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My dear Ereki,

This week, we will look more closely at the change or transformation character arc. Of the three kinds of character arcs, I think this is one of the most common. If you have heard of the Hero’s Journey, then you’ve heard of the transformation arc.

As I was thinking about it for the past hour or so while puttering about here and there on our forum this evening, I think it will be helpful to pinpoint a few distinct ways that this arc manifests itself. These dimensions of the arc interact in really cool ways.

1. Transformation of mindset. (Inward change.) At the beginning of the arc, the MC holds a certain belief or mindset that is reversed by the opposite mindset, or replaced by a better one over the course of the story. Generally, the transformation of mindset is the trigger that allows the MC to begin succeeding initially.

2. Transformation of ability. (Outward change.) At the beginning of the arc, the MC generally is highly unskilled in whatever ability is necessary for their external goal to be met (the major plot objective). Basically, the MC starts out as an apprentice or novice, and is learning over the course of the whole arc. Often fueled by the transformation of mindset (above), the transformation of ability gives the MC the necessary toolbox to succeed.

3. Transformation of success. (Plot change.) At the beginning of the arc, the MC often fails again and again (usually because of the lack of ability and improper mindset). However, as the MC begins to transform their mindset and therefore increase their ability, they begin to succeed, and move towards the major plot objective. These successes are usually balanced by failures that underscore the continued need to change and growth. As a rough framework, this path looks like an increasing up-down wave (initial failure, small success, larger failure, larger success, total failure, total success).

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As I tried to show in my explanation, these three elements (or levels) of a transformation arc work together in really cool ways. However, I want to stress that these elements are often happening alongside one another. I don’t want to give the impression that they happen sequentially – one completed before the other starts. Most often, they play into one another and feed off of each other.

There is a logical order and progression when we put them on paper and categorize them. But as I have tried to stress in nearly all of my discussion posts, we look at the guidelines so that we know what we’re looking at, not so that we can use these principles as a build-a-bear and just plug story elements into them.
What thinking about this helps with is when something feels off. We can zoom out and look at these elements and try to pick them out – and very often when we do this, we can then pinpoint the issue much more easily, and understand what went wrong, where, why, and how to fix it.

What do you guys think about this? Does this help you understand your own MCs who have transformation arcs? What questions do you have about transformation arcs?

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