Arc

I did two things Tuesday. Well, more than two things, but two things that led me to this post. First, I worked on incorporating Maven crits into the first 60 pages of Beauty and the Bandit. I did this now because I didn't want the scene crits to pile up too high (lesson learned from Glorious!) and because I wanted to read those first 60 pages and see how my story, and particulary my hero and heroine, are holding together. The other thing I did was watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. What do these two things have in common with arc? Wait for it.

My heroine in BATB is rather self-centered. Her arc will take her from a narcissistic Society snob to a caring woman who will, oh heck, if I tell you, it'll ruin it. Suffice it to say she changes a whole lot. At least I hope she will. It's mapped out on the storyboard that way, and time will tell. It's a bit of a daunting arc if I think about it, so for now, I'm just writing away and trying not to think too much outside of the confines of the scene I'm writing. Now as I'm reading through several scenes together, I can see if her arc is matching the storyboard. And no, I didn't get through the 60 pages yet. I had a preschool board meeting tonight and, oh yeah, I had to watch Harry Potter.

Yes, had to. I'm a complete Harry Potter-phile. Love the books, love the movies. Even admitted Daniel Radcliffe has some pretty decent biceps in this latest movie (say otherwise, I dare you!). I'm taking the Maven Lacey route today, so bear with me, I'll get there. I'm watching this movie and completely appreciating J.K. Rowling's mastery of character arc. How on earth does she manage Harry's arc over seven books? Seven books! There are no spoilers here, so don't worry if you haven't read all of the books. All I'm going to say is that when you look at his arc and the overall theme of the books, you will be awed. (Again, I dare you to say otherwise!)

Managing your character's arc is tricky business. To do a really good job, you've got to know your character better than they know themselves. And since you created them that should be easy, right? There are lots of tools you can use - character interviews, information sheets, a storyboard. One thing I'm trying in conjunction with the storyboard is tracking character emotion/state of mind in scenes, whether it's their POV or not. In BATB, I'm finding that the hero's and heroine's voices in BATB are very strong, which is helping to keep their arc on track. At least I think it is. I'll let you know for sure.

What tools do you use to track character arc? How do your character arcs play into your theme? Do you gut-check your arcs as you're writing the story on the first pass?