

Id: LkHUhcZIWlc

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 26 2021