What Is Your Character Arc?

The other evening my wife and I were talking with our younger son about a book he had just received.  He’s an aspiring author and had purchased an instructional guide on how to improve his craft.  The website alone says it all – Helping Writers Become Authors dot com.

This how-to reference lays out in comprehensive fashion the critical elements of writing a story others will want to read, with an emphasis on the do’s and don’ts (which ironically comes with its own controversy – dos and don’ts?).  What I learned from my son via this book is that there are three general types of character development, that is, the human curve that occurs over the course of any novel.  They are the positive change arc, the flat arc, and the negative change arc.  The positive change arc is by far the most popular yet complicated to develop and introduces readers to an essential figure within the story that changes for the better.  The other two arcs are fairly self-explanatory.

We learned on Friday that schools in Texas will remain closed for the rest of this school year.  Over the weekend I spent time reading about the positive changers that are emerging during the pandemic.  Here locally the owners of a Mexican restaurant that had to transition to a delivery and to-go model also had to significantly scale back their workforce.  When they approached their landlords about rent relief, a story was in the making (How One Mexican Restaurant Is Feeding Workers at Two Dallas Hospitals)!  Elsewhere, a thirteen-year-old wunderkind answered the call when he learned about the bruising that was occurring to health care workers who have been forced to wear medical masks for such extended periods.  The seventh-grade Boy Scout DIYer found a design on the internet to create ear guards using his own 3-D printer.  One proud post later by his mom and Quinn Callander became known to over half a million people.  He has now donated more than 500 straps to people near and far.  And across the pond, a 99-year-old WWII veteran raised $33 million for Britain’s health-care system by walking his garden.  He set up a fundraising page and decided to walk the 82-foot length of his garden back and forth 100 times, using his walker for support.  Capt. Tom Moore turns 100 on April 30^th and wanted to raise 1,000 pounds (the equivalent to $1,250) to thank medical staff who helped him with treatment for cancer and a broken hip.  He would walk 10 laps at a time and posted frequently to social media over the six days it took him to complete his adventure.  The response by his followers was overwhelming and his JustGiving campaign is the largest total ever raised and the fastest growing on the platform.

There’s a quote making its rounds on the internet and says:

“2020 is a unique Leap Year.  It has 29 days in February, 300 days in March, and 5 years in April.”

Funny but not funny, right?  Earlier this month our three high school principals came together (virtually) and hashed out a gesture worthy of an NBC story.  They knew all kids were having an emotional time after leaving for spring break recess back on March 6^th only later to learn through emergency closures that it would effectively conclude this school year.  They were especially concerned about their seniors and had simple yard signs delivered to some 2,000 graduates-to-be.  On it the message was anything but simple – “We Love Our Seniors.”  We all have an opportunity to allow this moment in time to change the trajectory of our character and it potentially can go one of three ways…