1. orenshved

    orenshved Member

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    Having trouble nailing a compelling arc

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by orenshved, May 2, 2021.

    Hey everyone, I'm having trouble nailing a compelling arc for my MC.
    I'm feeling like I'm close, but can't quite figure out the core aspects of my MC's flaw, his needs, his wants, and the way he changes at the end of the arc. Here are some details:

    Ryan is male, a mid 30's cyber-investigator who lives alone in a small town, somewhere in Massachusetts.
    His mother died when he was just a toddler.
    His father, Tom, was a devout Christian marine who was on tour most of Ryan's childhood. When he was home, he would not know how to connect to his children (Ryan had a younger sister, Allison, who is murdered at the beginning of the book. This serves as the inciting incident). He would sometimes be drunk, and sometimes violent, but overall, was mostly an absentee father (leaving the kid's grandparents to raise the two children).
    All of this caused Ryan to grow up too fast. He was a caring and compassionate brother, who protected and took care of his little sister (which Tom considered to be his "princess").
    As a teenager, Ryan realizes that he is gay. Tom finds out and reacts violently. Ryan suppresses who he is, and life goes on with constant tension between the two of them.
    Because his father does not approve of his sexuality, his lack of faith, and lack of what he considers to be masculinity, Ryan grew up feeling that he is not worthy of love.
    Ryan moves into his own place straight after college, and the communication between him and his father stops.
    After his sister is murdered, Ryan goes back home to both investigate the murder, and take care of his father, who has since been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, due to a head injury he sustained during the war.
    Tom has since matured, stopped drinking, and wants Ryan to forgive him and save the relationship before the disease kills him (though even without the added challenges of having dementia, he still has a hard time communicating it, and there is still a lot of bad blood between them).
    Ryan still wants his dad to accept him and be proud of him, but also has a hard time knowing what to do. He is too much like his father.
    Ryan eventually solves Allison's murder and brings down those in charge (with some help from Tom).

    Any kind of help/insight would be greatly appreciated!
     
  2. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    You already have Ryans "want".... He wants is fathers love and acceptance.

    But does he NEED it, though? Does he need to accept himself? In the course of his investigation into Allison's murder, does he meet someone who will help him accept himself and thus, his childhood with his father?

    Is the purpose of Allison's investigation (and the purpose of the story) to bring Ryan and Tom together into some kind of closure?
    What does Allison's murder and investigation have to do with Tom's conservative views or even Ryan's views? I ask this because how is the investigation supposed to bring them to the point of acceptance in each other.... Does investigating into Allison's murder bring up some hidden things from the past that Ryan and Tom have in common and have to put aside their differences to handle together?
    Is there a reason Allison is placed on a pedestal by both?


    (Hopefully thinking about these questions will spark something helpful :bigsmile:)
     
    ruskaya, orenshved and Xoic like this.
  3. orenshved

    orenshved Member

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    Thanks a lot, J.T.
    You are probably right about the want. I wanted to see if it was obvious to other people as well. About the "need." I honestly don't know. Mostly because I feel that it needs to happen late in the story and coincide with the climax of the investigation, which ultimately leads to something huge and world-altering (not just for them, I mean actually "sending the world back to the middle-ages" kind of altering) where Allison's death was a kind of "collateral damage," so it has nothing to do with Ryan's or Tom's backstories. The backstories do correlate to what is happening in the world (which is what Ryan is ultimately investigating), since religion and atheism, and identity are at the core of the whole thing.
    Allison was only put on a pedestal by Tom because he saw her mother in her. But Ryan was actually there for her.
     
  4. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

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    I think you're confusing "compelling" with "Complex." They are not the same thing. Something simple as the father and son having an understanding of each other and growing to appreciate one another is an arc and can be a compelling one at that. It's not complicated. And it doesn't have to come off as they are magically all better now. It can be as simple as showing that there is a step being made in the right direction that can make a simple, and relatively small, arc compelling
     

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