What do you do with characters that finished their character arc?

[river121693]

I realized today after re-reading my outline that one of the three main party members finishes their character arc pretty early in the story. What are some ways to make this character interesting/ continue to be an active part of the story?

[joannekwan]

You give them a new arc! Like in real life, we don't learn one lesson and just stop growing there. We're constantly facing new obstacles that may or may not challenge our perspective of the world.

[river121693]

im trying to not expand my story further lol, its already too long :') But thats very true; maybe I can find a way to incorporate a new story arc into what I already have. Id love tips on how to do that too.

[VibrantFox]

i think at that point i want to know if at all how their presence affects the other characters or plot related impact. like if it's a group each character will be playing off the other in some way whether as an antagonist, deuteragonist or what have you and then just whatever the overarching plot is and it's impacts on them or vice versa.

you can't really kill them off if they've no reason to die but if they've got no use then find a decent way for them to split from the group and go on their merry way.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

What else than killing them

[DokiDokiTsuna]

A) Have them do what any normal person would do and continue living their lives while supporting their friends and helping them through their own problems.

B) Get rid of them.

If it were just me asking this of myself, I'd do what @joannekwan suggested and consider giving them a new arc, but that's because I actually trust myself to know what I'm doing. ^^; I don't write new arcs that contradict earlier arcs, or those that serve to pointlessly extend a story that should probably just end. Or those that are just so trivial they serve to make their star characters feel annoying, not interesting.

Those three examples are things that I see other writers do a lot...which is why I would be very careful with suggesting to someone else that they just "write a new arc". :T Honestly, if you're inexperienced enough to feel genuinely clueless about what to do when a character finishes an arc, you're much more likely to fall into one of those traps if you try to give them another.

Suggestions A and B, however, will at least prevent you from ruining the character: either learn how to make a character engaging WITHOUT having them go through turmoil (something really important that you probably need to learn anyway) or have them gracefully exit the story somehow, so you can focus on the characters you do know how to handle.

And in the meantime, keep working on the overall story. I mean, if you don't like being in situations where characters finish their arcs early, you can...write stories where the character arcs actually span the whole story. ^^; Or at least character arcs that are synchronized, so all the characters finish their arcs at the same time (and then maybe they'll all be ready to face the big finale together).
Don't feel like you have to struggle through writing stories with events you don't actually want in them-- you're the author; your stories should be tailored to fit your desires. So, even if it's behind the scenes, you gotta work on them until they are.

[river121693]

that was what I was thinking as well. The character still has a lot of interactions to other people in the story and play a roll in events, but their existance isn't fully required for the plot to function. I wasn't sure if thats enough of a reason to make them stick around, but maybe it is. Thanks

[river121693]

super helpful tips. I'll figure out how to make them more engaging. Thanks!

[TheLemmaLlama]

Relapses! People don't go through a character arc and end up unequivocally changed for good, like a switch has been flipped. Old habits die hard, and their old self is going to leak every once in a while. Just be careful not to make it feel like they've suffered from Aesop Amnesia; people can still remember the lesson they've learnt but still slip back into old habits just because that's how they've been operating for so long.

I think 'interactions to other people in the story and playing a role in events' is a good enough reason for them to stick around ... provided you allocate them the appropriate screentime. An advantage to working in a visual medium like a comic is you can just have the character in the background doing stuff and that'll communicate that they're still around without drawing too much of the reader's attention, and you don't have to write stuff or have them say stuff that basically amount to "Hey, remember me? Yes, I'm still here", which consumes the reader's time without giving them much interesting content. It's that kind of thing that leads to the character's presence feeling 'redundant' or the cast feeling 'bloated', imo. I don't think you need to keep the character an active part of the story; as long as you don't ask for the audience's attention when there's nothing interesting going on, I think you're good.

That being said, if it's actually possible to write your character out of the story, not many stories write out one of their main characters partway through, so that definitely makes things more interesting!

[powerplantanimations]

Making a new arc creates risks. I'd actually say this is a great opportunity for you to do something that'll make your audience go "WHOA! I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!".

For example, you can write them off in an unexpected way, you can kill them off, or take the time to reexamine your character and make them new entirely.

The best metaphor I can give is Pokemon. They're like "I'm ready to evolve".

Another thing you can do is shelve them and be like "Say, this character will do fine in this situation" only for you to create more struggles for he/she to overcome.

Venture Bros. is like really great at this. I recommend watching that show to see how they evolve their characters.

[Lensing]

There are always new adventures

[system]

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