How to Write a Character Arc in a Series

Character arcs are difficult enough to write when spread over one book. You have to make sure they have things to overcome and the tools to overcome them with. It must be paced properly and written well. It gets even trickier when trying to spread it over more than one book.

How do you figure out how to do that? Or even know what kind of arc you want over your series? We'll be looking at both of those questions today.

Types of Arcs

The fun thing about writing character change over a series is that you don't have to do the same thing every time. There are several types of character arcs you can use, whether spread out over all the books, or at different kinds in different books. There are three major kinds, which I'll go further into in the rest of the post.

Traditional- Your classic overcoming the Lie arc

Various Arcs- Learning and changing in different ways each book

Flat Arc- The world around your character changes, but your character never does

Tradition Arc

If you've been around writing for a bit, you'll know the classic arc. The character believes a Lie. Over the course of the story, they must learn the Truth and use it to overcome their Lie to become a more complete human being.

You can use this arc effectively in a single book, but you can also space it out so the character works their way towards the Truth across a whole series. I'm going to use a trilogy as an example. Like plotting, you can imagine a trilogy as more or less equivalent to three act story structure.

From there, all you need to do is line up the character arc structure with your books. For example, anything that needs to happen in the first act of your arc will happen in book one. They'll begin learning about the Truth, but they won't accept it yet. They must show that ability to change, though.

It can be tricky to work in, as I've found, due to the fact about how slowly the character is changing. That's where mini arcs come in. We'll talk about them more later on. You also will need a firm grasp on what your arc is in order to spread it out without it getting boring.

Various Arcs

With this kind of arc, or arcs, you don't need to do the same thing each book. For example, in book one your character could learn that it's okay to have feelings, but then in book two have to learn to control those feelings. In book one, they could have a Positive Arc, but in book two it could spiral into a Negative one.

The basic idea is that you mix it up every book. If you're considering this kind of arc, ask yourself what your character could need to learn, grow, or understand in the different novels. Is there a way you can tie them together so they're cohesive? The theme of learning to love, for example, can take many forms. Love of self, love of others, love of God. Each of those could be covered in different books.

Flat Arc

In a flat arc, the character doesn't actually change. They remain stable even as their world shifts. Most long running series, like Nancy Drew or A Series of Unfortunate Events, have this kind.  Instead of learning to overcome a Lie, they have to remain true to their values even when it's challenging.

This kind might not seem as exciting as other kinds, but it has it's place. It's fun to write a character that doesn't necessarily need to change and is already secure in their beliefs. Many detectives have this sort of personality, which is why we love them so much. You can also throw them into many situations and see how they react.

Mini Arcs

And now a word on mini arcs. I have found, when using the traditional structure over three books, it's helpful to have miniature arcs to help keep the character growing while the larger change is taking place. What I do is decide a small Lie and Truth the character will use in each book. For example, if the overall arc is learning to love again, in the first book they could learn that other people think they're worthy, while still taking the first steps towards loving them back.

It's similar to the variation arcs. I don't know if anyone else uses this technique, but in my experience it works well. With all of these, however, it all depends on you and your story. What works in one novel won't always work in another.

How do you write character arcs in a series? What is your favorite kind of arc? Tell me in the comments.

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Onward and the Importance of POV

How to Write a Trilogy: Book One