Just a Tired Writer

Boris "professional idiot" Johnson wanted to build an island airport in the immediate area.

it's fucking visible

You weren't kidding they've been trying to get the masts off for 5 years and keep getting foiled because there's probably bombs leaking out of her

by rin t. (resident chaos scribe of thewriteadviceforwriters)

Okay so here’s the thing. You can give me all the pretty pinterest moodboards and soft trauma playlists in the world, but if your character doesn’t change, I will send them back to the factory.

Let’s talk about character arcs. Not vibes. Not tragic backstory flavoring. Actual. Arcs. (It hurts but we’ll get through it together.)

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💡 what a character arc IS:

a transformational journey (keyword: transformation)

the internal response to external pressure (aka plot consequences)

a shift in worldview, behavior, belief, self-concept

the emotional architecture of your story

the reason we care

💥 what a character arc is NOT:

a sad monologue halfway through act 2

a single cool scene where they yell or cry

a moral they magically learn by the end

a “development” label slapped on a flatline

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✨ THE 3 BASIC FLAVORS OF ARC (and how to emotionally damage your characters accordingly):

Positive Arc They start with a flaw, false belief, or fear that limits them. Through the events of the story (and many Ls), they confront that internal lie, grow, and emerge changed. Hurt factor: Drag them through the mud. Make them fight to believe in themselves. Break their trust, make them doubt. Let them earn their ending.

Negative Arc They begin whole(ish) and devolve. They fail to overcome their flaw or false belief. This arc ends in ruin, corruption, or defeat. Hurt factor: Let them almost have a chance. Build hope. Then show how they sabotage it, or how the world takes it anyway. Twist the knife.

Flat/Static Arc They don’t change, but the world around them does. They hold onto a core truth, and it’s their constancy that drives change in others. Think: mentor, revolutionary, or truth-teller type. Hurt factor: Make the world push back. Make their values cost them something. The tension comes from holding steady in chaos.

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🎯 how to build an arc that actually HITS (no ✨soft lessons✨, just internal structure):

Lie they believe: What false thing do they think about themselves or the world? (“I’m unlovable.” “Power = safety.” “I’m only valuable if I’m useful.”)

Want vs. need: What do they think they want? What do they actually need to grow?

Wound/backstory scar: What made them like this? You don’t need a tragic past™ but you do need cause and effect.

Turning point: What moment forces them to question their worldview? What event cracks the surface?

Moment of choice: Do they change? Or not? What decision seals their arc?

🧪 Pro tip: this is not a worksheet. This is scaffolding. The arc lives in the story, not just your doc notes. The lie isn’t revealed in a monologue, it’s felt through consequences, relationships, mistakes.

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🛠️ things to actually do with this:

Write scenes where the character’s flaw messes things up. Like, they lose something. A person. A plan. Their cool. Make the flaw hurt.

Track their beliefs like a timeline. How do they start? What chips away at it? When does the shift stick?

Use relationships as arc mirrors. Who challenges them? Enables them? Forces reflection? Internal change is almost never solo.

Revisit the lie. Circle back to it at least three times in escalating intensity. Reminder > confrontation > transformation.

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🌊 bonus pain level: REVERSE THE ARC

Wanna make it really hurt? Set them up for one arc, and give them the opposite. They think they’re growing into a better person. But actually, they’re losing themselves. They think they’re spiraling. But they’re really healing. Let them be surprised. Let the reader be surprised.

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TL;DR: If your plot is a skeleton, your character arc is the nervous system.

The change is the thing. Don’t just dress it up in trauma. Don’t let your character learn nothing. Make them face themselves. And yeah. Make it hurt a little. (Or a lot. I won’t stop you.)

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // plotting pain professionally since forever

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

the good news: I know my process enough to recognize this as the slump that I hit in everything I write when it's like three-quarters-ish done

the bad news: the only way out is through

the good news: I do know the way out!

Or creates awesome art

Or writes that fic you love

Even if you’re shy

Because I guarantee they’ll love the something nice you have to say. You don’t have to try to be their friend, they don’t have to respond. But it goes appreciated.

For every one person who puts themself out there and chooses to be brave and make a little tag or send an ask or a comment with actually nice things, five other people will wake up and choose to be an asshole (on probably their own and their five+ alt accounts)

Some of them will dedicate a ridiculous amount of time and effort just to be an asshole. Some of them will sandwich their assholery with compliments so people feel uncomfortable but don’t feel they can say anything about it. Stuff like “I really love your stuff but why can’t you draw what I want you to draw instead of x?” Or use your posts as a vehicle to start arguments and spread negativity.

So it’s down to the rest of us to drown it out.

There is no need to be an asshole. Be nice to someone today ✨

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

Oh, yeah, let's compare overly elaborate skincare routines that women choose for themselves (albeit under the influence of advertising that, in aggregate, has a very negative effect on perception of women and their bodies) and pay for with their own money with the fucking tradwives who actively promote submitting yourself to a sexist man. Surely spending way too much on skincare is the same thing as devoting your entire life to an extremely unequal relationship and actively eshewing all forms of independence, financial, social or emotional.

We owe so many apologies to choice feminism holy fuck

These skincare routines, the ones that the OP is referencing specifically, the ones that are eight steps a session and want you to use red light therapy and dermal fillers and microneedling - why are you doing this for yourself? Okay, it makes you feel good. Why? Is it that you are taking the time to care for yourself because you’re lacking care in another are of your life? It’s anti-aging; okay. Are you using anti aging products for a health reason, because you have a family history of skin issues, or because you fear aging? If you fear aging, then why do you fear it? If it’s for your self-image, why are you comparing yourself to others?

Yeah, it’s a lot, asking why why why why like a toddler. It’s soooooo much easier to sit back and not be critical and just go “it makes me feel good” and let someone else do the thinking for you.

And that’s the pipeline, right there; if you outsource your critical thinking skills, you outsource your agency.