So I have this idea for a MC that starts out as a weak young girl who has little interest in becoming the warrior she's meant to be, but over the course of about five years she realizes that she is meant to be a warrior and with hard work and dedication grows up to become a very strong and powerful warrior. I'm wondering is this too quick or too much of a change in a character. If so what can I do.
Well I'm thinking the character decides to start changing because she has a dream of her spirit self telling her of her destiny to be a great warrior. Would this be a good enough reason for a change or should there be something else that also makes her change her mind about being a warrior.
That's what happened to Joan of Arc, and she's awesome. Except it was.. you know.. God that told her. I think it would be more powerful if this "spirit self" was its own character that kept appearing throughout the story. It could represent a belief of hers that keeps her motivated. It probably shouldn't just be "go do this because I said so." That would make her a sort of blindly loyal soldier-like character in my eyes. Maybe that's what you want though, not sure.
I do want her to be a loyal soldier like character. And I agree she should keep having dreams about this sprit self through out the story.
Alright, sounds like a good read to me. Thousands of stories start with a "vision" or "spirit." Good stories.
Well it all depend on what exactly you decide to right. if the story is aout her five years that lead to her deciding to become a warrior, that would work if you write it well. Or you could start the story with her trying to be a warrior, and infuse that five years as back story thats revealed throughout her quest to be the hero she finally decided to be. It all depend on the story you want to tell and how well you tell it. if you are doing the first option, then you want it definitely to build, and make it become a dilemma early on and as she progresse, it becomes more of a reality. it CANNOT be a sudden change after one traumatic event unless there is more to it then she would have to learn and grow out of her immature stages and really grow as a warrior and a person by the end of the story. I hope that helps Good luck
True character of people come out when they are put in extraordinary situations, so are the fictional characters'. You are fine, your character is doing fine. But you might want her to struggle a bit, be an underdog, before she became a warrior so that the readers will root for her.
Five years is plenty of time. I'm pretty different from who I was 5 years ago. When I was 18, I still felt like a kid, and was really freaked out by having just turned 'officially' adult, and I really had no clue what my future would look like. Now, at 23, I've gone to university, gained a lot of confidence, and am actively planning towards my future - getting a psych master's, gaining independent living skills so I can move out of home. I really feel that I went from a kid to an adult in that time.
That's great Ettina. I believe that five years from now I will probably be a different person then I am now. Hopefully more independent.
My thought is that the girl becomes a warrior to protect the things she cares about. She becomes a fighter to defend herself, and what she loves.
I agree that she should be put through some extraordinary situation for motivation before the dream tells her she can do it. It won't do it for her to just wake up one ordinary morning remembering a dream telling her that's her goal.
Watch Mulan - Disney did quite a good job with the legend. It's about a woman in ancient China, a time when women are not allowed to join the army. War hits China and her very old father is conscripted. Mulan, the only child and a girl, cannot take her father's place. So at night she sneaks out with her father's armour and joins the army, masquerading as a man - with no training, no background in this stuff etc. She goes because she knows her father will die at war for sure, and it was the only way to spare his life. And she does end up becoming a brilliant and courageous warrior.
My trouble with this plot is that if the girl is timid and just generally not warrior-like, then she's better at things that are not warrior-like. Her talents are in other areas, probably. Unless she's just in denial about her abilities, she's probably not able to become a warrior without working twice as hard as someone naturally inclined to be a fighter. She'll be basically denying her true self just to do the whole warrior thing.
