Learning how to choose the right character arc is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your story. Whether you’re writing a Positive Change Arc, a Flat Arc, or a Negative Arc, the arc you choose will shape everything from plot structure to theme to emotional resonance.
Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)
Choosing the right character arc is every bit as important a decision as choosing the right plot or honing the right theme (indeed, all three decisions are linked). Some stories will pop into your brain with an obvious character arc already intact. Other stories require a little more forethought.
What Is a Character Arc?
A character arc is the internal transformation characters undergo over the course of a story. It’s the difference between who they are in the beginning and who they are by the ending.
Sometimes that transformation is positive. Sometimes it’s tragic. And sometimes the protagonist doesn’t change much at all, but instead the supporting characters and rest of the story world transform around them.
At its core, character arc is what gives stories emotional resonance. It allows plot events to matter on a deeper level than just external action.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the three major categories of character arcs:
- Positive Change Arc: Protagonist overcomes a Lie and embraces a thematic Truth
- Flat Arc: Protagonist already possesses the Truth and uses it to change the story world and supporting characters
- Negative Arc: Protagonist struggles with the Truth and falls deeper into a Lie
Within the broader Negative Arc category are additional variations such as the Disillusionment Arc, Fall Arc, and Corruption Arc.
3 Questions to Help You Choose the Right Character Arc
Fortunately, picking the perfect character arc for your story requires nothing more than answering three questions.
1. What’s Your Genre?
Genre won’t always be the deciding factor in the type of character arc you portray, but it should definitely be a consideration. As Harold Crick learned in Stranger Than Fiction, stories follow certain patterns:
Tragedy you die. Comedy you get hitched.
Harold Crick seeks help understanding the shape of his own story–a perfect example of how character arc and ending are deeply connected. (Stranger Than Fiction (2006), Sony Pictures.)
Positive Arcs get happy endings. Negative Arcs get sad endings.
The Moral Premise by Stanley D. Williams (affiliate link)
In The Moral Premise, Stanley D. Williams explains:
Genre films create certain audience expectations for the protagonist. Often the protagonist’s arc is known by the audience before the movie begins. Such expectations about the construction of the genres may predetermine how the protagonist reacts to the story’s moral premise and conflict. This is because, as Thomas Schatz explains in Hollywood Genres, genre movies deal with fundamental cultural conflicts that can never be ultimately solved but yet offer a solution, if only temporary and idealistic.
Broader “umbrella” genres such as fantasy and historicals can tell just about any kind of story. But most romances, for example, require a Positive or Flat Arc.
Audiences come to genres with built-in expectations about emotional outcomes. Romance readers generally expect emotional fulfillment. Mystery readers expect resolution. Tragedies often lean toward Negative Arcs.
This doesn’t mean you can’t surprise readers, but it does mean you should understand the emotional contract your genre naturally creates.
2. Where Does Your Character Arc Begin?
Here’s the equation for choosing the right character arc for your story: Character arc is always the final sum of your story’s ending minus your story’s beginning.
If you can figure out who your characters are in the beginning of your story, you’re already halfway to writing their arcs.
- Are characters in a comparatively good place in the beginning?
- If so, then they’re either in a Flat Arc (in which they’ll have to leave that good place and fight for it when it is threatened) or a Disillusionment or Corruption Arc (in which they will leave the good place and never return).
- Are they in a less-than-good place?
- If so, they’re either in a Positive Arc (in which they’ll journey toward a better place) or a Fall Arc (in which things get even worse).
- What do your characters believe in the beginning?
- If they start out believing a Lie about themselves or the world around them, then they’re either at the beginning of a Positive Change Arc (in which they’ll overcome the Lie and reach a positive Truth), a Disillusionment Arc (in which they’ll overcome the Lie and reach a negative Truth), or a Fall Arc (in which they’ll never grow into the Truth, but instead embrace an even worse Lie).
- If they believe the Truth, then they’re starting out on either a Flat Arc (in which they’ll use that Truth to transform the world around them) or a Corruption Arc (in which they’ll fall away from that Truth).
One of the easiest ways to identify your characters’ arcs is simply to ask: What incomplete understanding of themselves or the world are they carrying at the beginning of the story?
The answer to that question often reveals both the thematic conflict and the direction of the arc itself.
3. Where Does Your Character Arc End?
This brings us right back to the old “happy ending or sad ending?” question.
If you know your characters start out believing a Lie, but end up happy, then you know they’re going to be following a Positive Change Arc.
Plot vs. Character by Jeff Gerke (affiliate link)
In Plot vs. Character, Jeff Gerke writes about figuring out this type of story:
Now it’s time to imagine what the alternative [to the Lie] could be. If you are Fate in this story and you’re not going to let [your character] remain in her miserable stew, what are you going to try to get her to change to? What is the happy other possibility you’d like her to see and possibly seize?
In other words, a story with a Positive Change Arc will always end with the characters in the opposite situation to the one in which they found themselves in the beginning. The characters will have changed, and the world around them will reflect that.
Same goes for a Negative Arc, but in reverse. Characters in Disillusionment and Corruption Arcs will end in a place that’s a darker reflection of their beginning, while characters in Fall Arcs will end up in a place that’s the same as the beginning, only worse.
Flat Arc characters won’t change themselves, but the world and the characters around them will be drastically different from how they were in the beginning of the story.
Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)
One useful thing to keep in mind is that character arc and theme are always connected. The ending of your story doesn’t just determine what happens externally. It also reveals what the story ultimately believes to be true.
Double Check You’ve Chosen the Right Character Arc
Based on your answers to these three questions (and their sub-questions), you should be able to identify which arc you want your characters to follow and to start plotting accordingly.
But before you rev your engines too much, stop a moment to double-check yourself.
- Is the arc you’ve identified your strongest possible option?
- Do your story’s beginning and ending contrast each other strongly enough?
- If your protagonists had to face the events of the Climactic Moment in the beginning of the story, would they react to them in the same way they do at the end?
If they would take pretty much the same action at both the beginning and end of the story, you know their Change Arc isn’t strong enough.
This holds true for Flat Arcs as well. Although the characters’ personal Truth and integrity may hold fast throughout the story, they shouldn’t have the motive or understanding to act in exactly the same way at the beginning as they will in the end.
Here are a few quick questions you can use to test whether your character arc is working:
- Does the ending strongly contrast the beginning?
- Have the characters’ worldviews shifted in a meaningful way?
- Do the external plot events pressure the internal transformation?
- Would the characters make different choices in the Climactic Moment than they would have in the opening?
- Does the ending reveal a thematic Truth?
The general question of “which character arc is right for your story?” is every bit as important as the specific story details of the arc itself once you start plotting.
Before you ever put pen to paper, take a moment to figure out your characters’ arcs and make them as strong and memorable as possible.
Frequently Asked Questions About Character Arcs
What are the main types of character arcs?
The three major categories are Positive Arcs, Flat Arcs, and Negative Arcs. Within those broader categories are variations such as the Disillusionment Arc, Fall Arc, and Corruption Arc.
Does every story need a character arc?
Most stories benefit from some form of character arc because transformation is often what creates emotional resonance. However, not every story requires dramatic internal change. Some stories intentionally use Flat Arcs in which characters change the world around them rather than changing themselves.
What’s the difference between character development and character arc?
Character development refers to how much readers learn about characters throughout the story. Character arc refers specifically to internal transformation.
Can a story have more than one character arc?
Absolutely. Many stories feature multiple character arcs for protagonists, supporting characters, and antagonists. Often, contrasting arcs deepen theme and conflict.
What’s the difference between a Flat Arc and a Positive Arc?
In a Positive Arc, characters personally transform by overcoming a limiting Lie and embracing a thematic Truth. In a Flat Arc, the protagonist already understands the Truth and instead uses it to transform people and the story world.
Note: This article has been revised and expanded from an earlier version.
Want More?
One of the reasons I care so deeply about character arc is because I don’t see plot, character, and theme as separate. The most resonant stories happen when all three begin working together as one cohesive structure.
That’s why I created my class Alchemizing Plot, Character Arc, & Theme. It’s one of the most foundational and inspiring frameworks I teach, exploring how plot, character, and theme work together to create stories with emotional resonance, narrative momentum, and deeper meaning.
If you’ve ever felt like your story has all the right pieces but still somehow feels disconnected or lifeless, this framework can reveal what’s missing.
I originally taught this class for the Worldshift online summit last year, and I’ll be re-premiering the recorded class on June 24th with a live chat and Q&A alongside it. We’ll explore how to align inner and outer arcs, how to let theme emerge naturally rather than forcefully, and how to create plots that feel meaningful from the inside out.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What type of character arc are you writing right now, and how does it shape your story’s ending? Tell me in the comments!
Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music).
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Author: K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland