Writing a standalone novel is one thing, but completing a whole book series is another and much more challenging. On the flip side, writing book series can be beneficial to authors, allowing them the opportunity to build a supportive community around their books. There are different kinds of book series, which I'll discuss later; but for now, let's go over building character arcs. One of the most important things when it comes to writing a book series is creating character arcs for your cast of characters that are believable and fulfilling for the readers. A simple way writers can do this is by ensuring they include four conditions within their character arcs to show the character development of their characters over the story arc of their series. These four conditions are triumphs, losses, turning points, and milestones. Let's examine each of these as well as some examples from a few movies below. 🔍
THE 4 CONDITIONS EXPLAINED
If you're writing a book series, consider using a combination of the four conditions in the diagram above. These will help you ensure your characters' arcs are complete, realistic, and don't have any loopholes in them, especially if you write ordinary characters in dramatic and real-life situations as I do for my Christian fiction novels and short stories.
CONDITION 1: TRIUMPHS
The first condition includes positive, uplifting experiences and events, such as wins, victories, happy moments, or other good major events in your characters' lives. For example, maybe a character becomes debt-free after years of paying bills, or maybe they're an athlete and have won a trophy or medal in their field of sport. Or perhaps a character is an author and has reached the best-selling list. All of the good or favorable moments in your characters' lives would fall under this first category.
CONDITION 2: LOSSES
The second condition includes negative or downfall experiences, such as losing things or loved ones, sad moments, or tragic events in your characters' lives. For example, maybe a character loses their office job of ten years for a company because of new technology replacing their position, or maybe they have suffered a robbery and had much of their home property stolen from them. Both of these examples are bad or unfavorable moments and would fall under this second category.
CONDITION 3: TURNING POINTS
The third type of condition includes a change of events from previous states that creates new perspectives, viewpoints, decisions, or choices that your characters make in their lives. For example, maybe a character was a junk food eater and goes on a diet to improve his or her health, or maybe a character has lost their spouse and suddenly has to raise their child or children on their own. These are two turning point events that would have a big impact on characters and influence them to make certain decisions in their lives based on their other interactions with characters and their environments.
CONDITION 4: MILESTONES
Finally, the fourth condition includes new states of being, such as coming-of-age moments, major accomplishments, promotions, or other new levels of maturity that shows growth within your characters and their lives. For example, maybe a character reached puberty or graduated high school or college, or maybe they were offered a job promotion or finally started following after their wildest dreams at a later age. All of these events about characters growing to a new state of living or stage in life would fall under this fourth condition.
SOME EXAMPLES OF THE 4 CONDITIONS IN MOVIES
Alright, grab your popcorn, set back, relax, and let's see two examples of the four conditions of character arcs in a few beloved movies in film. Lights, camera, action! 🍿🎥🎞️
MOVIES:
Movie 1: JACK (1996)
Starring Robin Williams, Jack (1996), is a movie about Jack Powell, a ten-year-old kid who although was born healthy, looks like a forty-year-old man because of a rare, aging condition that makes his cells grow exponentially at four times the normal rate, causing his internal clock of life to be much faster. For this reason, although he looks like a grown-up, mentally and emotionally, he's still boy inside. Because of this, Jack faces difficulties with fitting in with his school peers and the challenge of being misunderstood among the adult world.
THE 4 CONDITIONS OF JACK POWELL'S CHARACTER ARC
Below is a chart of Jack Powell's triumphs, losses, turning points, and milestones for each of the categories. Together they create his complete character arc throughout the movie.
TRIUMPHS | LOSSES | TURNING POINTS | MILESTONES |
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Below is the ending scene of Jack Powell's high school graduation as a senior citizen, giving his valedictorian speech about his short time of living and advising others to live to the fullest and make their lives spectacular because none of us really have long on earth.
Movie 2: Gifted Hands (2009)
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Gifted Hands, is a biopic movie about the true story of Dr. Ben Carson and the academic and medical challenges he faced during his pursuit of medicine. Growing up in a single mother home, having a quick temper, and living amongst poverty and prejudice, Ben wasn't given much of a chance, but with the aid of his mother who helped him expand his imagination, intelligence, and his belief in himself, he became one of the most well-known and successful neurosurgeons.
(If you never seen "Gifted Hands," check it out, it's a great, inspiring movie. 👍🏽)
THE 4 CONDITIONS OF BEN CARSON'S CHARACTER ARC
Below is a chart of Ben Carson's triumphs, losses, turning points, and milestones for each of the categories. Together they create his complete character arc throughout the movie.
TRIUMPHS | LOSSES | TURNING POINTS | MILESTONES |
| Ben fails at school and gets in trouble because of his quick temper. | Ben starts to improve at his schoolwork after getting his glasses. | Ben attends college at Yale University as a young man with a scholarship. |
Earning the certificate for highest academic achievement in 8th grade. | Being discriminated against by his teacher because of his skin color and doing better than his white classmates. | Ben uses his imagination during the pastor's story in church. | Ben gets accepted into John Hopkins Hospital as a neurosurgeon resident. |
Ben passes his chemistry test and gets an A, a much-needed course for his medical degree. | Ben gets bullied in his new school for his old clothes. | Ben promises his mother in a letter to do better in school. | Declared the best pediatric neurosurgeon by many people. |
Although unqualified, Ben performs his first successful lobectomy. | During an angry outburst, Ben nearly attacks his mother with a hammer for her refusing to buy him new clothes and reprimanding him. | Being more involved in his academic learning from his mother's strict instructions and his curiosity of various subjects. | Successfully performing a separation operation of the occipital craniopagus twin boys from Germany. |
Despite the possible negative effects, Ben performs a successful hemispherectomy on four-year-old Cynthia Gonzalez. | Ben is racially humiliated by his head doctor while an intern among his medical associates. | Ben goes to a new high/middle school in Detroit. | |
Figuring out how to keep the occipital craniopagus twins from Germany from bleeding out to save them both. | Ben loses his twin babies through his wife's miscarriage. | Ben befriends his bullies in school after a "Yo Mama" showdown. | |
Ben comes to terms with the severity of his quick temper and asks for God's help. |
USING THE 4 CONDITIONS AND 5 PHASES TO CREATE AND OUTLINE CHARACTER ARCS
By using the four conditions, these can help you to create positive or negative transitional character arcs for your characters. There are many ways that writers can outline combining these two techniques for character arcs in a book series, as shown below. In the first photo, this is an example of how writers could do index cards. I set up index cards for the lead female characters in my Hallelujah Praise trilogy series of the three daughters of Pastor Isaiah Johnson: Denice, Chandra, and Genesis for each installment or book of my series. These cards could be color-coded according to your characters, giving each character their own color. However, if you don't have different colored index cards (as I didn't), you can name the cards and color-code each of your characters' names on each of the cards for their four conditions: triumphs, losses, turning points, and milestones.
The next image below my transitional arc diagram shows Denice's character arc. Using my circle stencil, I drew a half circle to create an arc. Next, I divided it into five parts to represent each one of the phases of her transitional character arc, and finally I labeled each part and colored them with marker and color pencil according to my transitional arc diagram. I've also been briefly summarizing what happens with Denice's arc during each of the five phases.
Although it's not in the next photo, I added a few, little scribbled notes near the phases of my character Denice's transitional arc diagram about what her stasis is in phase one to her new normal in phase five. For example, beside the stasis I had written victim of domestic violence, and beside the new normal I had written self-sufficient, confidant woman, college graduate, and happily married. In Book 1: Precious Lord, Take My Hand of my Hallelujah Praise series, Denice has a positive character arc as shown below.
On the side, you can see a what I call a little "character arc stack" of the order of Denice's four conditions listed, colored, and numbered. These four conditions can be ordered in various different ways depending on what type of character arc is created and the type of story being told. Examples of this are clearly seen in the two movies above. For Denice, I have her losses listed first, which I've placed under her stasis of phase one. On the back of her index cards, I simply bullet list all the events for each of the four conditions. For example, in the photo below, you can see the losses and turning points of Denice's character journey throughout the series.
Some of her turning points I'm also placing under her turning point of phase two of her transitional character arc, which will be some of the story events that takes place during the second phase of her positive character arc. These are all some examples of how writers could outline using the five phases of a transitional character arc and the four conditions.
(🎯FUN ACTIVITY: The next time you watch a movie or episodes of one of your favorite TV show series, grab a pen and paper, and start a bullet list or draw a four-column chart of the four conditions. Then experiment for yourself to see if you can properly identify each of them for one character in the movie or program. These are so common in film entertainment that with careful observation I'm sure you'll be able to have at least one or more event for each condition as I did in the movie examples of "Jack" and "Gifted Hands" above.)
CLOSING REMARKS:
Creating a book series is a huge undertaking and creative project for writers, but crafting believable characters with whole and compelling character arcs can be extremely helpful. Using the four conditions for building character arcs in a book series and ensuring you have transitional arcs that show change and development over the course of your storyline are two things that can lead to the well-earned reward of eager, supportive readers excited to buy the next installment in your book series. Well, this ends this post. If you found it beneficial, please give it a (heart❤️) and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)
Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻
NEXT POST: WORLDBUILDING VS. SETTINGS: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
🤔Which condition do you think is most important to include in a book series?
🏆 Triumphs
⚰️ Losses
↪️ Turning Points
⛰️Milestones
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