21.40: The DREAM of a Structured Character Arc

Introduction to the character arc tool

0:00This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.patreon.com slash writingexcuses. Season 21, Episode 40.

0:19This is Writing Excuses. The dream of a structured character arc. Tools, not rules. For writers, by writers. I'm Howard. I'm Mary Robinette. I'm Erin. And I'm Dong Lan. All right. So, I'm excited because I get to introduce you to a new tool today, which I think I've referenced in the past. We talk about character arcs a lot. And the thing about a character arc is that it is a plot that is layered on top of another plot.

0:50So, we have another plot that's happening, but then we also have this character arc. And I learned about this tool from Elizabeth Boyle, who's a phenomenal writer, and she introduced this in a class on romance. And she said that she got it from an anger management class where she was forced to go. She was like, I don't need to take this class. And then as the teacher started talking, she's like, wait a minute, you're describing a romance arc. And I was listening to her in the class and going, wait a minute, you're describing every character arc in the history of ever.

1:25So, here are the beats. And then we can talk about character arcs and other ways to think about them. But it is denial, resistance, exploration, acceptance, and manifestation. And these are things that we do in the real world. And this is a way that our characters can move through. So, I'm going to give an example and then I'm going to let my colleagues, turn my colleagues loose.

1:58So, basically what we have is our characters' self-definition is incredibly important to them. And they're going to hold on to it. So, in romance, denial is, no, we'll never wind up together. And then resistance is, okay, there might be something there, but I can't allow that thing to be there. And then exploration is, well, one day it won't hurt. And then acceptance is, oh, no, I'm in love. And then manifestation in romance is matrimony. But manifestation is important because it is what you do after you have the acceptance.

2:33If you think about Casablanca, at the end of it, it has followed this progression. Rick is like, I'm totally happy being a loner. I will never be in love again. And then Ilsa shows up and he's like, okay, well, I was very in love with her at one point, but I was deeply betrayed. And I'm no longer in love with her. Exploration is, well, what happens if I just go talk to her? And then acceptance is, oh, no, we are both still very much in love with her, with each other. But at the end, instead of matrimony, he puts her on an airplane to go off and do the important business that she needs to do while he goes to do the important business that he needs to do.

3:09Because at the end, he understands who he is. And this is, in my mind, that at the beginning, a character is basically like, who am I even? And at the end, they're like, oh, that's who I am. And sometimes they like that person and sometimes they don't. I just feel I need to point out that this is any writer receiving an edit letter. Oh, yes. This is, so here's the, I'm glad you brought that up. Because the thing about this is that it is one of the things, when you're thinking about it in long term, a character will often go through this cycle more than once.

3:47And so when I am teaching this, I also, I talk about it in terms of writers. It's, I'm not a real writer. Yes, I've written some things, but I've never finished anything. And then, fine, I'll finish a story. And then I did it. Look at my story. And then manifestation. I'm a writer. I'm going to write something else. And then they're like, but I'm not a real writer because I haven't had anything published. And then it's like, okay, yes, I've had some things published, but they're only short stories.

4:19And, yeah, okay, so I've had some novels published, but they've never been on the New York Times bestseller list. And then, yes, I've been on the New York Times bestseller list, but I've never won a Hugo. It's like, well, yes, I've won a Hugo, but I've never had a movie made. Isn't it just that Daniel Abraham essay about you're screwed if you're a writer? Yeah. Yeah, basically. Or the Hierarchy of Doubt that came out a few years ago. It's similar. I don't think I've seen that. Yeah, it's very fun. Yeah, but it is basically, the thing is that what will happen is that a character will think that they have fixed one aspect of self,

4:49but the core problem often remains even if they have fixed one thing. This is the micro breakdown of a try-fail cycle. Yes. Yeah. Yes, this character arcing tool looks a lot like the Kubler-Ross model, the five stages of grief. It does. And one of the best ways to learn the five stages of grief is the Simpsons episode, one fish, two fish, blowfish, bluefish, in which Homer gets Fugu poisoning, and the doctor tells him, death anxiety is normal.

5:21Expect to go through five stages. And as he's naming them, Homer's, you know, no way, I'm not dying. Why, you little, what's after fear? You got to get me out of this. Well, we all got to go sometime. And it is in 15 seconds, all five stages of grief. And it's hilarious. And after watching it, you can't forget it because it's, it's so perfect. It's funny. I was just thinking about this as this set of things, which I have written down as it isn't, it can't be, could it be, it is, now I do something.

Applying the framework to negative discoveries

5:57Oh, yeah. Um, so, but I was like, I feel like this way about, like, I love doing this with characters discovering how screwed up the world is. Like, so it doesn't always have to be like a positive. It's like, it, like, you know, it can be a bad discovery. It can, the thing that you do could be burning the world around you. Uh, my favorite thing to have characters do. Uh, and so I think it's, like, really interesting because, like, it can be both positive and negative. And I also love that, at least in the way I'm thinking about it, the exploration is the only one that's sort of a question. It is the one where you're actually trying to figure things out, where the other ones are about you declaring something and discovering whether or not what you have declared is, in fact, true.

6:37It also feels important that the manifestation leads to a further complication, right? You want your menace to defestation to lead to a new denial because nobody fully manifests the perfect self at the end of this, right? And so even if you're looking at the macro arc of your character over the course of your novel, you want to leave space for future growth if you come back for a sequel. But even just to feel earned and realistic, you should be able to see the ways in which that character still has a journey ahead of them. So, when I wrote the Lady Astronaut books, Elma's arc is through dealing with her anxiety.

7:12And at the end, she has dealt with the anxiety in that she has become an astronaut and has anxiety. But the thing that she is most afraid of is being out in front of the public. So, in the second book, the thing she has to do is be out in front of the public. So, she has dealt with one aspect of the anxiety, but it doesn't go away. It's just now she has a different I-have-to-deal-with situation. I also think, like, if you don't have manifestation lead to something else, it can lead to what I call the Soylent Green problem,

7:48which is the idea that the revelation of something fixes it on its own. Because, you know, spoiler, but Soylent Green ends with him being like, Soylent Green is people, like, fade to black. And the assumption, I guess, is that everyone's like, we should stop with that or whatever they do. But in real life, as we often know, just because somebody tells you that something is bad or different doesn't mean that everything is fixed. It just means that you have greater awareness and greater context sometimes of what the actual problem even is. So, it's like, now, oh my gosh, like, if your first little arc could be like, this is an issue, then it's like, okay, well, what do I do about this issue?

8:25How does this issue show up in a new way I didn't anticipate? And there are all these new ways of doing that. This is where this differs from the Kubler-Ross model, because the Kubler-Ross model, I kind of see as this, you know, gradual slide into a position of acceptance of, because they're talking about grief, whereas in a character arc, that final stage manifestation, well, that might be where a lot of the exciting stuff starts to happen. Well, and it depends. Like, you know, as I said, you can, I think your character can go through that more than once.

8:58But I think what happens for a lot of people is that they get to, they stop at acceptance. And they don't do this, well, now it happens, now that I know this thing about myself, now that I, and you can also apply it to an understanding of the larger world besides just yourself, that there's this pause. I just want to flag one thing here as we're talking about these things. You know, we've mentioned certain psychological models, like the Kubler-Ross model, there's been a lot of critique of that model over the past few years.

9:29And I just want to, we make a lot of jokes about the overlap between therapy and writing advice, but to be just fairly explicit about a thing, what we're talking about is how to structure a fictional character arc. These are not necessarily principles that you should be taking into your everyday life in a very one-to-one literal direct way. I agree with that, and also, not understanding that people go through these phases is why most people fail at having real arguments in the real world. Because you attempt to get people directly from denial to manifestation without passing through any of the other phases.

10:04And this works for characters, but also sometimes if you recognize that you got someone from denial into resistance, that is a victory in and of itself. It's also where we fail on the page, and I'll talk about that when we come back from the break. If you've ever had the experience of trying to find a psychiatrist who takes your insurance, only to be told to wait months, or that they're not accepting new patients, you're not alone.

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Avoiding failure modes in character arcs

12:16Okay, so I said that I would talk about the failure mode of character arc. This is the thing where you have a deeply, deeply flawed character who is deeply flawed all the way through, and then right at the end, they suddenly have an amazing transformation without any build to it, and it's not believable and it feels very flat.

12:39Using the dream structure, that is, because you have attempted to go from the character is in denial that they're an asshole to suddenly they're not an asshole. In reality, what happens is that when someone does that in the real world, where they just stay in denial, they don't get that manifestation at the moment at the end, and if they do, it doesn't stick.

13:05So the other failure mode with that, besides the this isn't believable, is that it's very annoying to the reader. And so if you think about stages that the character can go through, you can still have them being flawed and having struggle in internal conflict, but the shape of that conflict changes as they go through. So when they're in denial, they're going to be doing things like, you know, I'm totally not an asshole.

13:35And then in resistance, they're thinking, well, okay, maybe I was a little bit of an ass, but they deserved it. And then exploration is, okay, what happens if I apologize? And sometimes that is, they go overboard, they overcompensate. There's the love bombing. Sometimes it is the, well, if you were offended, the fake apology. All of which can give you more conflict.

14:05But it's different conflict at different stages of the book. So it's less, it's less repetitive and it's less annoying. Yeah, I think a lot of times people just have the character stay in denial for a large part of the action. And I think that's where it can feel really, really repetitive, right? And I think the exploration phase is really important because we need to see that space of possibility that they're beginning to explore and beginning to understand before they can get to accept this manifestation. So if you have a character, especially one who is like a fairly negative character in a lot of ways,

14:40then giving them those moments. I think Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender is a great example of this. We see him in extreme denial, extreme resistance in early seasons, and then spend a lot of time in the exploration space with him until he becomes an ally of, you know, the Avatar by the end of it. You know, he's one of the greatest villains to Heroes arcs that we've seen in recent media. And I think he's a great example of this. Not to always be the apologist for just let your characters be evil.

15:11But I think, like, one way that you can do this if you want to have somebody who does not actually, like, change in the end, but not make it boring, so you're like, oh, wow, the asshole all the way through doesn't necessarily work, is actually to have them have a failed exploration and then acceptance of the thing they were in denial. So it's like, it's like, I was an asshole. Maybe I shouldn't. Now I tried not to be an asshole, but in a way, I don't know how to do this. Like, I, all the tools that I have are only the tools of assholedom. So, like, I only know how to do this in weird ways.

15:42People have now, like, I tried it. No one took my apology seriously. So I'm going to accept not only am I an asshole, but I, like, it is actually a good thing to be. Like, I'm going to double down. So the acceptance is not acceptance of change, but acceptance of self. And then oftentimes the manifestation is, how can I now be this thing, like, to the utmost? I will now take it to a level I might not have taken it before when I was in denial because I've accepted this part of myself that other people might see as negative. This is Kylo Ren in episode seven and eight, right?

16:12Where he's going from worshiping Darth Vader to truly become the leader of the First Order of accepting his villainy. And then Nine tries to adjust a lot of that in a way that ends up very confusing. But if you look at his arc of those first two movies, you have a very clear, I'm a villain. Maybe I'm not. Nah, damn, I'm really a villain. You know, and it's a really fun character arc because the manifestation isn't the one that we would want of him turning towards the light. It's him embracing. He's like, I'm going to be extra evil now. And it's a really interesting arc to see manifest.

16:46And if you want someone to feel evil rather than just opposed to the good guys, you take them on this arc. You know, oh, maybe being an asshole isn't everything that I thought it was. Oh, when I'm nice to people, my business plans fail. And money is more important to me than their feelings. And now I have a financially motivated asshole. So this is actually a great other tool that you can do, which is that you can pit two aspects of a character against themselves.

17:24So you could start with a character who's like, who is in denial, like getting promotion is the most important thing because they are valuing their status. And then, you know, yes, in resistance, I have to ignore my family, but the promotion is going to make a difference. So you've got status and relationship and conflict. And then exploration could be like, what happens if I skip a meeting to pick up my kid? And that's where we're like, let me let me try on valuing relationship.

17:55And then acceptance is, oh, crap, my kid is awesome. And I have been I've been a fool. And that point, the relationship is the more valuable thing. And the manifestation is changing work schedules. And the Grinch's heart grows three sizes that day. And the Grinch's heart, but but a lot of times, again, it it can be it can be very flat if you just stay in this one plane that a lot of times it gets really interesting if your character is in conflict with themselves.

Nesting arcs and mapping stories

18:22I think what's interesting there is you can also sort of nest a dream within a dream. So, like, in this in this thing that you just talked about, like the day that I picked up my kid instead of taking the meeting, like that in itself could be like, my kid is really annoying. Like the denial, like this relationship isn't as important because I have had to say it's not important in order for my other thing to work. So, like on the course, you often see this in like those like montages and films do this where they're like, I went all the way from denial to manifestation in like a really nice like song sequence where I realize my kid's really fun after all.

18:55And we high five at the end. But now what do I do about the big meeting? And so it's like you have this mini thing, but because it's within this larger arc, their new, you know, manifestation of the love for their child still has to fit into their broader goals that they had at the beginning of this story. What I like about this is, is it feels like a modification or disruption of the hero's journey, right? There's aspects of that are similar in terms of like the call to action, the refusal and those aspects. But the focus on exploration, acceptance and manifestation feels really different to me.

19:25And opens up the possibility space for your characters, right? So I'm thinking of how this maps to the film Parasite, for example, which ends with a manifestation that is really not what you would hope for these people, for this family. But they go through such a fascinating exploration and acceptance phase that is very brutal, very intense. But it maps better to this versus a hero's journey arc, which is absolutely not what the film is. It completely resists that interpretation. But you can map it to the dream structure, which is really interesting, as I'm looking at how this applies to a wider range of stories and a wider range of character motivations and outcomes.

20:04Well, I think it's also a good example, Parasite, is that one of the things that I also enjoy is when you get them into the acceptance phase, letting them sit with the discomfort of, oh, this thing I'm doing is bad, and letting them sit with it before they hit the point of being brave enough to act on their understanding. And so you get a lot of just like really juicy character discomfort. Yeah. And I think of that as the flood scenes in Parasite before they return to the house.

20:35And like, and that manifestation in the end is just really bleak and really hard to sit with in a way that's fascinating. Yeah, I think there can be an interesting break also between, I'm thinking about horror in general, like acceptance. So a lot of times, like some horrors will have like, is this a monster? Like, are we in danger? There's like a whole dream, like, and it's acceptance. Oh, wow, this is bad. But then the manifestation fails. I really like that. It's like, we are in danger and we're going to escape. Oh, wait, actually, we're not. We spent too much time like in denial. And like, actually, we have now like sown the seeds of our own defeat because it feels so horrifying to think, oh, my gosh, I figured out what I need to do, but now I cannot do it.

21:14This may be one of the like existential fears of life. You figure out what you want, who you are, but you don't have time to manifest it. And so I feel like horror often plays with that by making it external and like a dude with a knife. Yeah, I love that.

Writer homework and final wrap up

21:26Well, I think it is time for us to give you some homework. So what I want you to do is to take the dream arc out to play and take denial, resistance, exploration, acceptance, and manifestation and write down an action that your character can take to reinforce who they believe they are at each stage of the dream arc. And the reason I'm recommending this is because of another failure state that we haven't talked about with character arcs, which is that it's all navel gazing.

21:59And this makes it external and makes them have to interact with the larger world. So just write down one action that your character can take to reinforce who they believe they are for each stage of the dream arc. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.

22:20Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. For this episode, your hosts were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dong Wan Song, Aaron Roberts, and Howard Taylor. This episode was engineered by Marshall Carr, Jr., mastered by Alex Jackson, and produced by Emma Reynolds. For more information, visit writingexcuses.com.

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