Author Archives: christinedesmetauthor

Sometimes it’s tough to get your character to change, but the writer knows change is good, even necessary. After all, we know about the necessity of a “transformational arc.”

What if your character doesn’t want to change? What if you are getting lackluster responses from agents, editors (or reviewers if you self-published)?

Some characters don’t change much, but change still has to happen to something or someone in the story because the lesson about “change” is why a story exists.

Great stories also transform an ENTITY, according to James Bonnet in the writing guide called Stealing Fire From the Gods.

He suggests writers ask:  What “unit” does your story change? A town? A family? He points out Star Wars changed a whole galaxy.

Your novel or script might be about something smaller. What might your character help fix or build? It might be as small as them re-decorating a room or fixing a car during the story.

Here’s the KEY:  Let the process push your character to think about how they might change, too, as the “entity” of your story changes. The REFLECTION by your character is important to include.

Bonnet points out, “The fate of the entity is linked to the destiny of the hero who is caught in the middle.”

Keep things credible. The larger the entity, the slower the change.

Map out how the “entity” might change in your story start to finish.

Then map out your character’s reactions to the entity’s changes.

Often, a protagonist will be reticent in the beginning but dive in at the climax to help push the entity to a new status. And voila, you have a more interesting character with a transformational arc that sells better.

Sometimes in our fevered pitch to tap out a novel or script for whatever deadline, we forget an important aspect:  What does the story promise the reader?

Writing is hard. An idea may seize us and then we just write until the end shows up. Or we’re stuck after the first page and wonder, what next? Or, worse yet, even with careful plotting and planning, the story fails to attract readers (such as a literary agent, a producer, or just an ordinary discerning reader).

When writing my own stories and when working with writers I’ve always loved the notion that a story promises to demonstrate human needs readers can identify with and care about.

In addition, a well-designed story addresses human needs scene by scene.

Do your scenes carry emotional resonance? Do details and reactions help us care?

Bill Johnson, in his fine book I highly recommend called A Story Is A Promise, mentions what may seem obvious:  A story that clearly communicates its promise draws in an audience.

A few questions Bill (and I) ask, with my embellishments added:

…What does your story promise the audience? (One notion or promise, please, not a half-dozen promises. Stories de-rail fast when the focus becomes diffused.)

…How do you introduce your story’s promise? Is it interesting enough? With emotional resonance (which can be of any kind)?

…What events fulfill your story’s promise? (Do you need more events? Bigger ones?)

…What details evoke the drama of your story’s promise? 

…In the opening scene of every chapter or act, how are you making a downpayment on your story’s promise?

…Do the events of your story make the stakes clear?

From expert Lisa Cron in her book, Story Genius: “Story is about an internal struggle, not an external one. It’s about what the protagonist has to learn, to overcome, to deal with internally in order to solve the problem that the external plot poses.”

Use the one “promise” of your story as your “control,” then write and revise. Your story will become sharper and affect readers in an amazing way. 

Sometimes when a story won’t unfold the way we’d like, or sometimes when a novel or script is passed on over and over, I’ve found the key might be the character lacks a “Fatal Flaw.”

Most novels and screenplays are about the journey a character takes because they have something to change or learn. Knowing the character’s flaw can help a writer create more depth in a way that pushes the plot along almost automatically.

A novel or scripted story is where we watch a character make choices under pressure. To apply that pressure, we need to know their flaw—that thing they might not want to admit to but it’s been holding them back in life.

The Fatal Flaw is NOT the same as an ordinary character weakness. More on that later.

Dara Marks, in her wonderful book on the subject, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc, offers this:

“The FATAL FLAW is a struggle within a character to maintain a survival system long after it has outlived its usefulness. …It’s an unyielding commitment to old, exhausted ways…and resistance to the rejuvenating energy of new, evolving levels of existence and consciousness.”

The law of nature is simple:  If something or someone isn’t growing or changing, it or the character is heading for decay and death.

To find the Fatal Flaw in your character, think about where they’ll be a few years from now if they don’t change. What’s holding them back from being all they can be?

Examples of Fatal Flaws you may have seen in literature and other media:

• A man grew up using fists to get what he wants and still believes in doing that.
• A woman grew up learning how to please everybody else but never herself.
• A young girl shoplifts to feel important to her circle of friends.
• A person keeps remarrying the wrong kind.

A Fatal Flaw is not just a weakness easily corrected or managed. Shyness, for example, isn’t a Fatal Flaw. A bad habit such as drinking too much might be a symptom of a Fatal Flaw but it’s not a Flaw itself. Sometimes a jerk is just a jerk but that may be a symptom of a Fatal Flaw.

Typically the Fatal Flaw took seed early in life, in childhood or the teen years. Look into your character’s past and create the backstory for them. What is it about their personality now that has lingered since that childhood episode and they need to face it now? What is that past “thing” that changed them?

The antagonist or a buddy is often the key character to point out the Flaw, forcing your protagonist to face the Flaw.

Figure out your character’s Fatal Flaw and you’ll have a good story leading to an explosive, emotional Midpoint Crisis and last-act Climax.