Why do people care so much about character change?
Everyone says that character change is essential to a good story. I don't understand why. Isn't it okay if a story just shows you the various facets of a character's personality? If their behaviour is interesting enough in itself, shouldn't that be fine? I write stories with lots of magic/action and *some* of my main characters change for the better, but my main character is pretty likeable and stays roughly the same. He gets STRONGER and I slowly reveal what drives him, but his personality doesn't change as my story progresses (although his opinion of people changes sometimes). All this talk about change being vital is kind of worrying.
Do you think character change is essential? If yes, WHO should change in a story to make it a good story, and HOW MUCH?
?2012-04-07T14:11:14Z
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Hey
Well I don't agree with the character necessarily changing, but a character should evolve throughout a story. A story includes a conflict in which a character deals with, and if you think about it, even the smallest of experiences in life changes us - our viewpoints on certain things alter, we get a better sense of what we want in life, what we like, what we dislike, so similarly, a character inherits and develops all these perceptions and characteristics as any human would.
And since the conflict in a novel should be a big event in the characters life, you'd expect them to develop quite significantly, and overcome an obstacle or learn something, e.g. only trust certain people, or trust more. In a way, that is changing, but evolving seems a better word to me.
As to answer, 'WHO should change in a story to make it a good story, and HOW MUCH?', it depends. I think your main character is a definite to that one, but you may have minor characters that have their own little sub-plots and are dealing with their own traumas of live. Just ones that you want to have the readers show a little empathy for, just to pull another string at your readers hearts, although their overall purpose is to serve the plot in one way or another, they're emotional appeal is just a way to enrich the plot, so long as it doesn't get too complicated.
Hope that makes sense and that answers your question :)
I think it's essential. I would never want to read a story where the character is the same at the end of the story as they were at the beginning. The main characters should change and grow over the course of the story to the point where they are not the same person at the end of the story as they were at the beginning.