There and Back Again: Shaping Character

Every person undergoes a journey. Not necessarily an epic quest into the fires of Mordor, but an inner journey. The most evil warlord started out as an innocent baby, and yet a saint may begin as a petty, vicious child. It is our experiences that determine who we ultimately become. We have the scope of an entire lifetime to undergo our transformations, but in fiction, the characters do not have that luxury. It is the writer’s job to discover each character’s journey within the space of the story.

One of my favorite character arcs belongs to Sawyer from Lost. In the beginning of the series, he is a callous, abrasive man only concerned with his own well-being. As the series progresses we get to see what made him the way he is when we first meet him, AND we see him transform into a steadfast leader willing to throw himself into danger to save the people he loves. This obviously doesn’t happen overnight but through tiny changes that we observe throughout six seasons.

A completely different arc (but just as fascinating) happens for Lex Luthor in Smallville. He begins as a slightly jaded young man desperate to do the right thing and to overcome the black mark on his family name. We watch him struggle to be a hero, but his obsession over discovering Clark’s true identity, his love for Lana, and his deranged father’s schemes all push him over the brink into madness (the brilliance of this writing and Michael Rosenbaum’s portrayal is that we all know how the story ends, but we hope that somehow things will turn out differently).

I was asked once which was better: a character driven story or a plot driven story. I don’t believe you can have one without the other. Character drives plot and plot drives character. Every experience, every loss, every happiness will shape them into something new and will determine how they react to any given circumstance, propelling them toward their journey’s end.