How Characters Can Change
While still on the theme of
characters and deep characterisation last week, it’s worth looking at how
characters are affected by the events in your story and how characters actually
change by the end of it.
Many beginners who are not
familiar with different layers of characterisation don’t always develop their
main characters, so they end up with the same character at the end of the story
as they did at the beginning. While this might seem consistent, it doesn’t
develop the character’s story arc. No character should remain unchanged.
Your main characters, and
some of your secondary ones, will absolutely change and develop throughout the
story because of the different escalating events that occur, the range of emotions
they have to deal with and the reactions they have towards the event and each
other. If they don’t change in some way, then the reader won’t see the
character as believable, and they won’t connect with that character or have any
empathy.
Just like real people,
characters can change their behaviours, their mindsets, their views and their
opinions.
What affects your
characters?
We write characters to
reflect real people in extraordinary situations. We show them at their most
vulnerable moments, we give them almost impossible events to deal with, we
force them to react and adapt to their situations and other characters, we
change their course and steer them into trouble and we make them do it over and
over.
It’s all the things we as
writers can throw at them, it’s all the situations and events they experience
and it’s all about the emotions and conflicts they feel as they deal with these
events that really affect who they are.
How do they change?
Events and situations change
them. When your character is confronted with tragedy, it will affect him or her.
The death of a loved one or a pet, losing a job or home and possessions, losing
one’s freedom, losing everything...anyone who has undergone a similar event
will know how deeply a sense of loss affects people. It always underscores a
tragedy, and beneath all that lives that ever present sense of emotion, and
conflict; whether it is anger, grief, sadness, withdrawal of emotion, or
something else.
Where there is tragedy and
trauma in your story, your characters will certainly change.
Another emotion that affects
people is fear. Whether it’s a fear of situations, a fear of others, a fear of
the unknown or a character’s own fears, that raw emotion will affect them in
different ways, but ultimately it will show in their behaviour and their demeanour.
Where there is fear, your
characters will react to it and their behaviours will change because of it.
Another thing that will
change your characters is the sense of injustice – being accused of something
they didn’t do, being punished for something while the real perpetrator goes
free, watching terrible things take place and being unable to help, or seeing
others suffer. This often leads to feelings of anger, bitterness and revenge,
and how characters see the world may sometimes change, and not for the better.
Love can also change your
characters. Love is complex; falling in love, falling out of love, loving
someone at a distance, loving the wrong person, never finding love, not able to
love oneself. Love can cause joy, it can cause anger and betrayal, jealousy or
hate...love is the one emotion that can manipulate everyone. How your characters deal with it and what it
does to them not only changes their behaviour, it can change the way they see
the world and other people.
Whatever it is that sets
that change in motion, make sure you show the reader how your character
changes. This is done through their behaviour; their reactions to things, their
inner thoughts, and of course, through dialogue. Maintain that connection with
the reader through your character’s feelings, thoughts and emotions.
Life changing events in a
story are just that – life changing. As
a writer you have to show how those events affect your characters – not just the
event itself, but also the after effects, whether they are physical, emotional,
psychological or all three.
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