There isn’t enough information around developing a character arc. It’s nowhere near as popular as planning the screenplay. Unfortunately, the character arc is extremely important and needs to have a plan put in place to flesh your character.
Start —> Ideally what they want to do or change —> End
That’s the dream.
The arc is made up of three key compositions: The goal, the lie and the truth.
1. The goal:
The goal is what the character is looking to achieve. Are they looking to conquer the world? Find the love of their life? Do they want to kill someone? (Dark… I know).
Your character is usually living a certain way going about their life as usual until the inciting incident completely throws them off and then they have to act upon the incident instantly.
Ebenezer Scrooge is a great example, his goal is ideally not to end up like his old business partner – a bitter and twisted end to his life.
*Check out these helpful pieces of material to develop your character: HERE
2. The lie:
This is quite deep. It’s a misconceived observation or view that they have of themselves or of the world that stops them from reaching their true heights. To reach the end goal, they have to acknowledge this and look to correct the misconceptions.
A great example we have seen of this is Walter White. He believes he is untouchable, god’s gift and he will never be caught by the law.
3. The truth:
The final part of the character’s arc… The truth.
The character may or may not have their own plans, but ultimately the truth happens. This makes a huge change and forms the final part of the arc as the truth has its own goal of overruling the lie and allow the character to self improve.
An example again is with Mr Scrooge himself. He actually realises that his life isn’t great surrounded by all this money and wealth. It finally clicks that all of this won’t make him happy, and that happiness is much more than physical wealth
After plotting these out for your hero character, you’ll start to see the story forming and you can implement this with the story planner.
Oh one last thing, subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest news, blogs and events!
