Story Arcs
Exploration into story arcs, developed a 3-act structure for my "What if..." scenario, and studied character creation with From User to Character by Lene Nielsen.
3 Favorite Stories
For this part of the assignment, I mapped the emotional arcs of Flowers for Algernon, The Worst Person in the Entire World, and American Psycho. I drew out the highs and lows, annotating key moments like Charlie's rise and fall, the protagonist's moral descent, and Bateman's unraveling, revealing how these emotional shapes create lasting impact.
Synthara (What If Scenario)
From User to Character by Lene Nielsen
Quote 1
“Angela is described in such an anonymous way that it never becomes clear why she acts as she does. She could be anyone or actually no one.” (p. 101)
Input
Nielsen criticizes the character Angela for being too generic, lacking depth and specific traits that would make her actions feel motivated. This highlights the critical element of characters needing to have distinguishable traits, histories, and motivations to engage the audience. Without this, they risk becoming flat, unable to evoke empathy or investment from the reader. The quote emphasizes that good character writing demands understanding what drives a character, ensuring their decisions are relatable and meaningful to their unique persona.
Quote 2
“To describe the user as a rounded character brings a focus on the user into the design process. It helps the design team to engage with the user with empathy, thereby remembering the user all the way through and remembering that the design is for a user.” (p. 103)
Input
Nielsen underscores the importance of creating well-rounded characters in scenarios, particularly in design processes. By ensuring a character is fully developed with individual traits, goals, and challenges, the designers can approach their work with greater empathy. This emotional engagement is crucial because it keeps the user at the forefront of the creative process, ensuring that their needs, experiences, and potential actions shape the design, making it more user-centric and humanized.
Quote 3
“In the character-driven – or psychological – narrative, the character has a number of traits and what Horton call a number of voices that interact with and against each other. This makes the character’s actions non-predictable and creates rounded characters.” (p. 102)
Input
Here, Nielsen describes the key to creating a well-rounded character is complexity. A character should not be defined by one or two traits but by a variety of conflicting motivations and behaviors, which makes them feel real and unpredictable. This unpredictability mimics human behavior, making the character more relatable and engaging for the reader. Nielsen’s mention of Horton’s concept of multiple "voices" within a character emphasizes the need for dynamic, multifaceted characters whose internal conflicts and interactions with their environment shape the narrative in rich, meaningful ways.