Character Arc Sparker Worksheet
How to reach Megan Fuentes:
Intro:
Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome to The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm your host, Rhonda Douglas. And this is the podcast for writers who want to create and sustain a writing life they love.
Because let's face it, the writing life has its ups and downs, and we want to not just write, but also to be able to enjoy the process so that we'll spend more time with our butt-in-chair getting those words on the page.
This podcast is for writers who love books and everything that goes into the making of them. For writers who want to learn and grow in their craft and improve their writing skills. Writers who want to finish their books and get them out into the world so their ideal readers can enjoy them. Writers who want to spend more time in that flow state.
Writers who want to connect with other writers to celebrate and be in community, in this crazy roller coaster ride, we call the writing life. We are resilient writers. We're writing for the rest of our lives and we're having a good time doing it. So welcome, Writer. I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump right into today's show.
Rhonda:
Well, hey there, writer. Welcome back to another episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. Today we're gonna talk all things characters. I'm really excited. I have Megan Fuentes here with me. Megan writes flash fiction and historical fiction that puts strong women in the spotlight. With her active imagination and can-do attitude, you might see her attempt to write in every other genre, just for kicks. And I'll link to her website where you can find her. And I was super interested in her historical fiction, in particular, because I love historical fiction. So I'm so glad you're here. Welcome, Megan.
Megan:
Thank you. I love, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Rhonda:
Historical fiction is, I don't know, I guess I read probably more of that. Even the mysteries that I read, and I'm obsessed with mysteries because I'm writing one, are historical. Like, I just, I love reading historical. So tell us a little bit about your journey, the books you've written, and kind of from when you started writing until where you are today. Give us the story.
Megan:
Okay. So I, I started, I never started writing. I was writing the whole time. I've always had a pen in my hand. I've always been doodling anything, even before words could be formed, I was doodling and writing. And then in the fourth grade, my teacher was like, have you ever considered becoming an author? After I turned in a short story comprised of spelling words for an assignment. And ever since then, I have never stopped thinking about being an author and now I am one. So that's great. So that's the most basic one line version. And it's just been a series of like obsessively researching and, you know, pulling ideas from other things until I've created like my own little, what's the word I'm looking for, my own little compositor, my own library of like mental resources that I pull from all the time. So yeah, it's just an obsession.
Rhonda:
Yeah. Love it. Love it. So I'd love to talk about some of your books. Love Affairs at World's Fairs In Barcelona With You. There's a In Buffalo With You in a novel, novella rather. Charleston with you, I think it was one. So talk to me a little bit about where those came from. Like the idea.
Megan:
My poor sweet first children. I wrote. Let me see. I wrote Barcelona. Well, okay. So I've always loved historical fiction. I love every genre, but I really liked historical fiction. And I, at one point, was trying to decide how can I connect all of the disparate genre ideas I had. No, I wasn't. I was trying to choose which one, basically. I was trying to choose which idea I was going to work on. And there's a-
Rhonda:
It’s always a challenge.
Megan:
I'm sorry?
Rhonda:
It's always the challenge, right? Cause we have so many ideas all the time.
Megan:
Yes. I didn't even finish a book. I've been writing since I was a child, but I never finished a true, like I never finished something. And it was flash fiction until I was like 17. Like I never finished a story until then, but I was trying to decide which story am I gonna do? And there's an excellent worksheet from Eva Deverell. I highly recommend, www.eadeverell.com I highly recommend her writing worksheets. I use them for everything.
I was using her idea rinker worksheet to see which one I was going to do. And I like looked at all of the list of ideas and I had this epiphany that I could connect each one to a world's fair because I grew up, I grew up in Orlando and so I love, I'm looking for the ants all the way over there. Okay. I grew up in Orlando and the world's fair attraction that was there was the carousel of progress.
And so I've always loved like, the world's fairs and the histories of that. It's a weird story, I know, but I've loved the world's fairs and the history of that. And so I decided to connect everything to it. So my idea was that everything I wrote was gonna be connected to a world's fair.
Rhonda:
I love that, that's great. When did all these world's fairs started? Are they, is it like, is it like the one that like Victoria's husband, Prince Albert got into the exposition or? What are the, I don't know the World's Fairs. What are they?
Megan:
So the World's Fairs, they are a collection, they are an event where many, they happen both internationally and also nationally. Sometimes World's Fairs loosely apply to the individual once taking place in the United States. But basically countries contribute to the fair with grand exhibits to demonstrate like their exports, for example, or things that they're known for, or to show off the inventions made in their play in that place.
Rhonda:
Okay, great. So you were gonna have all of these, basically it'd be like a romance that happened in the background of, or in the context of a world's fair. Do I have that right?
Megan:
Yeah, every, I didn't start with the way back. I didn't wanna go too far back so that there wouldn't be enough like photographs for me to see, data points to pull from, you know, the more recent you get data, the more step to research. So I started in the 1900s and the idea was to go all the way through the 1900s into as close to the 21st century as I could get. I've had those four. So Barcelona was the first one that I wrote, even though it ended up being in the twenties, because there were a lot of 1920s ones. And before this is how like it's such a young 20 something thing to do. But I had a bunch of friends and I was like, guys, let's all do a 1920s themed, a 1920s themed World's Fair and we can compile them into an anthology and do it. No, no, we didn't. No, we didn't do that. But I did end up writing mine for a 30 day writing challenge. And then the pandemic happened. And I was like, hey, you know what I could do during the pandemic? I'm just gonna publish this story. I'm just gonna publish it. And I'm gonna you know, I already, it's already written. I just need to edit it a little bit. And so that's what I did.
Rhonda:
Oh, that's great. Good for you.
Megan:
To do the first three in the 1900s that I planned.
Rhonda:
Okay. That's great. So, um, we said we were going to talk about character. You told me that when you were around 22, you had an opportunity to get your novel edited by former Penguin Random House editor, and you realized you had no idea how to create a character arc. So talk to me about what happened then and where you went after that with this whole topic.
Megan:
Yeah, so I was very excited. She was my, I used the platform Readzy to find people. She was like, you submit to people and you're like, I know I'm not gonna get it, but she's my first tier of people, like for her to see my work and like. Hallelujah, she accepted. And I was like so stoked. I gave her my little precious baby of like a 32,000 word book. And I'm like, I know it's not what it needs to be, but help me please. And she was kind enough to tell me. Basically I did not have a character arc for, the book is about Amelia Earhart. I had no character arc. Oh, I love that. Love. Thank you. Oh, I will, I love this book. I love it too much. So it's hard to go back to it. But I love this book. It's Amelia Earhart getting stranded on Nekumororo. Now I'm not gonna remember it, but how to pronounce the name of it. Nekumororo, I think, island after she went missing.
Anyway, I was told that I had good characterization. Like it, you know that's fine, but that I didn't have an arc for it. So I was like, okay, clearly I need to not touch this until I fully understand character arcs. So, you know, set the book aside and it's still like aside because I'm still, I'm waiting for the day when it strikes me to work on it. So I first went to KM Weiland, her website because she's like also great on story arc and character arcs. I went to every local, like I said, I live in Orlando at the time. I live in New Jersey now, but Orlando at the time.
So I went to like any character related workshop that popped up. Um, I'm just dove really deep into it. And I landed on two things. They are, they mass, they were sold to me as plot related and my, I love plots, so that was what I was. So I kind of dove into that, which was e.a. deverelll's one page novel, one page. Yeah, one page novel method. And then Rachel Stevens plot embryo, as she, it's Dan Harmon's plot embryo as she says it. And that is, that's where I found home was that was the plot embryo. So I have, I have a slightly modified version of both of those two things that I now use as like my character arc method.
Rhonda:
Okay, so can you walk us through a little bit of that method? Like the, you said it has eight points, right? Walk us through what those are.
Megan:
Okay, so the first part, I don't really consider part of the story. So much as it is backstory, that's going to be sprinkled in throughout the text. First one is your backstory and your, I, the way I do it is you get your wound there, which is like the thing that, you know, has hurt the character in the past. And you, that wound festered into a misbelief that the character has about themselves, right?
Point two in it is the character wants something. Not necessarily something they should want or not necessarily something that's achievable, but they definitely want something and they want it real bad. Check point three is the, whether they know it or not. Point three is the kick from, it's the call to adventure. They finally like accepting the call to adventure is point three is what that is.
Point four is the whole chunk up until the midpoint basically that you're scrapping and fighting and trying to, you know, the try fail cycles, the learning how the learning that the misbelief that you have is not going so well for you, but you haven't internalized why yet. The fifth point is your, plot point five is your midpoint, where you're like, hey, maybe I, someone tells you, hey, this isn't really working for you. Have you considered this other, like a thing that's opposite of your misbelief, which is like the story's truth or the story's, I call it the epiphany moment.
When you're told it, but you haven't, again, you haven't internalized it. You've just been told. Plot point six, uh, is when your butt as the character is well and truly kicked. You are down for the count. You, there is nothing. You've lost it all.
Rhonda:
It's a bad time for everybody.
Megan:
Uh, plot point seven is you rise from the ashes having finally internalized. All right. Maybe that one person in plot point five knew what they were talking about. And I will listen to them and internalize that and be able to overcome and rise up through the ashes. And then plot point eight is happily ever after, the epilogue with the marriage and the kisses, if you're writing a romance, et cetera.
Rhonda:
Right, right. Okay. So this is really great for writing romance and you work on, you know, your specialty is romance, right? So I'd love to hear you say something about weaving character arcs together in a story, right? So we have...Character A, protagonist, character B, love interest. They both may be point of view characters, but they both have character arcs. So how does it become one interwoven story?
Megan:
Yeah, so as a story coach, I mostly work on, it's mostly contemporary, but two dual POV. Romances and it's very, very fascinating. So obviously you're all most of the time anyway, you're altering between one and the other and that makes it very, that makes it a lot easier when you're altering between one and another, one and another, one and another to, um, flow between each state. So you have to keep in mind escalation for not just the one for, for, for both of them at the same time. Um, and you kind of kind of, you kind of have to keep them like in pace and in line with each other. How am I going to?
Rhonda:
When you say escalation, do you mean escalation in terms of the story stakes or escalation in terms of like the development of the romance or both?
Megan:
Oh, both. They're in time with each other, right? But one of the things that I like to do is to make sure, and to make them as interactive as possible is to make sure that one, more often than not anyway, one will have the idea that the other needs to hear and the other will have, so their truths, sort of the opposite of the misbeliefs, like they are able to tell each other, that's one thing I really like to do, or give a single character that knows both of them the role in both, or maybe they hear it different times.
So that's...That's one way to weave them in. Obviously getting them together to, really the adhesion point I think is really important in this. I think if you can nail your, in terms of romancing the beat, if you can nail your adhesion point, I think that makes it a lot easier to or find a really good reason to stick those two characters together, I think it does come quite naturally when you have them flowing back and forth like that.
Rhonda:
So it's a bit of a dance really, right? Like we have the one character and then we have the other and they're kind of passing like the misbelief, the epiphany back and forth at different points. Does that make sense?
Megan:
Yeah, definitely at the midpoint, there's a lot of, there's, that's how I like to do it anyway. Or those are the stories that I like best, is where they both have the thing that kind of completes the other. I mean, you know, as in any real life relationships, in my own relationship, I'm the more type A person and my partner is more type B and we, you know, he helps me relax and I help him, you know, stay on top of things. It's very much in that in that way.
Rhonda:
Yeah. Yeah. That's true about romance. Isn't it? Sort of one has something the other needs and it's, it's a little bit opposite of tracks in that way. Yeah. Yeah. So you are a, you are someone who deals with aphantasia, no mind's eye. Can you tell me what this is and how you accommodate that? I'm really fascinated by that. I mean, I feel like as writers, we all have something. So everybody's got a thing. But as someone who has things unfold in my mind's eye, it's hard for me to imagine not having things unfold in my mind's eye. Do you know what I mean? So can you just talk about that and how you accommodate that in yourself?
Megan:
Okay, so if you...I inherit this from my father who like all the same afflictions that I have are direct from him. Some of mom too, but yeah. So both my dad and I, when we close our eyes, like if you probably, if you close your eyes, you can picture an apple if I say picture an apple, right? Okay. I may describe to you an apple, but the skill I am using to describe you what an apple looks like when I, what the apple looks like when I close my eyes is just straight words to me. It is, I am not describing to you a picture of apple that I am seeing. I just know what an apple looks like and am describing it bestly. I do not see an apple where I would close your eyes and be like, oh, the apple that I'm looking at in my mind's eye is red and has a green leaf and has a brown stem. I would only be able to tell you those things because I, it's like I'm a language learning model, or a large language model. I can, I'm just.
Rhonda:
Because you know what an apple is. So you're just describing apple, but you're not seeing apple. You're not like, so often when I'm writing a scene, I'm literally imagining the scene unfolding in front of my eyes, right? I see my characters moving across the room to do something, but you don't have that experience. You have a different experience. So I, gosh, I love that. So how do you… What's your process like? So talk to me about your writing process then.
Megan:
For me, it's a lot of like using like stock imagery to like bring up pictures. And that's very helpful to me because then I can kind of get a lay of the land. I have had an author friend who uses, I don't think this is necessarily why they do this. I can't say that this is why they do it, but they've drawn layouts before of a space. Okay. And that's helpful for me to draw like the exact layout in order to, I'm also very like, okay.
Quick background, I was an elementary education major. So if you look at like Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, so like writers are word smart, right? And there are people who are like Mac smart, you know, we're all smart. One of them is spatial intelligence. Like knowing things, where things are in space. I don't have that at all, not at all. But also a bad thing in regards to this. So I use, I use stock imagery.
For characters, I use like, people like, you know, yeah, okay. But I will change things about them. It's a lot of work on Canva. I'm not gonna lie to you. I love me some Canva. And like, what would this look like if this were different? Or like maybe like recalling to mine. So when I'm in like a doctor's office, for example, or when I'm in like any area, I'm like, I describe things to myself that's something that I did just as a weird child. Uh, is describe things in my head. Um, and that's very helpful. Like I can call it like that. That is a skill that I built on accident as a child. And so I'm, I'm able to call upon that.
Rhonda:
Oh, wow. So it's, it's, it's both like building a visual picture before you start writing, playing around in Canva and then that thing where you're like, you're highly observant, so you're, you're saying, okay, that, well, that was a green door and it was this color green. And you know, this is the kind of handle it had and so on. Yeah. Wow. I love that.
I love hearing how different writers, because we all are different and there's no, I firmly believe there's no one right way to write a book. Like there's no creativity as creativity. There's no one right way to do it. Like that's not how it works. So I love hearing how different writers kind of adapt their process to whatever they need. Like that's kind of the point, isn't it? We adapt our process to what we need. Yeah. So is there anything else in your process that you know that's helpful for you, either in terms of how you get the writing done “productivity” or anything else? Yeah?
Megan:
I will praise all day long my favoritest thing in the entire world, which is for the words. It's an app. It's app. It's. No, it's not an app. Again, it's a website. You just go to it with app 4thewords.com. But for the number four, the words. And it is the best productivity hack tool thingy I have ever found in my entire life. And I will use it until-
Rhonda:
Okay, I will link out to it, but you have to tell me about this so I can go for you later.
Megan:
Okay, okay, here's what it is. It sounds a little, it sounds a little, what's the word I'm looking for? Dorky. It's going to sound that way, but stay with me. Here's what it is. You are a little, it's an art, it's a writing RPG, which is role playing game. So you are a little person. Uh, you have a little avatar that you create, right? Which I'm all about. I love the customization of the avatar. Anyway, you have your avatar. You are a dust warrior. And that is just the name of the people that you belong to. You're a dust warrior. And you must defeat monsters by writing a certain number of words within a given timeframe and defeat monsters and go on like quests and-
Rhonda:
Oh my God. Oh, I love this. Okay, I'm using this. This is so cool.
Megan:
Yay, yay. I'll send you like the link. It's so good. My Ko-fi goal, so I have, that's how I do the stuff. The coaching and things I go through, ko-fi.com. That, my goal on there is to have, is to be able to pay for the lifetime subscription because I'm like, oh, hopefully there's now a free version. It didn't always used to be free, but there's now a free version. And even that is just like, it's so good. I could be, I love that site.
Rhonda:
That's a great idea. I love that someone gamified this whole thing. Yeah, wow. I'm totally checking that out and we will link to it in the show notes as well. So good, so good.
So when it comes to your own work, like I know that you coach writers and you use the processes you've outlined to us for that, but when it comes to your own work, do you find that, like are you gonna stay with romance and historical fiction because that's really like the thing that obsesses you that you love the most? Or are you kind of keen to branch out and try other genres?
Megan:
Well, one of my little timelines that I have for myself or that I have in my social media bios is an author by many other names because I have, I wanna say nine different pen names that I've jotted down at some point where I'm like, this is going to be a whole separate thing. Oh, I see.
Rhonda:
So like, this is my suspense pen name and this is my, gotcha, okay.
Megan:
So I thought of like, there's actually, I'm working on a historical, cozy, magical, mystery series and one in one pen name. Another one is, uh, I have a, actually one that's like active. The only other one that's active right now is Emma Fontaine, which is, um, sweet. They're now called Romanticie, uh, or you would now call it Romanticie, but they're fairy tale retellings. I have, so no, I'm not sticking with any one genre.
Rhonda:
You're going to write it all. You're going to do it all. Okay. Yes. Love that. Love that. So, um, you shared with me a, um free Character Arc Sparker Worksheet that you have to share with people. Can you tell me a little bit about what that is? I'm going to put it in the show notes, but what is a Character Arc Sparker Worksheet?
Megan:
Yes. So the first part's the wound, which is, it describes it all right there. But that's the thing that happened in your character's backstory, that it doesn't happen on page, or at least typically doesn't on love and flashback, that changes who you are as a person. We as humans obviously have gone through many a thing that change us, that transmute us into the person that we are today.
Um, uh, we have, we have multiple of them. Obviously a story is only going to focus or at least the way I do the story, a single thread is, or a single character arc is only going to focus on the one particular wound that they have. So from that wound, like we learn things as kids innately that we, uh, some of us, you know, we might go through therapy for, or that we kind of grow out of as adults, et cetera, as we have other experiences, um, things like, uh,
I'm not smart versus like, you know, a fixed mindset versus growth mindset problem that would be, um, I'm not pretty or like, no one will love me because I'm not as pretty as my sister, et cetera. That's the wrong idea is what I call that. It's also called like a misbelief by other people. Um, and it's got a few other names too. Uh, that's the second thing on the worksheet. And then the third worksheet is the right idea which is the opposite of the wrong idea. So in the case of like, no one will love me because I'm not as pretty as my sister. It would be like, your right idea would probably be something like I'm beautiful in my own way and, or, you know, I don't have to be as pretty. Like if she, you know, I don't have to be as pretty. I'm still lovable just who I am, just as I am.
And so I believe those are the very, those are like the core foundations of a character arc. That's why I call it a character arc sparker because it sparks the character arc. You have your wound and your wrong idea at the beginning, you learn the right idea and at the midpoint and at the end you have fully, the character has fully accepted the right idea.
Rhonda:
Right, okay, love that. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes so people can go to your site and download that and use it to generate some thoughts about you know, character arcs, even if you're partway through a draft and you're, I often find like if I'm, if in any point I'm “stuck in a story”, it's often because I haven't done enough deep thinking about my characters. So yeah, so I think that'll be helpful for people. I'm gonna link it up in the show notes. Thanks so much for being with me today, Megan. It was really great to talk to you.
Megan:
My pleasure, Rhonda. Thank you for having me.
Outro:
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. While you're here, I would really appreciate it if you'd consider leaving a rating and review of the show. You can do that in whatever app you're using to listen to the show right now, and it just takes a few minutes.
Your ratings and reviews tell the podcast algorithm gods that yes, this is a great show, definitely recommend it to other writers. And that will help us reach new listeners who might need a boost in their writing lives today as well. So please take a moment and leave a review. I'd really appreciate it. And I promise to read every single one. Thank you so much.
POWERED BY: 
CONNECTED
Grab the Planner and a cup of coffee or tea. Give it a quick read and learn how to think about and plan your week like a productive writer. (Yep, this resource is totally FREE!)
