Writing a Character Arc for a Canon Character
by bex1112
Writing fanfiction poses different challenges than writing an original work. The greatest among these challenges is probably how to write a new story with characters that already exist. For a story to work characters have to grow and change, they need to find themselves in new ways. There needs to be a character arc.
When you're writing an original story with original characters this is much easier, because the characters are your own. You the author get to choose their personalities, their motives. However the duel blessing and curse of fanfiction is that the characters already exist, they already have an established way to act. There's something of an art to balancing the already established aspects of a canon character with their arc in your story. So in this little chapter, hopefully without restating what's already been said, I'll try to show you how I go about writing a character arc for a canon character.
Let's start with an example. Say you're writing a Harry Potter fanfic and you decide that Harry is going to kill Hermione. So you write a heart wrenching confrontation, an epic fight scene, a dramatic death. You research every fact and figure, the scene is perfect, beautiful, a real tear jerker. Except everyone hates it. The reason? Harry isn't just going to pop up out of the blue and kill Hermione. Duh.
So what's the solution? You can't write a story where nothing happens, that would be boring. Harry can't stay at Hogwarts forever, there won't always be another Death Star for Luke to blow up, the Winchester brothers can't kill the same demons over and over.
Characters have to have a character arc, otherwise life will be boring for everyone. As fanfiction writers we get the great pleasure of picking up characters that we already know and love and throwing them into totally new situations. However instead of focusing on how to make that new situation convincing I'm going to talk about something that I believe is much more important. Thoughts and dialogue. Because if you can convince readers that what your character is saying/thinking is something that the canon character would actually say/think you're already three quarters of the way to "convincingville".
Look at it this way, would Barry Allen ever say, "Before we continue, we should thoughtfully plan out this excursion, thoroughly examining every possibility and event. By doing so, we shall reduce our risk by 72%."? No! Because Barry never plans out anything. Is Sherlock Holmes going to say, "What's up my dudes!"? No! Sherlock Holmes wouldn't be caught dead saying "my dudes". Do you want to make Peter Parker think to himself, "Hmm, there's somebody dying over there but it's not my problem."? Of course not. Because as he said himself, "With great power comes great responsibility."
These are all examples of characters acting out of character, and your readers will notice. Characters are people. Sure, people are unpredictable. But people also have a set of core values, an internal code of sorts. People stick to their codes, and so they will always act within a set of parameters. You need to make sure you keep your canon character acting within their canon internal codes, otherwise they'll be acting out of character which is what we don't want. You can have the greatest plot of all time and it'll mean nothing at all if you can't imitate a characters speech and thought. The mark of a truly great fanfiction writer is one which can not only create an incredible plotline but also imitate a canon characters speech pattern.
Let's take a look at an example in my own story, The New Avenger. Picture this, Percy Jackson is hanging out in Central Park with some mortal friends. Suddenly without a scrap of warning a monster appears. Instead of going after Percy it begins attacking the mortals. What does Percy do?
In canon, Percy never hung out in Central Park, never had mortal friends. This is uncharted ground, what to do? Well first, don't panic (I panic way too often. A panicked author is not a good author. Neither is a sleep deprived one, trust me. When you're trying to edit a chapter with no vowels you'll see what I mean). After you don't panic (or stop panicking) think about similar situations. When Percy gets attacked in the canon timeline what does he do? Does he wait for the monster to come to him? Does he curl up in a ball and cry? Does he run away screaming?
No, of course not. Based on his past actions we can pretty reasonably assume he's going to taunt the monster, call it names. "Hey! Snake hair! Remember me!" We know Percy lacks decision making skills, so given the choice to run away from certain death or towards certain death it's pretty easy to know what he'll do. "So I do the only reasonable thing. I run. Right at her."
It's a bad choice, but it's one that Uncle Rick's Percy Jackson would make. So although this very specific scene never actually happened, by knowing the canon character well it's fairly simple to create believable actions and dialogue.
But that doesn't quite answer the question of how to create a character arc, only how to write believable character actions. I can't speak for anyone else but when I'm writing fanfiction my favorite thing to do is change an entire character without anybody knowing until nine people are dead and everyone's screaming. The easiest (and honestly only) way to do this is by changing a characters actions, not their motivations.
You want to create an AU where Tony Stark decides that Ultron is right in trying to kill everyone? If you just jump in and start killing everyone your story will sound ridiculous. But give some convincing dialogue on it being the only way to truly protect the Earth, talking about how the Avengers were just a band-aid or something and you might actually sell it. Because we know Tony Stark wants to protect Earth, making that believable. By only changing his actions and not the motivation behind those actions you can make even the most insane ideas seem sane.
An easy way to find out what a characters' motivations are, is to look for a pattern. Where does this character end up and why do they end up there? Does the character ever specifically state their motivations? If you still can't figure it out there are eight pretty common motivators that you can look at and try to see where a specific character fits.
Money and rewards. In other words, is the character acting for personal gain? Ex. Octavian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) , Celaena Sardothien (Throne of Glass), Kino (The Pearl)
The desire to be the best. Does this character have a need to always be at the top, the number one? Ex. Sherlock Holmes, Star Lord (MCU).
Wanting to help others. Will this character do anything in order for others to benefit? Ex. Wonder Woman (DC Comics), Day (Legend).
Loyalty to others. Does a deep, sometimes irrational, bond motivate this character? Ex. Marty McFly (Back to the Future), Captain America (MCU).
They have a passion (this can be a passion for something or someone). Does your character do what they do because they believe in it? Ex. Thanos (MCU), Hideo Tanaka (Warcross).
Fear and desperation. Is the character being influenced by desperation or fear? Ex. Adelina Amouteru (Young Elites), Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games), George and Lennie (Of Mice and Men) .
A sense of duty. Does this character do what they do because they feel they have to? Ex. Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird), Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle)
Wanting to belong. Is this character acting out of a need to fit in or belong to a certain group? Ex. Alina Starkov (Shadow and Bone), Tina Goldstein (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).
It's important to note that although these are common motivators they aren't the only motivators. Few, if any, characters have only one motivation. For example, on this chart I placed Captain America under the loyalty heading because of his devotion to Bucky he's also motivated by a sense of duty (to America), his desire to help others, and to some degree the desire to be the best.
Once you've figured out why a character is acting a certain way all you have to do is figure out other ways that motivation could make them act. Think of what the creator of the canon did and then think about what they could've done. Another thing you can do is think of the worst possible situation and ask yourself how the character would react. Split second reactions reveal a lot about a character. If this sounds complicated trust me when I say it's not, all you're doing to taking something to its logical conclusion. Don't worry, it's way easier than it sounds. And it's worth it, I promise.
I've used a lot of words and examples and maybe you're confused, which is completely understandable (I know I am), so I'm going to attempt to boil this down to three core points:
1– Convincing dialogue creates convincing characters, if you can see the character saying your dialogue, you're doing a good job!
2– Don't be afraid to mess with a character but be careful to stay within their established moral code. If a character will do anything but kill don't have them go on a murder spree.
3– Last but certainly not least change a characters actions, not their motivations. Take the canon motivations for a character and take them to a logical conclusion. It doesn't have to be the one that the author came to but it does have to make some sort of sense. All of this seems obvious but it's easy to get so caught up in your amazingly amazing plot that you forget that these characters are people.
Keep their basic character dialogue, core values, and motivations the same and then do whatever your heart desires with the rest.
Which the character that you most admire to write for his moral code?