My plan to create individual story arcs for each of my supporting characters is turning out to be as challenging as I thought. As a result, today, I probably got only about 100 words down on the page as I wrote out my guide’s arc, but that process took me nearly an hour.
The challenge I’m facing is that these arcs need to be organic to the individual characters and their needs, but also need to fit into the hero’s main story arc. They should also, to some extent, be variations on the same theme and challenge that the hero is facing.
For example, my hero in this story worries that she might be responsible for a tragedy, but my guide feels responsible for a tragedy in the past and is seeking to redeem himself from that failure. As a result, my hero does not trust herself and my guide character thinks that nobody else can trust him, so they both need to prove their self-worth to themselves over the course of the story actions.
It’s difficult even to explain that process, and far more difficult than that to work out how it’s going to occur in the story. But at least today, I got the basic beats down for my guide’s arc. Hopefully, in the final story, it will be almost invisible, but still present enough to make him a three dimensional character.
Over the next few days, I’ll need to do the same for the other two characters in my hero’s group.