Your Protagonist’s Evolution

 

SOME STORIES PURPOSEFULLY leave their characters unchanged in a changing world to underline a point. But in most stories, the fires through which we force our characters should cause them to learn hard truths and grow from reaction to action in perhaps painful, but definitely necessary ways.

Your character’s arc of personal growth is what drives your story. As you enter the second half of the book, be on guard against your character’s reacting to similar situations in the same way over and over again. If he is, then you’ve allowed him to slide into stagnation.

 

Exercise: Check yourself by answering the following questions.

 

Question #1: How will your protagonist put into action the lessons he has learned in the story’s first half?

 

Question #2: What new information will he learn in the second half?

 

Question #2.1: What secrets will he uncover?

 

Question #3: How is he on the right track at this point in the story?

 

Question #3.1: How does this differ from your answers in the first half?

 

Question #4: How is he on the wrong track at this point in the story?

 

Question #4.1: How does this differ from your answers in the first half?

 

Subplot Exercise: Answer the following questions about your subplot(s).

 

Question #1: How will your subplot(s) progress in the Second Half of the Seconds Act?

 

Question #2: In what way is your protagonist (or the “lead” character in your subplot) shifting into an active role in this subplot?