Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development (Helping Writers Become Authors Book 7)

Up to this point, he will have been seeking to avoid a confrontation. Maybe he just plain doesn’t want to deal with the conflict. The world’s going to hell in a handbasket, but it’s not his fight. Or it could be that he spent the First Act wanting to overcome the Lie, but hoping it could be done diplomatically and peacefully, without a head-on confrontation. In either case, the First Plot Point will be a shocking event that suddenly makes the world’s external problems very personal to the protagonist

The Second Act is all about releasing the protagonist upon an unsettled world. At first, he is forced to react to the major event at the First Plot Point and grapple with the Lie. Then everything changes at the Midpoint, when new knowledge about himself and/or the world allows him to start taking action by going on the offensive

THE SECOND ACT is the beating heart of your story

Questions to Ask About the First Act in a Flat Arc

1. What Truth does your character already believe at the beginning of your story?

2. Does he have a Ghost in his backstory that prompted this belief?

3. What Lie, as represented by the antagonistic force, will he have to fight?

4. Does his Normal World represent the Truth he will be fighting to protect—or does it represent the Lie he must overthrow in order to establish the Truth?

5. If the former, how can you illustrate the encroaching threat of the Lie upon that Normal World?

6. When will your protagonist first become aware of the threat of the Lie?

7. Is the protagonist initially reluctant to engage in a battle with the Lie?

8. If he is already committed to battling the Lie, what obstacles in the First Act prevent him from a full-on confrontation with the Lie?

9. What Characteristic Moment can you use to illustrate your character’s devotion to the Truth—and the resultant knowledge and skills he is able to wield?

10. How can your opening illustrate the Lie that opposes the protagonist?

11. Throughout the First Act, how can you use the Lie to prove what is at stake for the protagonist?

The protagonist may oppose the Lie from the beginning, but he won’t confront it head on in the First Act

The character probably won’t start out the story with a knowledge of the Lie

Within the first quarter of a Flat-Arc story, your primary responsibilities are going to be setting the stage for the coming conflict. You must introduce the important characters and their respective alignments with either the Truth or the Lie. Just as in a Positive Change Arc, this is the time to lavish some extra attention on the Lie, because within the Lie is always where we discover what is at stake for the protagonist. What horrible things will happen to him and his world if the Lie isn’t overthrown?

In a Flat Arc, the Normal World can manifest in two ways, the first of which is as a good place that represents the character’s Truth. In this instance, the Normal World will either be destroyed at the First Plot Point, or, more likely, the character will be forced to journey away from it in order to protect it.
The second possible manifestation of the Normal World is as a less-than-satisfactory place, which has been cursed by a great Lie—against which the protagonist’s Truth will stand in direct opposition. The protagonist will use his Truth to destroy this evil world and build a better one in its place

A Flat Arc will never be a story about a character’s search for closure

It isn’t enough to simply have a character change; he must change in a way that harmonizes with the patterns we all recognize in our own lives and those of our family and friends. Readers will resonate with those patterns in your characters—and they will be moved by them.