forum Character Arc Help?

Started January 25, 2018 by Hannah Slayton

tune

heyo

Hiya

Ah-oh

;D I heard the word help??

haha yeah I have a character where I know the starting point and the end point of his arc but can't figure out the middle :) Any writing tips y'all could give would be so helpful, in general or specific! Basically my character needs to go from hating a certain group of people to fighting for them

well, why does he hate them? what do they want and what does he want?

He hates them because he's been raised in a prejudice society where the people are taught that this specific race will steal their souls, which isn't true. the race thats being discriminated against wants to not be discriminated against, but they are a peaceful and scattered people so they are hesitant to fight. he wants at the beginning to kill the race, but then he finds out he is that race and I need to get him through denial and anger etc to acceptance :)

Well, maybe he has to spend some time with the people of that certain race before he learns to accept them! Like maybe they go through something terrible and he has to trust them if he wants to live?

okay, so is your character the same race as the hated race? like i understand they are different races but is there anyway that he/she/them/they/it could pass himself/herself/themselves/itself off as that race, whether by magic, disguise, or other ways, cause maybe he/she/them/they/it is sent from his order or race to infiltrate the other race, (think of an Avatar (blue people) type of deal) so he/she/they/them/it, has to go in and rise through the ranks or get in close, but all the while growing closer seeing the truth and the beauty within the race… too mainstream? you could try the opposite where he/she/them/they/it goes into a fight, or skirmish with the other race and can either 1- the other side loses but takes him as a hostage and once he/she/them/they/it sees their life, it opens their (staying with this cause writing out the long multiple pronouns gets tiring) eyes, OR my personal favorite is that they go into a skirmish against the other race, when being told that the hated race has these weapons, or a huge leader of evil or whatever have you, is there. So they go, and its a complete massacre, making them question who's really the evil race… cause these weapons of mass destruction were just a group of people talking about running away, or its a printing press to get the word out, or something weird and not at all weapons of mass destruction-y, so yeah, just random brain puke for ya!

Thanks! All of this is super helpful :)

Also he kinda runs away from the people that hates the race that he is because he knows they'll kill him if they find out

What if he gets found by a loner of the race that everyone hates after he runs away from home? And then they form a friendship, which helps him come to terms with being of the race everyone hates? Then he can help the loner with THEIR problems?