[Mrs. Y Reviews] Creating Character Arcs by K.M Welland [A How-To Book Review]

Book Cover from Amazon.com

If you have been following on Twitter, no doubt you followed my NaNoWriMo whim. In November I settled on writing the novel that I had in my head and wanted to do so as quickly as possible. This post is not about what I wrote, as much as it is why I read this book. Though I did not get to this book before NaNo, I have read it before taking my rough draft to my first draft. Want to know more? Want a more structured story? Well, follow along with my friend, and set your expectations at the door and be ready to embark on a review of “Creating Character Arcs” By KM Weiland.

Opinion
Instinctively as a reader, and as anyone who reads, we all know that certain things must go together to have a good story before us. However, it takes someone who is immersed and can teach a craft to help others to improve theirs. I do not have a degree in writing, and frankly, I’m not sure I could handle that kind of schooling. I am however someone who does well with instruction manuals and putting them into practice. For me, this book was terrific for my style of learning.

KM Weiland I think is the best kind of teacher. She teaches with demonstrations and examples, and the pacing of this book is just right for pausing and trying again. Everything is broken down very well, and in pieces that anyone should be able to understand. It also was eye-opening. There are some stories I’m drawn to, and I found out that my favorite kinds of protagonists are the ones that are in the negative change arcs. I knew what that was, but I didn’t realize it had a name to it. I love it when someone learns a lesson from negativity, and I’m not sure why that is important to me, but it is. To me, this seems far more realistic than definite change arcs. It’s much more difficult in my opinion for someone to turn out with a happy ending, rather than a grey or muddled one.

So to hear what it is that makes a book work in a character arch, was eye-opening and helpful. While I loved and knew some of this by instinct, I know it much better after reading this book.

I also want to point out this is not written as a book of “Well I know better than you ever will so listen to me.” There are several books about how to write books which are pushy just as I mentioned. “I’ve sold so many millions of books you would be stupid if you didn’t listen to me” is not the kind of thing I want to hear. Anyone can sell millions of books if that book is desirable, but that does not mean their methodology is what I can utilize for my writing style. KM Weiland makes no such claims in this story that she’s either better than I am nor that I’m obligated to listen to her or else. Instead, it’s written as a friend would give instructions, not some rabid taskmaster. I like that. I’d instead learn from a friendly approach than a relentless, cruel teacher.

Those of you who are familiar with how I review “How To” books, will know I have to test it before I can officially evaluate it. So I have been, I’ve gone through some of the stories I love to check myself and see if the methods hold. Sure we can get into very technical things about structure and plot points, but this book is about character arcs specifically. I can say after checking several things; this book is very accurate to what it is saying. Indiana Jones has a positive change arch from the first movie to the Last Crusade. Sean Connery as Doctor Jones had a flat one. These are some subtle things I love, knowing what it is I’m watching helps me.

I do recommend this book if you have no real training formally in writing. I’m not sure how this fairs with those who like to have “Oxford coma wars” with others on Twitter, but for me it’s helpful.


Score
I am going to 94% because it is so helpful. This makes it a 5-star review on Amazon and Goodreads. I am thinking about getting more of her books to understand writing as a craft better. This may also help me with book reviewing as well, as I will have an easier time pointing out what it is that I have noticed along the way.