: Re: How much character growth crosses the line into breaking the character (not a duplicate of Character Development - How much is too much? because that one is more about "overreaction" to smaller

Breaking character is not a function of the beginning or destination of the character's journey / progression. Breaking character is not even some out-of-the-way stopover in the middle. Breaking character is any implausible discontinuity between steps.

Consider Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. Which one, you ask? Plucky young boy with promise? Lovesick Jedi with questions? Tortured antihero, teetering on the edge of absolute corruption? Main antagonist and right-hand-man of the greatest evil in the known universe? Redeemed and dying savior of his son, who is the last and first Jedi?

None of these personas was outside the character. Complaints focus rather on whether specific transitions / characterizations were well done. (And some of the characterizations were NOT well done.)

It's less where you take your character, and more whether you can persuade the audience that you can get there from here

That said - too sharp a change in a character, however plausible you make it, may shift you into a different kind of STORY, and you might lose the audience which, say, signed on to the Die Hard series for semi-realistic underdog action stories, not Invincible Action Hero stories.

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: What is the structure of a paranormal horror story? Building on the definition of a Paranormal Story (as opposed to Dark Fantasy) described in the answers here: What are most common tropes of

@Kaufman555

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: Does it really serve a main character to give them one driving want? I often feel that we fall into a trap of believing that we must provide a driving goal for a main character at the outset.

@Kaufman555

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: I think Secespitus hits the nail on the head by saying: People will rarely look at the letter of a word means. They know what "tiptoeing" implies and that is all they need to imagine

@Kaufman555

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: Beyond letters and diariesâ€”exercises to explore characters' personalities and motivation For a few of my imaginary worlds, my characters write letters to each other. These letters are never intended

: Re: How much character growth crosses the line into breaking the character (not a duplicate of Character Development - How much is too much? because that one is more about "overreaction" to smaller

More posts by @Kaufman555

: What is the structure of a paranormal horror story? Building on the definition of a Paranormal Story (as opposed to Dark Fantasy) described in the answers here: What are most common tropes of

: Does it really serve a main character to give them one driving want? I often feel that we fall into a trap of believing that we must provide a driving goal for a main character at the outset.

: I think Secespitus hits the nail on the head by saying: People will rarely look at the letter of a word means. They know what "tiptoeing" implies and that is all they need to imagine

: Beyond letters and diariesâ€”exercises to explore characters' personalities and motivation For a few of my imaginary worlds, my characters write letters to each other. These letters are never intended

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