I'm writing a young adult Fantasy novel at the moment called “The Descent”. About a characters slow decent into becoming a darker human being from a fairly light one. I've tried to find novels that do this negative arc but can't seem to. So if anyone could recommend any that would be very helpful. My question is: How do I ensure this characters downward spiral has good reason behind it. It's not easy to turn people away from their morals and convictions. I've started by making her a mostly good person but with a few cracks in her character that only show through. This negative traits come through stronger as the story progresses and eventually become her main traits. No idea if that's a good idea or not. One of the themes in the novel is the consequences of losing hope. There is a minor character in the story who run in the opposite direction to my main character and hopefully outlines her mistakes. This character never loses hope and it pays off in the end. Any advice on this topic would be helpful as I've never attempted a dark story line before.
It is hard to execute but not unheard of. You have to keep in mind that the positive character arc maintains the reader's interest as they grow to appreciate / like the character more and more. If they start to hate a character more and more, they may lose interest and investment. The main exceptions I can think of are character arcs where the overarching end-goal of the character remains the same. That, or stories where the main character is a generally negative one and is merely an antagonist chosen as a POV, slowly defeated. For the first, the best classical example is Faust. For the second, Mutter Courage.
While it's not YA, a character arc that came to mind was Private Lawrence's tragic downward spiral in the film Full Metal Jacket.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was very good at this kind of character development from his novella "The Double" to his magnus opus "Crime and Punishment." His characters are those who suffer a lot of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with life in general. They hold no meaning and tend to be anti social.
The TV show Breaking Bad is probably the best, most famous example of a mostly-heroic protagonist slowly — almost imperceptibly at first — becoming a complete villain protagonist, but if you absolutely need a novel, I think the Star Wars pre-prequel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction would be the best place to start Both works start out with well-meaning characters making compromises out of desperation, but after making bigger and bigger compromises, eventually the evil option becomes their first choice
Good call on Breaking Bad. I think it's worth noting that the series began with Walt as an ineffectual teacher, incapable of getting any respect, and when he realized he was dying at the end of episode 1 (or thought he was) that unleashed his inner power, which he had always held in check before. That power made him exciting to his wife and he started getting respect, but it kept going farther in that direction until the arc went from powerless man becomes powerful to he becomes a tyrant and crime lord, and now dangerous to his wife and family. So the direction of his arc was already set in that direction—through a couple of seasons he was just exploring his dark side and gaining power, but as it went on we saw the inevitable conclusion it was headed for and that unfolded in fascinating ways (I just realized, very much like Jeff Goldblum's arc in The Fly). His goal was always the same though, to secure enough money to keep his family taken care of before he died. In fact when he thought death was immanent, it became a desperation that drove him to incredible lengths. So the very things that made us like him and root for him at first are exactly what led to his breaking bad. He just had no limits anymore.
There's a few books by that name as well. As far as I'm aware copy right does not protector titles so I think I'm ok. And if this novel is like the others it'll end up with a different title anyway. Thanks everyone. Never heard of Breaking Bad I'll try and check it out.
Oh, you're in for a treat. I know you said you dont watch tv, but that is one of the best examples of good drama you'll ever get. The perfect anti-hero tale.
i've referred to this book on multiple threads: My Sister The Serial Killer, i'd say is like that. the MC starts out as this average character who is conflicted between doing the right thing (telling the cops that her sister kills people), and protecting her sister (cleaning up the messes and disposing the bodies). At one point, she makes excuses for her sisters actions (our father was a terrible man and thats why shes like this. thos men she killed deserved it maybe. she's so sweet, everyone likes her. etc.), but when her sister attempts to kill a man that the MC knows, and then when other things happen, you THINK she is going to have a change of heart... but nope! She picks at everything that is wrong with herself, pushes away the people who care about her, and continues being an accessory to murder but with a new "purpose." (i hope there will be a sequel!) The ladies on the book group im in on Facebook HATED the ended. There are so many posts about it on that page because the MC doesnt do the right thing and doesnt end up with the only person who knows the truth about her and what shes done. idk, the ending was frustrating to me, but i still enjoyed the ride! I'd say what made that plot work for me as a reader was that it was believable. The way the MC was treated, you WANTED her to break away from them and be better to herself and be better FOR herself.... but thats not realistic. not everyone just "gets out" of situations like that. It didnt feel forced to me, whereas the "happy ending" would have seemed forced. Like, in Breaking Bad, Walter's descent would not have made sense if he had this happy, cozy little life where nothing went wrong. So i'd say, what ever the buildup is in your story, by the time it reaches the descent into madness, it should make sense to the situation. You said that she has a few crack in her character... pick at those cracks. One of the "cracks" in My Sister was the MC having low selfesteem. This was picked at... her mother says that she will never be a wife because she is too ugly for men to want, so she should just get use to being "the help"; she doesnt like her sister showing up at her job because her sister is the beautiful one and everyone at her job cant believe they are related; the man she works for doesnt look twice at her but asks her to set him up with her sister; maybe if she could stay by her sisters side then someone will notice her for once, etc.
I think the secret to writing a 'good' person's descent is : self-kiddology. The person doesn't wake up one day and say 'hey, I think I'll go bad.' Instead it's a progression. However, each step towards the dark side is usually taken with some sort of justification. The person justifies what they do, applying their former moral sense in a skewed way. Tough love. (I'm doing this for your own good.) The other person is in the wrong, so what else am I supposed to do? The other person has bad intentions and is out to get me, so I'll get them first. One little step off the grid won't hurt, and it solves a problem which makes everybody happy. Telling a lie for a 'good' purpose, then having to tell more and more lies to bolster the original lie. The chain store is a huge, impersonal corporation that doesn't pay its workers a living wage, so it deserves to be stolen from—in fact, reducing ill-gotten profits is actually a good goal. Ensure that your protagonist always concocts a good 'moral' reason for her actions. Never mind that the actions are obviously bad to the reader, who is silently screaming no no no no no. Let the protagonist talk herself into doing what she does by justifying the action. Never let her be deliberately bad. No no. She's actually GOOD. She just is stuck between a rock and a hard place. And this will only happen the one time. In order to make an omelette you need to break eggs.
You made some excellent points! The good guy going down a slope doesn't seem to be too common in fiction, more a TV thing it seems.
It is out there, I've written it myself, but it is never a good guy deciding to be a bad guy, it's always a good guy who thinks that what he's doing is good, yet it leads to bad outcomes. The villain is always the hero of their own stories. The bad guys always think they are in the right. It's why mustache-twirling villains that are bad for the sake of being bad are so unconvincing. Nobody actually acts that way. The outside viewer may interpret it that way, but to the person living the life, they are the hero.
This is a weird recommendation, but try The Little Princess. It's essentially the non-arc of a girl who holds onto her morality even though she's gone through a lot of events that could have potentially spoiled her -- losing her mother (and thus having an opportunity to indulge in self/other people's pity), having money (ie at risk of being spoiled), being bullied, being around whiny children, being orphaned, forced to work as a servant, starving, etc. Sara Crewe comes out the other side alright, but imagine if she didn't. Imagine if she gave into any one of these temptations. That could be where you work from. A weird alternative I've always liked is Admiral Cartwright from Star Treks 4 and 6. He's only a supporting character, but he goes from rational character to traitor without even flipping a switch. In ST4, he's just the kind of character who has to be there to show that Starfleet is doing something about the probe emergency. Here Cartwright is rational and problem-solving. He has the exact same personality in ST6, but he sees the "problem" as trusting Klingons with whom Starfleet has been in conflict with for years. Cartwright's pretty much the same person he was before, but because he sees Starfleet's aid to Kronos as a bad idea, he takes actions to sabotage Starfleet. There's no apparent guilt at his actions, nor self-righteousness. He's doing what he thinks is best, and it's absolutely the wrong thing.
How about Dorian Gray for a negative arc. just watched the 1945 movie the other day. Nice cinematography. Black and white except when they showed his portrait.
"The villain is always the hero of their own stories." That is my favorite line! No one thinks of themselves as evil...not at first, at least. Maybe as their crimes become so hideous they acknowledge their crimes, but even though most people tend to make excuses for them. People need to justify their actions to themselves.
Not ever. Serial killers don't sit there thinking they're bad people. They have justifications for why what they're doing is good. They may be terrible justifications, but they are justifications nonetheless. It is possible that at some point, they may self-reflect and realize that they were wrong the whole time and try to change, but at no point in time while they are active are they just sitting there congratulating themselves on how bad they are.
Speaking of Star Wars, watch the second trilogy and how Anakin becomes Vader. Some people might not like the movies, but it's a perfect example of a hero going dark side. Anakin falls in love and marries Padme, then gets manipulated by Palpatine. Everything he does is based around the fear of losing the woman he loves, and regardless of how vile or violent his actions are, Anakin justifies what he does as for the greater good. By the time he gets to Mustafar he's so far gone he thinks the Jedi are evil and hoard their knowledge out of greed.
Most of Shakespeare's tragedies have this negative arc. Not that all his tragic heroes are as bad as they can possibly be at the end of the play. But all of them do things they shouldn't or fail to do things they should, all for "good" reasons they justify to themselves. Result? Things end up very badly. The main difference, I suppose, is that these guys all end up dead, and their death has a purgative effect for their society and a cathartic effect on the viewer/reader. You don't get that with a negative arc when the MC doesn't die or go to jail at the end.
