How To Check If Your Protagonist Has a Character Arc

When you’ve written a story, you want there to be character arcs. Readers crave to see the growth or downfall of a character based on their choices.

In the previous step, we made sure we picked the right POV character.

When we talk about a character arc, we mean essentially that by the end of the story:

• The protagonist has some type of flaw and false belief that they overcome by the end (a positive arc).

• The protagonist has some type of flaw and false belief that they double down on; it becomes their truth (a negative arc).

• The protagonist does not change in any meaningful way (a flat arc).

So the character arc shouldn't be confused with the story arc.

In most stories, you don’t want a flat arc. There can be an exception for some genres, like action and mystery. If you have a flat arc, you’ll want to make sure your characterization is as strong and interesting as possible (think Sherlock Holmes or James Bond).

But how do you evaluate what your protagonist’s arc is? For this, we will have to look at some of the major plot points in your story.

Because if you do your job well, plot and character development go hand in hand. (The next article I’ll create will be on your plot structure.)

Note: if you have more than one protagonist (which is possible, but I would generally advise you to pick ONE who’s the main one), you can check all their arcs this way too. You’ll just have to identify each of their individual plot points.

Now, let’s dive into the questions!

1. Who is the character at the start?

2. Who are they by the end?

3. How is their status quo challenged?

4. Why do they change their approach at the midpoint?

5. What is their All Is Lost Moment & Dark Night of the Soul?

6. What is their ending climax?

7. Putting it all together

8. Practice makes perfect

9. Recommended resources

   
   

Who is the character at the start?

To identify growth, we need to know who they are at the start of the story.

Check your first and perhaps also second scene. Answer the following questions:

• What is the crisis your protagonist faces here?

• What decision do they make?

• What do they actually do?

If you can’t identify a clear crisis for your protagonist, then that may be another issue you’ll want to address in a next draft.

Have a look at your answers. What does the decision and visible action tell you about your protagonist? In what way does it show who they are?

Let’s have a look at an example. I’m going to use Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros, as it’s currently sitting on my desk and was incredibly popular for a reason (whether you love romantasy or not).

Note that this means there will be spoilers for this book.

Fourth Wing

Violet meets her mother and sister as they argue about Violet trying out for the Rider’s quadrant, as her mother decided that’s what she should do instead of becoming a scribe, something Violet trained for her entire life.

When her sister walks off and Violet follows her to collect her things, her sister starts to throw out the books Violet packed in her bag—books representing her old life as a scribe. But with the added weight, it increases her chances of falling to her death.

Her crisis in the scene is neatly summed up by her sister: “Decide, Violet. Are you going to die a scribe? Or live as a rider?”

She decides to leave the books behind and puts one book in the corner and hands one book to her sister. When she says it’s for killing people, her sister allows her to keep that one. A sort of bridge between Violet’s old life and the new.

What does this tell us about our protagonist at the start? A few things:

• Violet is a scribe at heart with a love of books and knowledge.

• She’s unprepared to face the deadly entrance to the quadrant.

• She doesn’t yet feel like a rider, and will need to harden her heart to apply the knowledge she has in that book on killing people.

Who are they by the end?

Checking who they are by the end lets us know instantly whether we’ve actually done our job right and created a consistent character arc.

For this, check your final chapter or a chapter or two before that if you’ve used your final chapter to introduce the complication for the next book. You’ll answer the same questions as before:

• What is the crisis your protagonist faces here?

• What decision do they make?

• What do they actually do?

• What does the decision and visible action tell you about your protagonist?

• In what way does it show who they are?

Fourth Wing

The final scene of the book is not in Violet’s POV, but we can still look at her crisis. She’s just escaped a battle with some particularly nasty monsters, but she was poisoned in the process. In this scene, she’s woken up and had a chance to bathe and assess where she is.

Here, her crisis is again spelled out for her by someone else: “Are you in? Are you willing to fight with us?”

She decides she’s in, and she won’t betray their secret rebellion. Even though she rejects Xaden because he kept secrets from her.

This tells her she’s changed from someone who wasn’t prepared to fight to someone who does fight. She’s no longer a scribe, but a true rider.

As you can see, it fits with her starting point.

How is their status quo challenged?

In other words, what is their Call to Action or Call to Adventure or Catalyst? Or whatever other term you use for this event.

It’s the moment everything changes for your protagonist and they have a big decision to make about whether or not they’ll accept this call.

To find your moment, check the scene where:

• Something external is happening to the protagonist.

• This is something that can majorly change their life.

Found it? Good.

Then, again with the questions:

• What is the crisis your protagonist faces here?

• What decision do they make?

• What do they actually do?

• What does the decision and visible action tell you about your protagonist?

• In what way does it show who they are?

Fourth Wing

I’ve been contemplating this as I feel it can be one of two moments. And yes, that can happen sometimes, as there can be more than one way to interpret a book. The potential moments are when she’s chased by Jack when she crosses the parapet, as succeeding here means she’s now in her “new” world (usually a transition to the second act), but it can also be when Xaden decides to put Violet in his squad, which ties her fate with his.

When you’re in doubt, consider the following: what question does this moment raise in the reader’s mind?

The first moment raises the question: Will Violet become a rider or will she die in Basgiath?

The second moment raises the question: Will Violet choose to be a rider even when she’s surrounded by enemies?

Since the questions are largely the same, I’m going with option two, as it combines the love story with the action story.

Now, having that out of the way, we can answer the questions.

Violet’s Call to Action is whether she’ll run away or if she’ll stay even when it can mean her death.

Note that her choice isn’t yet irreversible. That will come after the first act, when the protagonist makes their final choice.

In this scene, there’s the first hint that she might actually want to stay. It says: “But I will not run. I wouldn’t be standing here if I’d quit every time something seemed impossible to overcome.”

This tells us Violet is determined and not a quitter. So when she’s later given the option of an out, she doesn’t take it, taking her one step closer to becoming a rider inside and out.

Why do they change their approach at the midpoint?

The midpoint of the novel is the situation that forces your protagonist to reconsider their strategy. This is the moment where they start to change from reactive, meaning they act based on what’s happening around them, to active, meaning they start making their own plans.

You can find this moment nearly literally in the middle of your story. If not quite at 50%, it should be somewhere around that moment. It often has a type of death as well, depending on your genre (for instance, a breakup, the protagonist missing out on a promotion, a close death in the physical sense, and so on).

When you’ve found it, we’ll answer the questions again:

• What is the crisis your protagonist faces here?

• What decision do they make?

• What do they actually do?

• What does the decision and visible action tell you about your protagonist?

• In what way does it show who they are?

Fourth Wing

Interestingly, when I read the book, I was 100% sure the Threshing was the midpoint.

But I was wrong about that. I contemplated that moment and two others before making the decision.

So what helped me reach the decision?

We look at the purpose of the midpoint: what is something that forces Violet to act against her nature? Both the Threshing and the attack I had as candidates for the midpoint had Violet forced to fight.

But in both instances, she chose mercy. Because her instinct will always be to put others before herself, even if it puts her at a disadvantage, even if they would’ve killed her had the roles been reversed. She doesn’t want to end a life.

The midpoint I ended up choosing did force her to indirectly lead to someone’s death. She condemned them to die, whether she wanted to or not.

And this moment actually happens in the middle of the story.

So, this is the midpoint for Fourth Wing: After Violet was attacked in her sleep, which is a capital crime, Xaden accuses another wingleader of aiding the unbonded first years to kill Violet. Dain doesn’t believe it and he essentially orders Violet to give him her memory (as his power is seeing memories). When she refuses, Dain states her crisis: “You can stop this all right now, Violet. You have to.”

Will Violet save herself even if it means someone else will die or will she hide the truth and make Xaden the fool and liar, showing mercy for someone who wanted to kill her?

She chooses to tell the truth, using Tairn to share the memory with the other dragons and their bonded riders. This condemns her attacker.

Violet does plead for Tairn not to kill her, not for the attacker, but for her dragon. But Tairn doesn’t agree, stating: Justice is not always merciful.

It shows us that Violet does believe in justice, that the truth is important, and that she still cares about the consequences. And even if someone just killed her, she asks that they be spared because of her empathy.

The midpoint is also the moment Violet realizes she wants Xaden, and that’s why she hasn’t tried being with anyone else. And it’s the moment the balance shifts; Xaden instantly believes her where Dain needs proof, making her more trusting of Xaden and more avoidant of Dain.

The midpoint also calls on Violet’s internal growth, as the attacker states she did it to rid them of a weak link (which is usually a valid argument in this school). Violet could have chosen not to share the truth if she still truly felt she was a weak link.

This middle shift is often the moment in a story where you can see several themes coming together. Here, it’s:

• life–death stakes because Violet indirectly kills someone.

• the importance of truth, which will also be a major theme in the next book.

• love stakes as the balance shifts between her feelings for Xaden and Dian.

• Violet confronting her false belief as she saves herself instead of being saved.

What is their All Is Lost moment & Dark Night of the Soul?

The All Is Lost Moment is the lowest point of the story for the protagonist. In Saves the Cat!, she describes it as the rock bottom moment, as often we don’t change until we’ve hit that low point.

Here, something happens to the protagonist that sends them down into a spiral of despair. An even bigger moment than the global inciting incident.

In this moment, people die (often the mentor), lovers are never-ever getting back together, the detective’s lead is cold, or the protagonist quits their job. Something ends here.

And whatever happens, it sends them spiraling into their Dark Night of the Soul. They can wallow, they can get angry, they can mourn, they can slip into denial, and so on. In this dark time, they come to their final realization. Real change occurs here.

What will they do now? How will they cope with their despair?

These two moments are interconnected and crucial for your character’s change. You need this moment in your story.

To find them, check your manuscript around the 75–80% mark. Find the scene where:

• something is happening to the protagonist that feels like they’ve lost everything that matters to them.

• what’s happening is in some way at least a little their fault (because they haven’t fully embraced their change yet).

• they're pushed into a spiral where they have to decide who they will be moving forward.

And as before, once you’ve found the All Is Lost and Dark Night of the Soul, ask the questions:

• What is the crisis your protagonist faces here?

• What decision do they make?

• What do they actually do?

• What does the decision and visible action tell you about your protagonist?

• In what way does it show who they are?

Fourth Wing

Violet’s All Is Lost Moment happens during War Games. Her enemy Jack is fighting with her friend Liam, and Jack thrusts a sword in Liam’s side while on his dragon, forcing Liam’s body off the dragon.

She uses the power of one of her dragons to save him by stopping time. Then she’s so full of anger that her signet (her powers) manifest and she blasts the tower structure Jack was hiding in, killing him. She actually does this accidentally, as she didn’t realize that she would unleash her power.

Still, she knows she killed him: “My hand trembles as I sheathe the clean dagger at my ribs. The only blood to be found is on the rocks below, though I look at my hands as though they should be covered in death.”

This event sends her into a spiral, as this is the first time she has actively killed someone.

She vomits after, clearly struggling mentally and physically from the act. She recounts the times she left her enemies alive, all because she didn’t want to be a killer. She’s spiraling into her Dark Night of the Soul.

With her signet being lightning, she realizes she’s a weapon. Her signet only useful for battle.

Here, Xaden helps her as she navigates her feelings around what she did. He hits her with the reality that they’re fighting a war, and killing will always be a part of that. And that she is a weapon to defend the people she loves. Like she did with Liam.

The Dark Night of the Soul is usually longer, taking up a few scenes. Change is never fast, is it? It’s the same here, with wallowing turning to anger.

And she states: “I’m not mad that Jack is dead. We both know he’s wanted to kill me since Parapet, and eventually would have. I’m mad that him dying changes me.”

There’s also a callback by Xaden on who she used to be, on what she used to want: a quiet life with books. Showing just how much she’s already changed. And then the romance part also comes into play when they have sex.

So, the All Is Lost Moment is something happening to the protagonist: her powers manifest when she didn’t expect them. It’s also in some way a little her own fault because she never in a million years thought she would have such power (because she never considered herself as strong), and it pushes her into a spiral because she’s never taken a life before.

Her crisis revolves around the whole “do the ends justify the means” debate. Can Violet reconcile taking a life and potentially taking more as the cost of having power and see it as something to help her defend her loved ones? Or will she go back to viewing herself as powerless and frail, in need of saving?

Note that here, again, the different themes converge: there’s the death stakes as Violet kills someone, there’s truth, as Violet discovers a cryptic note from her deceased father hidden in a book about fables, the love stakes as Violet and Xaden become intimate for the first time, and Violet having to confront her false beliefs about her strength.

What is their ending climax?

The climax is the moment in any story. It’s what everything was building toward. When you nail the climax, readers will be ecstatic. When the climax is lacking, it affects your feel of the overall book.

So, in the Dark Night of the Soul, the protagonist decided who they are going to be. The climax is the moment where they actually become this. Here they overcome their false belief and embrace their strength. They use their gift to defeat the antagonist. If the protagonist has truly transformed, they succeed. If it’s instead a tragic arc, usually the protagonist hasn’t learned.

Fourth Wing

One of the best things about this book is its climax. It’s incredibly fast-paced, full of action, and heartbreaking moments. Yaros knows how to end a story.

So here, Violet finally learns the truth: venin are real, not just a fable. The leadership of Navarre, including her own mother, has lied to cover it up. The Scribes helped erase that part of history. This drives home that Violet was powerful all along: the ones who write history have all the power.

She just didn’t realize it yet until it manifested within her externally.

(Major Spoiler Alert)

After Liam dies, it all seems hopeless: they’re overrun by the enemy. Yet Xaden tells her he will hold off the wyvern so that Violet can take out the venin riders.

She makes her decision about who she wants to be: “I have to be as strategic as Brennan and confident as Mira. I’ve spent the last year trying to prove to myself I’m nothing like my mother. I’m not cold. I’m not callous. But maybe there is a part of me that’s more like her than I care to admit. Because right now, standing near the dead body of my friend and his dragon—all I want is to show these assholes exactly how violent I can be.”

Now it’s time for her to show it. Right after this decision, she’s attacked by a venin. And she’s losing the battle: the venin stabs her in the side, and the blade’s poisoned. It’s the “mercy at the villain” type of climax that’s a genre expectation.

She then manages to kill the venin with her dagger and realizes killing the rider means killing the wyvern created by them.

There’s one rider left, and this time Violet makes the plan. And it involves the sacrifice of the hero (also a common genre expectation).

When taking out the villain, the protagonist either outsmarts them or outpowers them. As Violet’s whole arc is about realizing her strength, she uses all of her strength of lightning combined with the time stop powers (because she can’t aim) to kill the one remaining venin.

And although she succeeds, it takes so much of her power that she can’t hold her seat anymore and falls from Tairn.

Putting it all together

Now that you’ve picked and evaluated each of these moments, it’s time to put all the information together.

Can you see a clear arc in how they grow as a person? Is it consistent? Is it based on one thing? And are each of these moments strong enough to trigger the change?

Fourth Wing

If we look at what we’ve gathered for this book, we can see the following arc:

1. Violet is a scribe at heart, unprepared for the deadly challenge that awaits her, like killing people. She’s not hardened like the rest of her family.

2. Violet is given the option to leave the quadrant, likely facing death, or stay, which will likely mean death later. She doesn’t like to quit when things get hard, showing an inkling of her strength and her desire to become a rider like the rest of her family.

3. Violet chooses truth over mercy, even if she does ask for it, learning the lesson that justice is not always merciful. She’s indirectly responsible for killing someone else.

4. Violet kills someone and has to reconcile how this action has changed her; whether she views herself as a weapon or defender.

5. Violet hardens herself and becomes like her family, being the weapon she is to defend the people and keep her friends from dying.

6. Violet chooses to stand with the rebellion and fight with them against the true enemy, prepared to kill the venin and lie to her friends and family. She has hardened herself.

This shows an arc that’s revolved around the necessities for a war: Violet has to harden herself, learn how to kill, and decide what it is she wants to fight for.

At each turn, Violet has to confront her false belief as well, namely that she's weak and frail when in fact she's had power all along, which later manifests in magical power.

All the moments in her arc also revolve around whether she will kill and what she will decide to kill for.

This is why both the midpoint and the all is lost moment are so important. It shows the reader what Violet is willing to fight for: the truth and the safety of her friends. This comes together at the conclusion, when she chooses to fight for the truth (which also becomes a major plot point in the second book) and to defend Navarre and Pomoriel from the real threat.

Note that the fact that she's willing to fight also comes with an acceptance of who she is (as we also saw in the climax): she's strong.

Practice makes perfect

If you found it difficult to find these moments in your manuscript and evaluate them, it can be immensely helpful to practice with published books.

Find a popular book in your genre (preferably one you’ve already used for your genre conventions) and repeat the above exercise with that book like I’ve done with Fourth Wing.

Once you get a grasp of this and see how and where you can make improvements to create a better arc, your story and protagonist will be much the better for it.

As before, if you only need to make minor adjustments, you can continue your analysis before making your edits. If your edits are more substantial, do those first before continuing.

If your protagonist feels better, see how your antagonist holds up right here.

Recommended resources

Saves the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody will have some more explanation on the plot points described above. You’ll also find some example breakdowns of different genres, which can help you learn to identify these moments in other works and your own.