Major admission: I enjoy the Twilight books.

Yes, I know… That’s heresy in the writing world. Sorry. However, I have to say I never cared that much for Bella. I was more interested in the rest of the characters in the story. Looking at it after reading this, I think I understand why. Bella doesn’t have much of an arc. She doesn’t have any internal conflict. Edward, Jacob, Jasper, and so many of the other characters have internal conflict, things they have to move past. They are fighting their internal demons, in some cases more than they are the external things they are dealing with. They are the characters I want to model my characters after…

I really appreciate when you walk us through the movie with the plot points defined. It seems so simple when you do it.

In many stories the antagonist doesn’t experience a character arc at all. In thrillers and mysteries they usually get captured or killed, in fact. While the arc of the hero is pretty clear, the arc of the baddie is your call completely.

More important to arc in an antagonist is their backstory, some glimpse into whatever conspired to bring them to where they are in the story, their values (or lack thereof), their goals, their resentments, their skewed world view.

Watch some movies and read some novels and pay particular attention to the antagonist’s arc… my guess is, you won’t see much of one. Hope this helps.

Is it the same as setting up the characterization of the hero/heroine? It doesn’t work the same for me–not sure why. All suggestions appreciated.

ps. Re: Nora Roberts’ trilogies
Janice is right that each book has a hero/heroine romance with the happily ever after for the couple, but… there is always a thread of mystery or adventure that began in the first chapter of the first book and isn’t resolved until the last chapter of the last book. My favorite Roberts’ series has multi-generational couples whose stories are interwoven and who all add skills and sacrifice to the resolution.

ambitious, yes. its been fun so far, but i’m only halfway through the first draft. i’m enjoying the process, and feel much more confident about my directions since finding story architecture and the six core competencies. i’m finding that the more i learn, the more i don’t know, but that’s kinda fun too.

Thanks for another great blog series Larry! very helpful to me

Your comments about the character having to learn and thus grow by learning triggered an ah-hah moment for me. I’ve been working hard on learning character transformation-for some reason I’d never really considered learning itself to be the key thing I needed to grasp. Wow.

So, as a hero wrestles with a conflict and tries to solve it, she’s really learning how to do so, and in the process, changes herself. At least, that’s how I see this now. Does that make sense?

Thanks for another great post.

Within each book you should address one aspect of the hero’s arc and have her/him move toward resolution, while applying that to the meeting of the goal and solving of the problem. I think the idea is to show them moving forward in confronting a particular demon, perhaps rising to meet the need at hand within a single book but without completely conquering that problem (like, someone sobering up enough in one book to win the day, but in the next book the demon is back). Each book in the series becomes a demonstration of the hero’s learning curve, but not necessarily the conquering of the demon completely… until the end.

These are all judgment calls, never an exact science. The more you adhere to all of the criteria for a successful single story/book, without allowing the fact that the series will continue to compromise the story at hand, the better off you’ll be. As Janice says – and we should always listen to what Janice says, by the way – Harry Potter is the model for this — each book-specific storyline resolves itself,
leaving the “master plot” (nailing Valdemont) open-ended.
Harry conquers some inner fear within each book, yet the Harry that returns in the next book is still on a path that he hasn’t completely mastered.

Hope this helps. Sound like you have an ambitious project on your hands… enjoy the ride! L.

The West Wing was great for enjoying character arcs, too. I loved how the main characters evolved as they dealt with a range of personal and public tragedies, humiliations and triumphs.

Nora Roberts’ trilogies, especially the ones that deal with the paranormal, are all based on thirds: three characters find three spouses and each of the first two books ends in a triumph that contributes to the grand finale in the third book. I find the formula tedious now, but millions love it, and for her it works.

Thanks Larry. You always get me thinking.

the way i see it, there might be smaller inner demons that will be addressed in each volume, but the major character arc should exist over the whole of the series, or you risk shortchanging your readers at the end, or having the end of the series be anticlimactic because the MC has already completed the character arc.

How would you look at character arc if writing a 3-6 book series about one character?

Great information in this series, and it has really opened my eyes to what a few of my characters were missing. Thanks!