Feedback Story Arcs and Time

[Kitter Bitters]

I’ve been thinking lately about character arcs and time. I am a type of person who really takes time with the stories I tell. I’ve got characters that have been building on one single arc for years.

Take Kinley Pryse for example. She is working her way through the Underworld, and has been for almost two OOC years. In that time she’s made contacts, and strengthened loyalties so that someday she’s able to make a move towards her freedom. She’s also take steps to secure her father’s fate and her place in a rival syndicate in secret.

But that is over the course of several OOC years, and it might be a little slow moving compared to some other writers.

So it makes me wonder how long do arcs take for your own characters? Am I moving too slow? Is there anything I should do to push my characters forward more?

 

[Allyson Locke]

Stay consistent.

 

[Jonyna Si]

Jonyna has been on and off for a while. Originally, her first arc was her adjusting to the new life, fitting in with the NJO. That took about six months. The next six months were her reaching master, then the six months after that was her watching the life she had worked so hard to earn fall apart.

That's sort of how I keep it. Six month cycles of her slowly building up a story, then paying it off in big threads. The Invasion of Coruscant was probably the best moment for her, standing alone on the steps of the jedi temple holding the line against the enemy trying to invade her new home.

But I also sprinkle in smaller character arcs within that. Jonyna's various romances and heartbreaks, her taking on padawans, various rivalries.

The thing you need to accept is how start and stop things are. Sometimes it's because you wanna focus on other things. Sometimes people just disappear for months at a time. Sometimes people just ghost you. Jonyna's arcs were never really intentionally planned, rather they were sort of me seeing where the character was drifting, and following behind her with a pen, chronicling her path rather than guiding her.

But occasionally, I did have to step in front of her and pick a lane, or occasionally step in front and forcefully turn them the direction you want. Doing that too often is ill advised, but it's necessary at times.