This is my Vienna.

Posted by K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ego-driven-vs-soul-driven-character-arcs/

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/?p=37292

Today, I want to share something new with you…

This year, I’m starting a Story School!

For years, I’ve taught story primarily through blog posts and books. But there are some topics I’ve been wanting to explore that need the kind of focused attention that allows us to go deeper.

So this year, I’ll be teaching a series of live classes throughout the year, each one focused on a specific idea I’m super-excited about and that I haven’t had the opportunity to write about before.

Today, I’m announcing that the first class is open for registration:

Register here → The Ego-Driven Character Arc vs. the Soul-Driven Character Arc

Why Writers Struggle With Character Arcs Becoming Formulaic

This class grew out of some realizations I’ve been sitting with for a while.

When we first learn about the Positive Change Arc or the Lie the Character Believes, it gives us language for transformation (both our characters’ and our own). It gives us a structure we can recognize as a prevalent (even universal) pattern in life.

But almost immediately, writers start asking the next question:

• How do I keep character arcs from becoming formulaic?
• If this pattern is universal, how do I create variety?
• Or how about depth and maturity?

This year, I’ve been writing a lot about the cyclical shape of story. The idea here is that transformation often moves in a recognizable circular shape—but this circle isn’t flat. It’s a spiral (or at least has the potential to be so). It allows us to revisit the same journey, but at deeper levels of awareness.

In real life, we don’t want to keep learning the same lesson in the same way forever. If we do, we’re not actually growing. I’ve come to see that character arcs reflect that same progression.

Two Types of Character Transformation in Stories

Some arcs are ego-driven. They are karmic. These are the stories in which we see the characters resist change. The Lie is dismantled only through the pressure applied by the plot events. In these stories, transformation often feels like confrontation and takes place through conflict.

However, there’s another type of character arc.

These character arcs are soul-driven. They are what we might think of as dharmic. Here, the character isn’t fighting the thematic Truth in the same way. Rather, the movement of the story is about conscious alignment and a desire to embrace change.

Both types of character arcs are valid and powerful. They both create solid and profound plots. But they are not structured in precisely the same way.

In this class, we’re going to explore:

• How ego-driven arcs operate and how their turning points land
• How soul-driven arcs diverge structurally
• How to recognize which kind of transformation is best for your story
• How to create variation within universal patterns without becoming formulaic
• How stories like The Alchemist, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Shawshank Redemption illustrate these differences

How I First Discovered the Power of Character Arc

When I first began studying and teaching character arcs, the Positive Change Arc and the Lie the Character Believes felt like discovering a master key.

Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic by K.M. Weiland (Amazon affiliate link)

At that point in my life, I had written several novels, in which I had always just sort of felt my way through the character arcs. Then Writer’s Digest asked me to work on an annotated edition of Jane Eyre, focusing on lessons writers could learn from this classic story.

Structuring Your Novel: Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (Amazon affiliate link)

As the author of Structuring Your Novel, of course, the first thing I did was sit down with a paperback version of the novel and divide its page count into eighths to help me identify the pacing and timing of structural beats. I did this thinking plot structure would probably be the main thing I would focus on in pulling teachings from the book.

But as I read through and really sat with what was happening at each turning point, I could see the structure of character arc so much more clearly than I ever had.

I saw the Lie the Character Believed, the thematic Truth, the Want and the Need, and the Ghost.

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

That experience became the foundation for the next book I wrote, which was Creating Character Arcs.

Between the annotated version of Jane Eyre and Creating Character Arcs, something fundamental shifted in my perspective of life, humanity, and the nature of change itself.

My eyes were opened to one of the most important thematic Truths of my life.

Suddenly, so many stories made sense, not to mention so much of human growth. I could see the pattern everywhere—in fiction and in my own life.

That framework still feels foundational to me. It describes a real and necessary stage of growth: the stage where we resist Truth, cling to our limitations, and have to be confronted by consequences before we’re willing to change.

Writing Stories That Move Beyond Problem-Solving

Over time—both in my own life and in the stories I found myself drawn to—I began to notice something else.

Not every meaningful transformation comes through resistance.

In fact, after undergoing a few character arcs of my own dramatic ego-death variety, my entire stance toward change itself became different.

Maturity and experience brought the understanding that some of the deepest shifts come not so much from needing to be hit over the head with the need to change, but from recognizing that a current understanding is incomplete and wanting—genuinely wanting—to step into a larger perspective. This desire isn’t because I’m forced to change or because I’m already failing at something, but because I know there’s more out there than whatever limited perspective I currently hold.

That’s a different posture toward change.

It’s humbler. It’s less dramatic. In many ways, it’s harder to write about because it isn’t fueled by the same kind of obvious conflict.

And yet, when I look at many of the stories that have deeply inspired me over the years—stories that feel mythic, spacious, archetypal—I see this second type of character arc everywhere.

These arcs are about characters who are not simply learning how to function better within the world they already know. These are stories about characters orienting themselves toward something larger than themselves and their own success.

That realization has changed how I think about story.

It has made me more attentive to the kind of transformation that might be best for certain narratives. And it has made me more interested in writing—and teaching—stories that operate at that deeper register.

To me, this shift feels especially relevant right now. We’re living in a time when many of us are questioning not just what we want, but where meaning lies. We need to know not just how to succeed, but how to come into alignment with a bigger perspective.

Stories have always been one of the primary ways we explore those questions, which is why it can be so valuable to understand how we can further our exploration of character arc in ways that feel psychologically true, spiritually rich, and even deeply mythic in nature.

If that resonates with you because maybe you, too, have been feeling the pull toward writing stories that move beyond simple problem-solving and into archetypal meaning, I would love to explore this with you.

Join the Class

Here’s everything you need to know:

• The class is pre-recorded and premieres this Wednesday, April 1, at 1PM EDT.
• I’ll be in the live chat during the showing if you want to join the discussion.
• If you can’t attend live, the replay will be available afterward.

You can read more and register here:

Register here → The Ego-Driven Character Arc vs. the Soul-Driven Character Arc

Bundle for Discount: In two weeks, I’ll also be teaching a follow-up class, The Villain as an Aspect of the Hero’s Psyche. It explores how conflict itself can be understood symbolically rather than just externally. If you’d like to continue this deeper dive into mythic storytelling, there’s a 15% bundle option available.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Which types of character arcs do you find yourself writing most often—ego-driven character arcs or something closer to a soul-driven arc? Tell me in the comments!

The post New Writing Class: What Happens After the Positive Change Arc? appeared first on Helping Writers Become Authors.

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ego-driven-vs-soul-driven-character-arcs/

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/?p=37292