Creating Character Arcs by K. M. Weiland

Writing Craft. 274 Pages. 5 Stars

Synopsis: 

Powerful Character Arcs Create Powerful Stories

Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters—but it just isn’t grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It’s time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

By applying the foundation of the Three-Act Story Structure and then delving even deeper into the psychology of realistic and dynamic human change, Weiland offers a beat-by-beat checklist of character arc guidelines that flexes to fit any type of story.

This comprehensive book will teach you:

How to determine which arc—positive, negative, or flat—is right for your character.
Why you should NEVER pit plot against character. Instead, learn how to blend story structure and character development.
How to recognize and avoid the worst pitfalls of writing novels without character arcs.
How to hack the secret to using overarching character arcs to create amazing trilogies and series.
And much more!

Gaining an understanding of how to write character arcs is a game-changing moment in any author’s pursuit of the craft.

Bring your characters to unforgettable and realistic life—and take your stories from good to great!

My Review: 

This is an absolutely stellar resource and tool for writers. The more I engage with Weiland’s work, the more I just have mad respect for the woman.

First off, Weiland is a great teacher. She explains things so simply and straightforward. There’s no guesswork about the point she’s making or convoluted circular logic. She makes her point, reinforces it with numerous examples, and provides practical questions for application to your own writing. Boom.

I know people learn in different ways, but I connect with Weiland’s teaching style. And I’m so thankful. I’ve been studying characters for years and this book is GOLD I tell you! Not only is her explanation logical (and often threaded with humor), but she takes the time to explain how character arcs relate to plot points, which is really useful as a writer who struggles with external plot elements. If I can understand how the character’s journey functions and how the character arc moments relate to the plot development, I can then begin to understand what I need in my plotting to make the story work well.

I work best with examples, and there was no shortage of them in this book. Weiland takes well known and loved books and films and uses the same examples consistently throughout the book to illustrate the development of the character arcs in those stories. It was incredibly enlightening for me to have those examples to follow, not only for each individual point, but through the arc as a whole. And often where one example was a little weak (which she did a good job of admitting and pointing out), four other examples present were strong. Her examples honestly made me want to rewatch/read the stories to specifically look for the things I was learning through the book.

And, of course, her applicational questions <3 I love Weiland’s heart for being practical and useful. She doesn’t stop with excellent teaching or relevant examples. She forges on and gives numerous questions at the end of each chapter to help writers tease out their characters and write strong arcs.

Furthermore–you ask how can there be more, but oh, there is–she considers the different kinds of arcs in story and commonly asked character and character arc questions. This book is an all-in-one, comprehensive character arc resource. If you write, you need this book on your shelf. If you’re an ultra nerd like me and just want to better understand story–whether you write or not–this book is an easy, quick, and incredibly useful read. Go. Get. This. Book.