Character Development



(I will be editing this slowly, because I'm pretty busy, but I figured I'd just start it now, at least.)

{DISCLAIMER} This is not a character BUILDING page, I will probably make another post regarding that and have a simple guideline/Outline for all the things you should probably figure out while building a character, so you can then move from that base to character development. : )

{2ND DISCLAIMER} I'm not an expert, I have my own style and comfort zones in writing, but this is basically my personal advice, and things I wish I'd been told when I started writing.

{POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING} When speaking of character arcs and development, I tend to get on the mental health side of things,(All sorts of trauma) and I- personally- am "okay" with grittier/dark topics. It's totally okay if you aren't, I will put warnings in any comment replies or sections in this post so that you can either skip over it, or just be warned in general.

Hi, I'm @Goldy_Empress, but you can call me Goldy! I lean a lot towards character driven stories, I love chatting about everything that makes a character tick and I tend to respond to comments on my posts- so if you need help/something is confusing, just comment below.

Word Key: Arc, MC, OC, Mary Sue, Gary Sue.
Arc: The transformation and development characters undergoes over the course of the story, realistic growth and sometimes declines. It tends to be the saving grace for most main characters, who, more often than not, become bland and Mary Sues fairly quickly.

MC: Main Character

OC: Original Character (Commonly used by artists or Fanfic writers.)

Mary Sue: Bland character that is way too perfect and has absolutely no flaws. Which, I suppose is a flaw within itself.

Gary Sue: Same thing, but the male version.

Ingredients to a Successful Character Arc
For this article, I assume you have a pre-existing character, that's just feeling a little: "Meh." You need something to spice them up a bit? This is where you start!

I'm going to assume your Mc/C already has their personal flaws and strengths- but you don't quite know what to do with them?

Here's a list of qualities that can very easily contribute to a unique arc to your Mc/C's personal story:

Insecure/Sassy/Bully/Go-lucky/Anxiety/Depression/Hot-headed/Arrogant/Leader/Follower/Introvert/Extrovert (Depression and anxiety are not "Natural" qualities, but they may still help.)

So, some of the solutions are obvious to these "flaws." Insecure? Become confident! Go-lucky? Learn how to be a Debbie Downer! Great, that's fixed! NOOOO! Stop! It's not that simple. Ever.

Character arcs sound simple- but making them realistic? That's a steaming hot cup of tea. It's almost like baking, everything has to be perfectly exact and make perfect sense, there can be few loose ends, and if there are; they need to be realistic, "Human" loose ends. Things that can be shrugged away by saying: "It's how most people are." or "It's relatable."

Take Zuko, from Avatar The Last Airbender. He has an admittedly perfect arc, that is very hard to attain. He goes from someone so set on finding his honor, so that he can be happy and welcomed back home to his father. He truly believes this will make him happy, when his father is the one who banished him from the Fire Nation in the first place. That already shows Zuko feels he has to prove himself to be loved by his father; When in reality, his father is just insane and extremely brutal. Struggling with self-worth and insecurity, Zuko becomes jerky and treats others around him as less-than, in his pursuit for temporary happiness. (Though, he doesn't understand that just yet.) He works tirelessly to capture the Avatar. (That's what his father said he needed to do, if he wanted to come back home.) I should probably mention Iroh, his uncle who went with Zuko when he was banished to watch over him. Iroh is the only good influence on Zuko's life and actually loves him. Ofc, Zuko takes this for granted and is very rude to Iroh. After 3 years, his father finally takes him back home, and Zuko doesn't even have the Avatar- he's welcomed back to the Fire Nation, and lives in "Luxury." But he soon realizes he's not happy. This isn't what he wanted. Iroh was put in prison- and it was just not what Zuko had expected. He didn't feel loved, like he thought he would- but he decides to believe it's because he never actually captured the avatar, and if he does that, he'll truly be set free. I'm going to skip over a bunch, but in the end, Zuko befriends the Avatar and teaches him Fire-bending, after getting sick and being a good-guy for a while, then flipping back and forth between good and "bad." Realistic- after being so set on your own glory, Zuko is a mess, once all of his anger and shame is stripped away, he's shown to be very sweet and gentle.

You see, there's a lot of relapsing, there's a a lot of doubt in Zuko, for a long time, he doesn't even know if he can trust himself. But, with the help of Iroh, he saved himself from a lot future pain- and it felt so rewarding as the VIEWER, to see this. It was perfect- now, let's list the cycle of a good character development.


 * Every flaw/Trauma in the Mc/C is apparent, and blatant
 * Mc/C usually has a BFF/Mentor/Parent, who's trying relentlessly to help the MC without being too pushy/Usually the Iroh of the story, really wise, but allows the MC to think for themselves.
 * Mc/C steps out of comfort zone, all the good things about them shine / bc Mentor convinced them to do something
 * They fall back into their old ways/ it is a mess/ It feels like nothing can be fixed now/Blame mentor
 * Mc/C becomes stagnant and unreliable
 * Mentor leads them out of the struggle
 * Mc/C finally starts making the right choices for their personal goal/personality
 * Usually a breakdown bc this isn't normal for the Mc/C/ This is usually after the mentor takes off for a bit or dies/ or Mc/C cuts off mentor
 * Another fall back, but not as bad as last time- but if the mentor passed away, it can be much worse
 * They tend to be separated from their past Mentor now, once that's gone they have nothing to fall back on now. They only have themselves to blame.
 * Finally, they accept their failures, they embrace the struggle, and they learn to forgive and move forth.
 * remembering what the mentor has been telling them the whole time, for the first time, they get themselves back on their feet.
 * Triumph!

It's seems like a lot- Bc it is! That's why stand-alone MC's tend to feel bland or copy and pasted. But if you read longer series, you can definitely pinpoint moments like these in your favorite characters. Zuko's arc only ended in the last season of the show, that's 3 seasons of following this character.

Think of how rehab is for {WARNING} ex-drug abusers- they tend to take it slow, taking less and less of whatever they were taking until they rely on it less and less. Then they are, what we call: Clean.

But that arc, is a survivor's tale, that's for your happy ending. What about the Character arc-Decline?