Creating Character Arcs

The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development

By: K.M. Weiland

Narrated by: Sonja Field

Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Powerful character arcs create powerful stories.

Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters - but it just isn't grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It's time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

By applying the foundation of the three-act story structure and then delving even deeper into the psychology of realistic and dynamic human change, Weiland offers a beat-by-beat checklist of character arc guidelines that flexes to fit any type of story.

This comprehensive book will teach you:

• How to determine which arc - positive, negative, or flat - is right for your character.
• Why you should never pit plot against character. Instead, learn how to blend story structure and character development.
• How to recognize and avoid the worst pitfalls of writing novels without character arcs.
• How to hack the secret to using overarching character arcs to create amazing trilogies and series.
• And much more!

Gaining an understanding of how to write character arcs is a game-changing moment in any author's pursuit of the craft.

Bring your characters to unforgettable and realistic life - and take your stories from good to great!

©2016 K.M. Weiland (P)2017 K.M. Weiland

flat arc characters

If all the books on screenwriting and writing in general that I have read, this is the only book that covers flat arc characters. worth reading for that alone.

Illuminating!

I've often wondered why some stories work even though the protagonists don't change much. This book cleared it up for me in a simple way. If you've read other screenwriting/story books, you won't be disappointed in how Weiland explains her take on character. It's all about the "lie". I will be listening again when I need a refresher.

Very insightful and educational

Thank you for this great guide. It’s very insightful and educational and makes creating compelling characters so much easier.
I love the narrator. Great job!

Wonderful

Hands-down the best book on the character arcs I’ve read. Would absolutely recommend it to any writers.

It'll make you famous

This book is going to make me famous someday. I know this in my heart.

Great Food For Thought

This makes a lot of great points and gave me some new ideas for my own stories and made me realize why I was having so much trouble with my stories.

For what it’s worth

It’s odd for someone to refer to their success writing stories when they have write more books about writing stories than they have books containing actually stories. But this book generates good reflection. Take it for what it’s worth, which could possibly be a lot.

Great content

Sometimes I feel like I'm listening to an automated voice the way she reads.

Supper helpful and worth listening to again and ag

Supper helpful and worth listening to again and again. I took notes, thought deeply etc

Great for beginner writer, drags on a bit too long

This audio book is great for for anyone who wants to start getting into writing, whether that be for books, TV/movies, comics, etc.
It teaches you not only core fundamentals of what it means to create a character arc, but also how those arcs tie into the overall plot and how the two are two sides to the same coin.
The book goes into detail about the three main types of character arcs there are, and uses several examples from movies and books to clearly explain how they work.
The main issue I had with the book is that some chapters felt a bit dragged out, in the fact that even after the point was made, the chapter still continued, even though we the listener had already learned the message of that chapter by this point.
Even with that in mind, this book is still a good read for anyone who wants to make more character-focused stories, or just stories in general, great read.