The following content was originally recorded for the Novel Kickoff Summit hosted by Sara Gentry. In this insightful conversation, we unravel the profound influence character arcs hold in storytelling. From healing brokenness to igniting emotional shifts in readers, character evolution is a potent tool. This is a transcript of my conversation with Sara. Enjoy!
Sara Gentry
Welcome writers! In this session, I am delighted to welcome Susan DeFreitas. Welcome, Susan. Let me just introduce our writers here to your work a little bit more. An American of Guyanese descent, Susan DeFreitas is the author of the novel Hot Season, which won a gold AP award, the editor of Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin, and the creator of Workshops Against Empire, the alternative MFA for writers who believe that stories can change the world. Her work has been featured in the Writer’s Chronicle, LitHub, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She is an independent editor and book coach as well. She divides her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Portland, Oregon. So welcome, Susan. I love your platform, stories that can change the world. I just love that. Tell us a bit how you came to feel like this was an important thing that you wanted to feature in your work, as well as in deciding what types of writers you’d like to work with.
Susan DeFreitas
You know, I went to a very progressive College, Prescott College, which has a real focus on the environment and that has always been a focus of my life. Whatever we can do to mitigate the worst of climate change, addressing the environmental crisis, this great existential crisis of our time. I’m a writer. I’ve been a theater geek in high school and a writer of fiction, since I was basically old enough to read it. So when I graduated, I honestly had kind of a crisis, just wondering what to do, what on earth art had to do with this great emergency of our time. It seemed like somebody reading a book, and actually taking some action, to address these sorts of issues, those things were a million miles away from each other. That was my perspective at 22. The older I get, the more I’ve really come to believe that really, every major issue we have in our culture is a cultural problem and stories are what change culture. Right? So is your one story going to solve racism? Is your one story going to address the root cause of climate change? No, but in aggregate, stories help to shift culture. So I think it’s very important what kind of stories we tell and the way that they connect with the readers. It’s so far beyond just this idea of changing someone’s mind on an issue or a political position that’s so far removed from what I’m talking about. There are so many layers to it and they go right to the heart of the story. So I’m excited to talk with you a little bit about one of the major ways that I feel story can change the world and that’s through character arc.
Sara Gentry
Perhaps for newer writers, can you give us a quick overview of what a character arc means? Or what character arc refers in its most basic sense?
Susan DeFreitas
The protagonist grows and changes over the course of the novel. To get a little more specific, it is a way that the events of the plot, story and the relationships in the novel push them to grow and change over the course of the story.
Sara Gentry
Okay, so now let’s tie in how character arc is going to work as we are creating stories that matter. What is a character arc and why is it so important to these stories?
Susan DeFreitas
Well, number one, character arc I find is the element of story that creates a strong emotional effect. It is moving to witness someone grow and change and overcome something within themselves that they have been struggling with. The longer they’ve been struggling with it and the more that thing inside them that’s been holding them back has been causing problems, has been hurting them, has been giving them distress, the more they’ve been getting in their own way. With that thing inside them that needs to change, the stronger the feeling of catharsis. When it finally cracks open for them, they can finally see a different way of being. It moves us through those changes, empathetically.
The great Barry Lopez, who taught in my MFA program at Pacific University, spent a lot of time studying with indigenous teachers and leaders. One of the things that he impressed upon us as young storytellers was that there is this indigenous conception of story medicine and story as medicine. He kind of broke it down into something that felt very nuts and bolts, but it was very much a life changing moment for me. To hear him articulate this, which is when you start off with a protagonist, who is in some way broken, who is out of a healthy relationship to the greater context or the world, to all the things that make us healthy human beings, you trace a convincing path to a point of healing and wholeness. You have in some real way, actually healed the world. Right? It sounds very lofty. We toil in service of a great art, we toil in service of something that I will never stop thinking of as magic because we create a virtual experience for readers that feels as real as real life, the same way that dreams do. You know, everything we read, every experience we have, actually rewires our brain in some small way. So, you actually are changing something in your brain and in your reader’s brain. If you write a story that’s deeply affecting, that’s the emotional part of it. That’s part of why character arc is so powerful in terms of creating an impact on the reader.
Sara Gentry
Yeah, I love that because over the last decade or two, perhaps even story has, in some places,
become less important. For instance, I know some schools have eliminated their library programs. I think like you, stories just have such a beautiful way of building empathy with other people. Even if you might not necessarily like having empathy for someone, does not necessarily mean that I have to agree with them 100%, or condone everything that they do, or believe everything that they believe. We can establish some common ground and at least approach each other with kindness. In respect, that’s just an observation from the fact that I have children and write in the kidlit space, but I always know that it’s a beautiful way to introduce people, to introduce children to new ideas and just different perspectives perhaps.
Susan DeFreitas
It is and retrograde forces in this country are very afraid of it. I think that’s worth acknowledging that they’re afraid of it because there is such real power in these stories. The types of character arcs that you choose for your characters is very important, too. It’s very easy to draw upon the sorts of tropes you grew up with because they’re just the water that we swam in when we were young. There’s very cliche recycled character arcs about the young man who thinks he doesn’t have courage, but then he finds his power and becomes that leader, you know, living up to his dad’s example, right? Or the story of the young woman who’s Ugly Duckling who thinks that she’s not beautiful, but she just has to get dressed up like Pretty in Pink and have this Cinderella moment. She’ll have her glow up and the guy will take off her glasses.
The thing about character arc, is that you can feel moved by them. I hate this in movies, where it’s the crappiest character arc. I mean, it’s just regurgitated a million times, but we’ve all fallen into it. Again, this is where you want to interrogate your own impulses and make sure that the story you’re writing actually reflects your own personal truths. I really find that’s where the power connects; that’s when the electricity comes on and that’s when you not only have a profound connection to your story and motivation to write it, the reader can feel that this is this story. It’s not just a recycled version of other stories, this story holds some deep, personal hard truth on the part of the author. So, you know, for me, those are character arcs more like the ugly duckling who doesn’t fit in, it’s not about her having her Cinderella moment. It’s about her embracing her true eccentricity, being the weirdo that she is and connecting with her queer community and her non binary identity. That’s a story I feel like we need right now. There’s a young person who needs that story right now. That story is going to make a difference in their lives at a hard corner and a hard point.
Maybe it’s the story of the young man who is trying to live up to his father’s example, the Great Leader and Alpha. He’s built up his dad, only to understand that his dad was just scared too. He was just white knuckling it through his life and trying to man up. Solving the problems that he’s facing might have more to do with building friendships and alliances and being able to ask for help, that’s a real version of leadership. That’s a story I think we need at this time. So, I’m not saying be very prescriptive, outline your story in such a way it’s going to check off all these boxes. I’m really just saying, look at what the character arc is saying. Matthew Celeste says in Craft in the Real World, every story makes statements about reality. Character arc is one of those places where you’re basically laying forth, here is some heart wisdom. Here are some operating instructions for the inside of a human life that I have found to be true. I hope that it can help you or reflect some of your own personal truths at this time in life. Again, I think there’s great power in that.
Sara Gentry
So I know that you advocate for thinking about character arc pretty early in the process. How do you suggest writers go about that? Why is it important to consider it so early? I think you’ve made a compelling argument for why the character arc is important for drawing the reader in and getting that emotional response, but it can be hard sometimes to grapple with that when you have these fuzzy ideas, and you’re trying to mold them into something that has more shape.
Susan DeFreitas
Absolutely, that’s a very astute observation. I want to make it clear that I consider this a very iterative process. It’s just like everything with your novel, you’re going to start off with ideas about it at first. Then the story is going to teach you as you actually write it. So, over the course of every revision, you’re going to get deeper with it. You’re going to understand it more. I do advocate for focusing, getting very clear on what you imagine the character arc to be early on because I have a structure that I work with; via outline coaching, with my book, coaching clients and also via my online course, Anatomy of the Novel.
There are three major components to it. People use all different structures and every proven structure can work, if it works for your story. I have found over the years that there are three pieces that are foundational to the structure of any story that actually works and also are very important to understand early on because you’re going to iterate on them as you go on. Those are character arc, plot arc, and the goals and motivations of your characters. You know, when I work with clients, we then fold that into Jenny Nash’s inside outline, which I know probably as a fellow author, accelerator certified coach, you probably work with that tool as well. I’ve taught this for many years and I’ve worked with hundreds of people on this structure. I used to start with plot arc and I found that was not the way to approach it at all. I now start with character arc because plot to me is like this incredible expanding souffle.
Anytime you sit down and talk with novelists, they’re brainstormers, daydreamers and there’s subplot inventors and you can layer on because understanding cause and effect is an important part of creating a plot that works. But with cause and effect, it’s just that the longer the story goes on, the more that could possibly happen because the more balls you have in the air, right? To my mind, what you need is a limiting factor. You need a rubric that allows you to determine whether that brilliant new idea you had for another thing could happen in your plot, is actually something you should pursue or not. As a fellow coach, you have seen the sorts of stories that sprawl to, you know, 125,000, 200,000 words because somebody did not have a tool for determining what should stay and what should go. Character arc to me is that tool because the question is, does this plot development have a clear relationship to this protagonist character arc? To this transformation of self that they need to go through over the course of the story? If the answer is no, then the second question is, well, could it? Because there are all sorts of different angles and ways that the story touches on different sides. The deeper your story gets, you know, one character might exemplify the wiser person who’s trying to get through to them but they can’t hear it at the beginning. Another person might exemplify this is who you’re going to be, if you continue down the wrong road, right? There’s all different ways that can work but, if the answer is no, this event or relationship or element of the story has no real bearing on that character arc, then it does not need to be there. So it’s an important tool at the beginning.
Sara Gentry
I love that. In thinking about some of these issues with the stories that are trying to change the world, as you have said, writers might run the risk of swinging a little too far to come across as perhaps being didactic or, I mean, nobody wants to read a story that feels like it was written with an agenda, whatever that agenda may be. And people come to story, for a story, not for propaganda. So how might you advise writers? What are some things that they might watch out for just to sort of keep that aspect of the story in check?
Susan DeFreitas
If a story comes across as didactic, or having an agenda, I personally hold that it’s probably the product of some lazy thinking. When something comes across as a screed, there’s often cardboard cut out bad guys, evil doers. That sloppy thinking and it’s bad art, right? Everything that I teach, as being part of writing stories that change the world, it’s also just part of writing stories with depth and complexity. So, it’s better art to have complex antagonists but it’s also more meaningful because it gives us more insight into human nature. I think it’s better for the world because it does so much more to show us the forces that shape antagonistic characters. I believe we use the tools of our art to explore the ways that those who perpetuate harm and injustice, rationalize it to themselves. You know what? Those people believe that they are the protagonist of the story, that they’re the good guys in the story. Are you rendering that in a convincing way? If you can, that’s critical thinking, that’s empathetic thinking, that’s going deeper and that’s hard to do. It’s not lazy thinking, right?
So, when we move to the character arc side of things, you know, when something comes across as didactic, or having an agenda, I’m just going to show that this is the thing that works. This is how we’re all going to be again… I think it’s lazy because any possible true transformation is hard. If you get into the real resistance and the real tough spots of human life, our stories are human nature. The way our minds and hearts work, there are no easy answers. So, I get people who want to write these more surface level stories, even though their hearts are absolutely in the right place. The way that I coach those people is the same way that I coach people who are recycling tired stereotypes, just perpetuating ideas that maybe, they don’t even believe. Right? It’s about bringing things down to a level of depth to the point where they reveal new truths and that is not easy to do. So, I believe, my signature line on my newsletters is, always better stories for a better world, right? Yours, for better stories for a better world because it’s just better art makes for a better world.
Sara Gentry
Love it and that’s probably a good spot to end, on a nice high note here. Writers, I hope you have enjoyed this conversation as much as I have. Obviously, Susan has a lot of knowledge to share with the writing world. I know you have a fabulous resource for writers, would you like to talk a little bit about that?
Susan DeFreitas
Yeah, so if you have enjoyed what I’ve shared, I really encourage you to sign up for my newsletter. If you do, you will receive a little ebook I created. It’s called Cracking the Code 10 Critical Craft Tech Tactics That Will Get Your Novel Published. I created this resource because frankly, I was very frustrated over the course of all the creative writing education. Before Sara Gentry and I were on camera, we were talking about how I even went to boarding school and high school for the arts for creative writing, the undergraduate and the MFA came out of all of that. I did not know how to write a publishable novel and that didn’t make any sense to me. I figured it out and I’ve helped a lot of people get their novels published at this point. So, I’ve really found that it boils down to about 10 things. If you have a vision of a story, you know, that’s really on your heart and on your mind that you want to get out there into the world, I really want to help you make that happen. I think far too many people and their stories don’t get over the finish line for lack of one or more of the things that I’ve talked about in this ebook. So, if that’s you and if you see yourself as one of my people based on this talk, please do, join me by downloading that ebook and joining my email list.
