The Heart of the Film

Chapter 30

Levels of Character Evolution

It’s one thing to have a story come full circle, but you don’t want your protagonist to come back to where he began as a character. It is essential that he/she grows, changes, or learns something in the course of the story. In screenwriting this is called the “Character Arc.” To have a character learn nothing leaves the audience with a “so what?” feeling. Why have we bothered going on this journey if nothing was learned from it?

Teaching Screenwriting at UCLA Film School a few years ago, I developed a structure for understanding character evolution, breaking it down into five levels. (I have also written about these levels of character evolution in my book on screenwriting.)

Once we lay out these stages ...