: Re: How do I balance immature levity and flaws and character growth? I am working on a series where one of the intended primary draws is character drama and growth. I have an ensemble cast of

@Angie602

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This is a big, important question. After all characters must be distinct and unique or else they are no longer characters, but rather bland, amorphous machines whose actions can only be explained by a need to advance the plot. On the other hand, characters changing and growing is vital to plot; otherwise why do we the reader care about them?

Sidenote here, there are many great plots where the character doesn't end up growing; these are tragedies. Hamlet is a wonderful example; Tony Soprano is another. But even in these stories character growth is critical; in fact it becomes even more important that we see them change before they revert back to non-change.

So now to my answer to your question:

The way that the protagonist changes must be in accordance with their personality.

It has to make sense for them in particular. It has to be their style, and in line with their abilities.

For instance let's say we have a story about a kid who is very introverted, shy, reserved. Perhaps his main struggle is the ability to speak to others, and the biggest hurdle of all is to ask a girl out. When he finally does ask a girl out, it won't be the way that a confident pro ball player asks a girl out. It will be his style--perhaps he asks her out by writing a poem and handing it to her. And perhaps he almost crumples it up at the last moment instead of handing it to her. But he does hand it to her. And when she takes it he's terrified and looking at his shoes. But he did it.

The devil's in the details. When a character changes in a way that is overly generic, it doesn't feel like a real character. It's generalized. When the character changes in a way that is particular to his proclivities, his way of talking, his way of acting--that's what feels like the person we've been getting to know having meaningful growth.

Some tools that have helped me piece together characters are by determining what their personality types are according to multiple personality systems (myers-briggs, enneagram, life languages, etc), and then honing that in even more by finding certain persons in my life or in films or books or letters, and then piecing together what it looks like for a person with this personality to grow in some particular area. You get a sense of what they are capable of doing and what they are not.

Edit: one other important note, I think, is that not every flaw must be overcome--in fact IMO there should probably be notable flaws that are not overcome. This is much more true to life.

Second edit: regarding series of books on the same character, I have really enjoyed watching characters change and develop new and necessary flaws because of those changes. One of my favorite series is by Robin Hobb. In the first book, Assassin’s Apprentice, he is a boy for part and a teenager for part. He is afraid and ostracized and learning how to survive. He is mentored by two people who he learns a lot from but also inwardly judges—he will never be like them in certain ways. For example the assassin who apprentices him at night and whose thinking is cynical and plotting and ends-justify-the-means to a certain extent. Long story short, in book three the protagonist has become a lot like that person. He has matured from being impetuous and rash to now being insightful and careful, but now he comes to realize he has become a lot like his mentor: using others for his own means, cynical, and painfully isolated. The way it showed this transformation was very touching to me.

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