Stories are fundamentally about change.
A change should occur in every single scene of your novel.
At the end of your story, your character (in most cases) should be a changed person.
If things aren’t changing, your reader is likely to get bored and walk away.
How do you keep your reader up at night unable to put your book down? How do you write a story that is so good, your reader raves to all their friends about it?
One key ingredient: A Hero Who Changes
A few weeks ago, I told you all about why having a point is a good idea. Now that you have that point, you are going to use it to make sure your main character has a rock-solid arc of change.
Here’s how.
It’s Journal Time!
Take your point and make a list of ways your character could change to demonstrate your point.
For example, if your point is that it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, your hero may start out as someone who keeps everyone in their life at arm’s length because they are scared they will get hurt if they let anyone get too close. But, by the end, that same hero has learned to open their heart to that special someone, and opens their heart to other people too.
Pick one change from your list that best reflects the point you are trying to make. Ideally, it will play nice with the plot you’ve already created.
Next, write a one or two sentence description of the opening scene of the novel. Do the same for the last scene in the novel. If you look at these two scenes side by side, it should be clear and obvious that the hero has undergone the change you picked for them.
If it’s not clear, how can you change these two scenes so that they do demonstrate your hero’s arc of change (and therefore, your point)?
You may find that you need to totally change the opening and closing of the novel in order for the change to be clear. Here’s another exercise that can help you:
Brainstorm a list of opening/closing scene pairings. Test them out to see how well they visibly demonstrate the arc of change you are going for.
Once you’ve picked a winning pair, write those scenes!
Want someone to help you trace your character arc?
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