Pants writers - character arc -- how much thought

[therosesword]

I've been asked (not here but elsewhere) how does someone who is a pantser (I still like free faller best) evolve a character arc?

My reply has always been and will always be: Naturally.

I honestly never think about a character arc. Never. Ever. Ever.

I realize that some pantsers do. And you all know, none of us think anything you do when it comes to your writing is "wrong", we all think (at least that's how I perceive it) that you work the way that is best for you.

I'm surprised when people tell me they like a character arc that I've created. I actually have to go back and reread it because... I was just watching my character get through life.

Enough on how I handle it... How do you? Even though you're pantsing, do you work on it, take notes, doodle, etc.

Inquiring minds would like to know... .bwahahahaha

[Moctemma]

I just make the character want to improve. It's absolutely impossible for me to write a story with passive characters, and an active character will inevitably improve organically with the experiences and using his/her brain, auto-analysis, and help from others.
What I always do is to give them a flaw, or various flaws. Then I make them aware of it, even if for them it isn't a flaw at all. And that's it. If they can't grow, it's inevitable that they're left behind.

I do find it strange to have to think about it. Our experience with life and growing should be more than enough. I mean, I screw up my characters lives. If they had the tools to solve it, the story would be over in a few pages. And if I was incapable of making them grow, I'd have no story to tell and I wouldn't be a writer.

Something curious though, was that I read the book of Creating Characters Arcs, and I did everything it suggested naturally. So I'd recommend it to anyone struggling with characters arcs. Though I stopped reading it midpoint because all the rules were becoming a bother to me.

[rajillustration]

I think about them, but I never want it to be shoehorned, since sometimes a character gets full on deleted and I have to have someone take the place of two characters--also not every character needs to have a character arc? Not every character needs to take the limelight with their own personal anime arc or my series will be like a billion books long.

So I've been working on this script for a comic that I'm making, where I basically decided...to not write this one flashback. I put it off for 6 drafts. I've already even started making the comic episodes because I just assumed my story was solid and I would not write this particular flashback and leave it to the reader's imagination since my story was already pretty long for a comic.

But to summarize a complicated story, I realized that a 3 year gap should probably have some sort of filling out, especially since there's romance in it and people may want to read that. So, as I played around with what it could be, testing out different scenes and ideas, I recognized it was a place where some of my characters could be night and day to how they were in the current timeline. And I did that mostly because I thought it was interesting, and no other reason. It was not planned.

But it also made a place where the flashback became something a lot more important to the overall story. I was able to flesh out other characters and the reasons why they were different 3 years ago, but also the same. It basically gave me a reason to care about this flashback at all, and that's why the character development is there. If it makes me care about the story, then hopefully it will make my readers care as well, 4 years from now when that certain comic episode goes up (ah the pain of making comics.)

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I definitely don't think about it. I just let it happen, you know...how it actually happens to someone in real life. In fact ... Sometimes real people don't ever have a big life changing event.

Yes my characters are fictional. But when I set up a chain of events, I try to have them act accordingly to their personalities. So really, I just make a bunch of crap happen to them, and see how it turns out xD

[ratscout]

I never really know the specifics of a character arc, but I know where I essentially want to take a character. Honestly, I build in flaws to my characters and, at the end of the arc, they overcome those flaws (mostly).

For example, if a character is pathologically shy and friendless, I want to take them to a point where they are simply introverted, but they have friends.

If a character is loud-mouthed and doesn't think before they speak, I want to take them to a point where they become wiser and know what to say and when to say it and so on.

[raeguardart]

I know where I want them to be, and I know how they start. How they get from point a to b is a problem for future me.

It’s like herding cats; eventually you’ll get where you have to be but it’ll take a ball of string, a vacuum cleaner and a sack of cat treats to do it and your character WILL end up stuck in a tree at one point.

[cherrystark]

I do put a little more thought and structure into my character arcs than my plotlines but still prefer to let them grow organically. One of my characters was abandoned as a teen. I've seen this device used with other characters and the character grows into the hardened, lone wolf type. I didn't want that for my character. Instead she clings to her relationships because she's scared of being alone again.

I like seeing the little "personality" quirks that appear when characters grow naturally.

[therosesword]

I do find it strange to have to think about it.

Totally agree here. How many of us go through life thinking... well, this is a good thing for me to learn/arc from. If your character is going through a great deal they're going to grow from it or... in some cases, shrivel from it.

I never really know the specifics of a character arc,

And sometimes the "arc" is so incredibly subtle that by the time you get to the end you actually can't pinpoint when it happened.

It’s like herding cats;

Sometimes, which is why I think that concentrating on having to put in a character arc actually does you (or me) a disservice because then my focus is on where and when and how rather than actually following the character and letting them reveal it to both themselves and the reader/me.

I like seeing the little "personality" quirks that appear when characters grow naturally.

Sometimes those are so manufactured it doesn't take any effort to spot them. I agree, the quirks should happen naturally.

--also not every character needs to have a character arc?

this gets argued a lot and I can only go on experience in this in the fact that (I know, broken record) I was staff writer at the audio compny and I had to write stories for the company's flagship show which was a private detective. New stories are still being made which means there are now over 300 stories. How many freaking character arcs can one person have??? Sometimes the main character doesn't have their own arc, but they affect people around them to have one.

[Luminescent]

I've tried in the past to really plan out my characters, and it never works lol

Lots of respect to people who can make plans and decisions and stick to them. Even famous writers/comic makers have mentioned having trouble doing that!

In the end all my characters decide for themselves how they're going to act. Their personalities come out naturally and there's nothing I can do lmao

[therosesword]

Sometimes I think the longer you write the more your characters tell you: Move over buddy, I've got a story to tell and you're in my way.