Write On: Part 2 of a Character Arc Video Essay Double-Header

At the end of last week’s post, I alluded to the fact that I always found the idea of character arcs a bit confusing. It’s not that I don’t understand them – I understand the hero’s journey and all that.

It goes to Mary Poppins, y'all!

No, it’s that my head goes here:

• Sam Spade
• Wonder Woman
• James Bond
• Marty McFly
• Mary Poppins
• Dr. Richard Kimble
• Hercule Poirot
• Katniss Everdeen
• Mr. Bean

None of these characters have character arcs. At all. 

(Okay, you might argue that Marty McFly has a bit of an arc shoehorned into the sequels with his perplexing reaction to being called a chicken in the sequels. But stay with me.)

But if character arcs are supposed to be a really-really big deal, how do these characters work? Well, it turns out they have flat character arcs.

Yes, that’s an actual thing. And here to tell us all about it in the second half of this Character Arc Video Essay Double-Header is Sage from Just Write on “Writing Characters without Character Arcs.”

This is a great breakdown of how those characters work – and given the list above, they clearly work. The DCEU dig at the end is just gravy.