Hello. Today I am going to talk about character, and what character means throughout the course of your story. In my Plot & Rising Action essay, I talked about rising action, and how the conflict becomes more and more a part of your character's life.
This should have an effect. Your characters are supposed to be developed well enough so that they feel like real people, not cardboard cutouts, and let's face it - when we go through traumatic experiences in our life, it changes us.
And besides, if you have a stagnant protagonist who is the same person on page 1 as she is on page 500, you can't help but think: What was the point of going on that adventure? To make a long story short, stagnant characters are unrealistc. Just take a long at these examples:
Isabella Swan in Twilight: When we meet her, she is a quiet, awkward bookworm who falls in love with Edward - without realizing what she's getting into. In New Moon, she never gets over Edward (Perhaps she should have thought back to James and realized that she should have just gotten a normal boyfriend)?. Were in her thoughts, so we can see that she still wants to be with Edward and she's learned nothing from he dangerous situations that she's been in.
Peter Pan in Peter Pan: I would consider Pan to be a borderline character. He does undergo change, but not that much of it. For example, his change, his character arc, is that he accepts the fact that Wendy and her brothers want to return to London. However, throught the movie, he's stil very much the same character - fierce temperement, a womanizer, and a boy who likes to mock his opponents.
In the case of the latter, stagnant protagonists like Peter can work if they are done well. Peter had a reason not to go back to the real world and grow up - be he is the boy who dosen't grow up.
Now, in the case of villans, they can be stagnant or not - either one works. I prefer dynamic villans, such as Darth Vader, because you sympthasize with the character and really want to know the story and background more, but stagnant villans (once again, if done correctly), like Lord Voldemort or the Joker can be done just as well. In the case of Voldemort, he is somewhat of a lesson to show where you can end up if you don't want to expierence love or friendship, and how you can throw your life away over little things.
So, how do you create a dynamic charachter? It's simple. Pick one major flaw, and make it become your character arc. It dosen't necessarily have to be a flaw, for example, in LoTR, the quest makes Frodo grow up a little bit more. The change dosen't neccesairly have to be good, for example, Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode III or Lucy Westerna in Dracula. Here are a few examples of dyamic characters, done correctly:
Wendy from Peter Pan: She's a somewhat typical child when we first meet her, who complains about growing up. After she meets Peter, she realizes why growing up is neccasry, and the expierence brings out the more womanly side in her.
Johnathan Harker from Dracula: When we first meet him, he's a curious young man who will play around with other women even though he's in a committed relationship. He's somewhat slow and stupid, but after he meets Van Helsing and marries Mina, and Lucy has been vamped, he realizes that his woman is important, and he becomes brave, quick, and a lot more wise.
Your character's personality dosen't have to change completly, because you want the reader to believe your protagonist isn't an entirely different person.
That's all for now. Stay tuned for future articles.
