
The Secrets to Creating Character Arcs
A Fiction Writer's Guide to Masterful Character Creation (Growing Authors Out of Writers)
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Narrated by:
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Angus Freathy
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By:
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John S. Warner
About this listen
Transform your story with a character your readers will remember long after they’ve turned the last page
When you think of unforgettable characters from books you’ve read, who comes to mind? James Bond, Harry Potter, Scarlett O’Hara, Elizabeth Bennett, Atticus Finch, Sherlock Holmes? These are just some of the most iconic characters in fiction. They are so memorable that even decades or centuries later, they still captivate our imagination. But what exactly is it about them that keeps generations so invested in them?
Despite their vast differences in age, gender, nationality, occupation, and personality, each of them has a special quality that makes us want to know them more.
Whether it’s James Bond’s suave demeanor, Scarlett O’Hara’s haughty vulnerability, or Atticus Finch’s righteousness, we’re hooked.
Do you want to know how you, too, can create your own unforgettable characters that your readers will be dying to read about?
Yes, it’s rare to write such timeless characters—even some best-selling authors don’t have widely recognizable protagonists.
However, it’s entirely possible to write characters that resonate strongly with your readers—and get them hooked on your story—no matter how new you are to the game.
Writers apply certain rules and tricks with their characters to make their stories shine and keep their audience engrossed.
And with this guide, you’ll find out exactly what they are.
In The Secrets to Creating Character Arcs, here is just a fraction of what you will discover:
- How your characters can make or break your story—and what you can do to make your characters more compelling
- Ten simple tricks to add more excitement to your plot without veering away from your main story
- How to take advantage of plot and structure to help develop your protagonist’s journey
- The worst thing you can do for your character that will immediately make them unappealing and uninteresting
- How to make your readers relate to— and root for—an unlikable character
- A fun yet insightful exercise in character-building that can help you make sure all your characters have their own unique individual personalities
- Two letters that will speed up your writing process without sacrificing quality
And much more.
Writing your first story (or your latest one) can be intimidating. The stakes seem to be higher when writing down words rather than just saying them out loud.
But remember that you’re allowed to make mistakes, change things up, delete, and add to your story however many times you need to.
Plus, with the techniques from this guide at your disposal, you can approach your writing with more confidence.
Sometimes, all you need to do is get started…and the ideas will just keep flowing from there.
If you want to take your stories to the next level, then scroll up and click the “Add to Cart” button right now.
©2022 John S. Warner (P)2022 John S. WarnerListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
What are the secrets for writing a great ending for your novel? How do you leave readers so satisfied that they'll want another book by you, right now? What tools and techniques can shape your last 50 pages into a powerful, unforgettable experience? Listen to this audiobook, and you will come away with a thorough knowledge of why great endings work and how to create them for every novel you write.
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Not Great and Out Of Touch With The Times
- By Joseph Blackhurst on 12-22-20
By: James Scott Bell
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Story Genius
- How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)
- By: Lisa Cron
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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It's every novelist's greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page-one rewrite. The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot).
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As a fantasy writer, this book was not for me.
- By Wendy on 01-10-21
By: Lisa Cron
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Writing Your Story's Theme
- The Writer's Guide to Plotting Stories That Matter (Helping Writers Become Authors)
- By: K. M. Weiland
- Narrated by: Sonja Field
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Theme—the mysterious cousin of plot and character. Too often viewed as abstract rather than actionable, theme is frequently misunderstood and left to chance. Some writers even insist theme should not be purposefully implemented. This is unfortunate, because in many ways theme is story. Theme is the heart, the meaning, the point. Nothing that important should be overlooked. Powerful themes are never incidental. They emerge from the conjunction of strong plots and resonant character arcs.
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Worth a second read or listen
- By Chris S. Manion on 02-17-22
By: K. M. Weiland
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Kill the Dog
- The First Book on Screenwriting to Tell You the Truth
- By: Paul Guyot
- Narrated by: Paul Guyot
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Every aspect of screenwriting is covered with an authority and credibility never seen in any book to come before. Told with honesty, humor, and vulnerability from the real-world perspective of a working, professional screenwriter, Kill the Dog reveals the secrets of what it takes to have a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter.
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Not a lot learned. Here's a summary.
- By Samuel D R on 01-28-24
By: Paul Guyot
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Character
- The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen
- By: Robert McKee
- Narrated by: Robert McKee
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Following up his perennially best-selling writers' guide Story and his inspiring exploration of the art of verbal action in Dialogue, the most sought-after expert in the storytelling brings his insights to the creation of compelling characters and the design of their casts. Character explores the design of a character universe: The dimensionality, complexity and arcing of a protagonist, the invention of orbiting major characters, all encircled by a cast of service and supporting roles.
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I question whether Robert wrote it
- By C. Deputy on 06-27-21
By: Robert McKee
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The Emotional Craft of Fiction
- How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
- By: Donald Maass
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you. That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers.
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Read this if you're a writer
- By Reed Ramlow on 08-08-20
By: Donald Maass
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On Writing and Worldbuilding - Volume I
- By: Timothy Hickson
- Narrated by: Larissa Thompson, Merphy Napier
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Writing advice tends to be full of "rules" and "tips" which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.
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all hail mishka
- By M. M. on 03-25-21
By: Timothy Hickson
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The Secrets to Outlining Your Novel
- How to Clearly Organize Your Story Ideas into an Epic Book You Can Write and Publish
- By: John S. Warner
- Narrated by: Angus Freathy
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How many times have you gone through something and said “I could write a book about this!”? Now is the time to stop doubting and start planning! Just as every great meal starts with a recipe, every epic novel starts with an epic outline. But is an outline really necessary? Can’t you just wing it? Isn’t all that time on an outline better spent on actually writing? And doesn’t an outline just pour water on that spark of creativity? That’s what you may have heard…until now! Writing is like The Hare and the Tortoise. Slow and steady will always beat quick and careless.
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Love this!!
- By Korbin Marquez on 06-12-23
By: John S. Warner
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Story
- Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
- By: Robert McKee
- Narrated by: Robert McKee
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
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Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese, and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives, and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.
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Only 5 Chapters
- By Stephen Buck on 02-15-11
By: Robert McKee
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The Anatomy of Genres
- How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works
- By: John Truby
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people think genres are simply categories on Netflix or Amazon that provide a helpful guide to making entertainment choices. Most people are wrong. Genre stories aren’t just a small subset of the films, video games, TV shows, and books that people consume. They are the all-stars of the entertainment world, comprising the vast majority of popular stories worldwide. That’s why businesses—movie studios, production companies, video game studios, and publishing houses—buy and sell them. Legendary writing teacher John Truby provides a guide to understanding the major genres of the story world.
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Audible is not the best medium for this book
- By Ken on 02-13-25
By: John Truby
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The Secrets of Story
- Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers
- By: Matt Bird
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Secrets of Story is a revolutionary and comprehensive writing guide for the 21st century, focused on clever ways to get an audience to fully identify with an all-too-human hero. Authors will learn to how to cut through pop culture noise and win over a jaded modern audience by rediscovering the heart of writing: shaping stories that ring true to our shared understanding of human nature.
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Good Story Impossible? 'Au Contraire'!
- By Gillian on 05-26-17
By: Matt Bird
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Save the Cat!
- The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
- By: Blake Snyder
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying.
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Don't waste your time
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-20
By: Blake Snyder
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Writing Tools (10th Anniversary Edition)
- 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
- By: Roy Peter Clark
- Narrated by: Neil Kaplan
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Ten years ago, Roy Peter Clark, America's most influential writing teacher, whittled down almost 30 years of experience in journalism, writing, and teaching into a series of 50 short essays on different aspects of writing. In the past decade, Writing Tools has become a classic guidebook for novices and experts alike and remains one of the best loved books on writing available. This new edition includes five brand-new, never-before-shared tools.
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Refreshing
- By Danielle on 06-15-21
By: Roy Peter Clark
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Outlining Your Novel
- Map Your Way to Success
- By: K. M. Weiland
- Narrated by: Sonja Field
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Let outlines help you write a better book! Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal.
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Doesn't explain how to outline
- By Nothing really matters on 01-28-16
By: K. M. Weiland
Great foundations
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This Is Crucial!
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creating characters as a new writer
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Very Helpful!
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Really thorough and massively helpful
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Helped me identify my writing mistakes
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Good explanation of writing character development
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I now understand
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If you are a writer and you feel you are at a Plato stage in your writing, then this book is for you. The Secrets to creating Character Arcs will give you a clearer perspective and energize you to a level you may have not known before. Great narration as well!
Everything you need to know for fiction writing!
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Invaluable, commonsense techniques and suggestions
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