Revising for Change: The Four C’s - Part 4

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Change is hard.

In real life, we often avoid it. We create routines. Go back to the same tried and true restaurants. Wear the same outfits on rotation. At least, that’s what I do.

There’s a reason for that. Repetition feels safe. They call it a comfort zone for a reason. 

But just like so many other aspects of fiction writing, in books, we want to give our characters the opposite of what we want for ourselves. In fiction, we have to push our characters out of that safe little box they’ve created for themselves and put them through the conflict wringer (you can read more about the importance of conflict for your story here).

By the end of the story, those conflicts need to mean something to you readers and to your characters. You demonstrate that meaning by showing how the characters and/or story world have been changed by the events in your story.

Oftentimes, we plant the seeds of change in a first draft but don’t grow it enough by the end of our books. That’s where revision comes in. By selectively enhancing and refining the elements of change you’ve already created you can give your novel a meaningful arc that will resonate with readers long after they reach the last page.

To figure out how your novel is demonstrating change (or not) here are four questions that you can use to analyze your draft:

#1 – How is your main character different at the end of your story? 

You can think about this at a surface level—the farm boy is now king, the lonely software engineer has found the love of her life—but you that’s just the beginning. 

How have they changed at a fundamental, core level? How has their worldview (and by extent, the way they approach life) changed? For example, maybe the farm boy turned king has learned that true leadership isn’t about having all the answers and being certain, it’s about doing the right thing even if you’re uncertain about the outcome. That software engineer who finds love might have to learn to embrace the messiness of life before she can even make room in her heart for romance.

The exact nature of that change will depend on your genre and the story you’re telling. But it’s often helpful to start with a misbelief that the character has latched onto. A misguided view of the world or themselves that keeps them stuck. Then, the story can attack that misbelief, forcing them to realize that there is a better way to live. 

For more on crafting this character misbelief, I highly recommend Story Genius by Lisa Cron. While I don’t agree with her belief that you have to outline your novels in advance (I use her methods as part of my revision process), she has great exercises that you can use to figure out your character’s guiding misbelief and use it to shape their change arc.

A quick note before we move on. You may have heard that your main character has to have a change arc. But that’s not true. While having a main character who changes is by far the most common choice, it’s not a necessity.

Unchanging characters typically show up in thrillers or mysteries that aren’t about the character’s internal growth. They show up, solve the problem, and move on to a new problem in the next book. In that case, you’ll want to think about the changes that occur in your story world or in the other characters (more on that below). There are other genres that are far more likely to require a change arc (romance comes to mind) so it’s important to look at what successful authors are doing in your genre and respond accordingly.

#2 – Is the change in your main character incremental or sudden?

It’s not enough for your main character to change on the last page. The change needs to build believably over the course of your novel so that it feels earned and realistic. 

Readers need to see your character learning and growing over the course of the story. Will they have big moments that push them further than others? Of course! But we still need to see the ingredients of change brewing throughout the story. Show smaller moments that steer them toward becoming a new version of themselves. Show the little decisions that demonstrate a shift in their thinking or acting in preparation for the big lessons they’ll learn at the end.

Change can also be non-linear. Maybe they progress a little only to backslide a few pages later. That cycle of little steps forward, little steps back (or little step forward, big step back) can be great for sustaining tension throughout your novel.

As the conflict in your book gets worse, your character has to make tougher choices. Use those moments to show growth (or resistance to it). Show the way that they are changing in response to the challenges they face. Show them reconsidering their beliefs and learning new ways to deal with problems.

Here’s what that might look like

• In fantasy, that might mean learning to accept themselves fully so that they can tap into their innate magic and take down the villain. At the climax they might use powerful magics without hesitation. In the middle they might perform a small spell under duress and realize that the world hasn’t ended.

• In a romance, the main character might need to learn how to stay and solve problems with their significant other instead of running away at the first sign of trouble. By the end of the novel, they’ll be committed and ready to weather any storm. Maybe in the middle they take a small step forward by allowing themselves a small moment of vulnerability with the love interest.

• In women’s fiction, the main character might need to leave her toxic marriage in order to become the fully self-actualized person she was meant to be. The ending could be her living her best life, single and empowered. In the middle she might take a step forward by simply telling her husband “no” for the first time in a long time.

There are countless other ways that you could test these characters, moving them closer to their goal in some scenes and further away in others. 

What about realizations or dramatic reveals that produce a big change really quickly? Those can work too. You just need to be careful to show readers exactly what causes the change and why that one moment/revelation/insight has such a profound effect on the character. Change needs to be earned no matter what, so you’ll also need to make sure that this moment is proportional to the change that it produces in your main character.

#3 – How do your supporting characters change?

Your main character isn’t the only one who can change. Secondary characters can change as well. Even better if they are changed because of their relationship with the main character. 

I always like to use season one of Jack Reacher as an example of this type for change. In season one, Jack Reacher doesn’t have a character arc. But the people around him do—Finlay, Roscoe, the Hubbles—their lives will never be the same because Jack Reacher walked into the little town of Margrave, Georgia and decided to stick around.

Drizzt Do’Urden from R.A. Salvatore’s long running series is another great example. He does have a character arc in the early books, but later on in the series his character becomes fairly static. Instead of continuing to make dramatic changes, he helps the people around him change whether they interact with him in one book or multiple titles across the series. 

#4 – How does the world of your story change?

The world of your story can change too. Big world-shaking changes are a staple of the fantasy genre. War comes to Middle Earth (The Lord of the Rings). The ruler who has stayed in power for a thousand years is killed (Mistborn). A king dies and multiple different factions fight for the throne (A Game of Thrones). The list goes on. 

The main characters don’t have to be the driver of those changes (though they can be), but they should be intimately involved in the escalation of that conflict and the eventual resolution of that conflict.

You don’t have to be a science fiction/fantasy writer to change the world of your story. Change happens in the real world all the time. Just look at how much our live have changed in the past five years. Natural disasters, political conflicts, pandemics—it doesn’t take magic to alter the world on a large scale.

If you’re focused on a more limited setting, that works too. The world of your story also doesn’t have to encompass the entire planet. We’re just talking about the place that defines your story whether that’s a country, a small town, a school, or even a single household.

A contemporary coming of age novel could focus on the way that a teen finds self-acceptance and the ripple effect that change has on their friend group. A historical novel could focus on the way that a small town reacts to changing demographics or new integration laws. The people in town might change in different ways.

There you have it, four questions to help you analyze the change in your novel. 

If you don’t even know how to begin answering these questions, you may have a deeper problem with characterization that needs to be addressed first. You need a firm understanding of who your character is at the beginning of your novel before you can even begin to think about who they’ll become by the end. Once you have their initial characterization locked down it will be much easier to figure out what incremental steps will move them toward their ultimate goal.

If answering these questions has made you realize that you actually haven’t put enough change in your novel, it’s okay! Oftentimes the seeds of change are there, they just aren’t being shown in the novel. You might be telling readers that your character has changed but not demonstrating it on the page. Before you start thinking of new scenes to add, look at the big moments in your story. See if you can draw out another layer of emotion or give a hint that your character is approaching things in new ways. You might be surprised to find that you’re closer to demonstrating that change than you thought and that a few tweaks to your scenes will bring that change to life on the page.

Change is just one of the Four C’s (four components of writing that are essential for creating a compelling novel), you can learn about the rest of them—conflict, character, and cause/effect in the previous blog posts in this series. 

Ready to go beyond blog posts and really analyze your novel?

Check out the Reverse Outline Workshop! I’ll teach you all about the Four C’s and share my favorite tool for analyzing the plot of your novel in revisions. You can get access now for just $49!

FYI: This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission. For more information, click here and thanks, as always, for your support!