{"id":2593,"date":"2012-05-19T07:24:38","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T11:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2593"},"modified":"2012-05-19T07:24:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T11:24:38","slug":"the-characters-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2593","title":{"rendered":"The Character's Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kate Winslet as Rose - Michael used her as an example of character arc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The second part of Michael Hauge’s brilliant workshop was on the character arc.<\/p>\n

Talking about the main character \u2013 hero or heroine \u2013 or if there are two equal main characters \u2013 hero and heroine \u2013 the same story arc must apply to both.<\/p>\n

And it is inextricably linked to the plot arc outlined in the last blog.<\/p>\n

For this \u2013 yes to quote the movie \u2013 we’ll go back to Titanic!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was interested to hear Michael say the heroine and hero of a story – even a romance – are not always equal.<\/p>\n

Titantic, he said, is Rose’s story and while Jack was her\u00a0love, he was not an ‘equal’ hero. However, Michael did say that when when do have equal heros – or even other major characters – the story arc should be the same for them as well, within their lesser role in the story.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 here’s Michael Huage’s structure diagram again.. looking this time at what he says about the character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He says the character begins the story in\u00a0 his\/her IDENTITY \u2013 this is the face we show the world. What we pretend to be.\u00a0 The emotional armour the character wears to protect themselves from being hurt. This will stem from some wound in the distant past \u2013 and the characters fears arising from that wound. For example : as a result of her upbringing, Rose is with Cal because of her mother’s bullying and the terrible fear of being two women alone and poor. The fear is that they cannot survive without Cal and his money.<\/p>\n

These fears are always logical\u2026 but never true.<\/p>\n

At the end of the character arc \u2013 the character must be in the essence \u2013 the person they always had the potential to be if they could find the courage. This is their true self.<\/p>\n

Those same turning points of the plot are the turning points of the character arc.\u00a0 The plot is the outer journey \u2013 the character arc is the inner journey.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 in stage one the character is fully armoured \u2013 think of young Rose as she boards Titanic \u2013 she has a polite and gracious fa\u00e7ade that hides a deep unhappiness. She appears very cold.<\/p>\n

In stage two we begin to see glimpses of the person behind the fa\u00e7ade. The essence of that person.<\/p>\n

In stage three, as the character works towards the outer goal \u2013 we see them moving towards their essence, getting stronger in their true self as the obstacles get harder.<\/p>\n

Rose dances with Jack below decks, she poses nude for him to draw, she defies convention. This is her true free spirit coming forward.<\/p>\n

At the point of no return, Rose makes love to Jack \u2013 she can never go back to what she was.<\/p>\n

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Rose gains in courage as she fights to save Jack on the sinking ship - she is moving into her essence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the stakes get higher and the outside world intrudes \u2013 Rose continues to gain in courage and independence. Taking control of her own life, she fights to save Jack as the ship starts to sink.<\/p>\n

At Turning point 4 \u2013 the major setback – the obstacle is too great and the character retreats back into their Identity.<\/p>\n

This is when Rose allows Cal to take control of her again and put her into the lifeboat. We fear she will survive the disaster \u2013 but lose herself again.<\/p>\n

In Titanic, this moment doesn’t take long \u2013 she realises and jumps back onto the ship to be with Jack. In a lot of cases, particularly in a novel, this turning point and the crisis it evokes will last a lot longer \u2013 as the character makes a final push to regain what they have lost.<\/p>\n

At the final turning point \u2013 the climax of the story \u2013 they will be fully in their essence \u2013 their true self is now fully revealed. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For Rose \u2013 this comes when she\u00a0let’s Jack sink into the water\u00a0and takes control of her life, swimming to get a whistle to attract the rescuers.<\/p>\n

All this leads to a transformed existence \u2013 the wrapping up of the story. In a romance this is our Happy Ever After moment. Rose and Jack didn’t get a happy ever after – but Rose did have a long life filled with family and happiness.<\/p>\n

Michael had a really great way of explaining all this \u2013 and I seriously recommend that anyone who gets a chance \u2013 go to one of his workshops. You will learn so much. Or go to his website<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0There are some really helpful\u00a0articles there.<\/p>\n

Next week, I’ll be posting some of the things he said about pitching your work \u2013 really useful stuff whatever your genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The second part of Michael Hauge’s brilliant workshop was on the character arc. Talking about the main character \u2013 hero or heroine \u2013 or if there are two equal main characters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-FP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}