on Jami Gold:

I’ve often talked about how stories are about change. Even the simplest story will “arc” by ending up someplace different from where it started.

As a pantser (one who writes by the seat of their pants), I joke about how I use this knowledge of arc to “plan” my romance stories (where happy endings are mandatory):

“If point B is happy, point A must be… (all together now) …sad or unfulfilled in some way.”

Ta-da! *grin*

Unless we’re writing a story with only a plot arc, our characters will go through an arc as well. In the case of our characters, showing a change means they:

learn something over the course of the story — and/or —
are able/willing to do something at the end that they couldn’t do at the beginning.

With all the recent guest posts here in Kris Kennedy’s fantastic series on Must-Read backstory, we might wonder how our characters’ backstory plays a role in their arc of change. Today, Kris is back with her final post in the series to answer how backstory actually creates the opportunity for a character arc.

Please welcome Kris Kennedy!