Character Arcs // Why You Need Them and How to Start Writing Them

Let me just throw this rambling at you about a certain thing I see missing from YA novels time and time again:

Character arcs are SO important!!

Without them, the whole point of the story is meaningless. True, there are probably some exceptions (there are always exceptions), but overall stories would be empty if the character reached the end without learning anything.

Would The Lord of the Rings be as amazing and touching if Frodo returned to the Shire in the end and went back to being the plucky young hobbit he once was?

Would The Voyage of the Dawn Treader be as amazing if Eustace ending up not being redeemed and went on with his bullying ways to the very last page?  

I myself have changed so much over these years, and I haven’t even gone on a quest or led a worldwide rebellion against the government (yet)!

The first step to working towards your character’s arc is to give your characters flaws and shortcomings.

For example, one of my characters, Piper Anson, is a super optimistic happy-go-lucky teenage girl.

 Now, at first these aspects of her personality appear good, and in a way, they are, but along with being super optimistic, she’s also super unrealistic and naïve, even to the point of being selfish. 

Because of this, Piper leaves her brother who is suffering with depression and from being bullied to deal with their mom’s hospitalization alone in order to pursue a wild dream in hopes of earning money for her mom’s hospital bill. Obviously, this plan doesn’t work out like she thought, and she finds herself realizing the mistake she’s made.

Character flaws are easy to come up with, simply take the good things about your character’s personality and show the bad side to them.

Is your character super cheerful and spunky? They might also have a harder time empathizing with people and holding their tongue.

Are they super sweet and creative? They could also have problems socializing and feeling like they fit in.

Character traits are often paradoxes, there are pros and cons to everything, and showing this creates a more complex feeling to your plot, as well as making your characters feel like relatable human beings.

Getting back to character arcs, once you’ve established your character’s strength and weaknesses, consider what they need to learn in your story. At the end of their journey what about them has changed?

In the Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen realizes that she is weaker but simultaneously stronger than she thought, she also learns that humanity is a super important and fragile thing. 

In Nothing Left to Burn, Audrey learns that there is a difference between love and obsession and that the truth isn’t always as clear as she thought it was.

How has your story defined your character, how do they see themselves now? How has the changes in their lives affected their view on the world? How are their relationships now? And do they know something they didn’t know before?

The song I Know Things Now from Into the Woods illustrates this pretty well, in the song, Red Riding Hood sings about how she was deceived by the Wolf’s charms. “Nice is different than good,” she sings, showing that she has learned that there is a line between charming and authentic.

All in all, arcs are very significant, they add a sense of direction and satisfaction. 

How do you write character arcs?

What are some of your favorite arcs in fiction?

And what flaws do your characters have?