The change arc. The process whereby, over the course of a story, the protagonist becomes aware of their weakness and evolves in whatever way is necessary for them to achieve their story goal.
Joseph Campbell called this kind of character The Hero with a Thousand Faces because, while each protagonist is different and they each have their own problems, their journey is the same. Their success and happiness are being blocked by a specific flaw that must be dealt with. And most of the time, when their story begins, they're blissfully unaware that there's even a problem.
So how do we turn our ignorant, stuck character into someone who recognizes their fault and actively works to overcome it?
Failure.
Yes, you read that right. Failure is the key to growth.
When a character makes poor choices, acts impulsively, or lets fear get the better of them, things don't end well. Failure generates more (and bigger) problems and conflict—which lead to more chances for them to either dig a deeper hole or climb toward the light.
Failures are learning opportunities. And just like parents have to sometimes let their kids fall down, authors must provide those same chances for our characters if we want them to grow.
Failure Accents the Character's Flaws
The fatal flaw is your character’s antiquated and ineffective approach to dealing with life’s problems. It consists of mental and behavioral components that work in tandem to protect the character from experiencing emotional hurt. For example, someone who believes people will exploit his vulnerability if he lets them get close may embrace unfriendliness. Technically, this approach works; it certainly keeps people from taking advantage of him. But it does a lot of damage because no one is willing to risk a verbal lashing to have a relationship with him. Over time, he’ll feel isolated and lonely and will probably start to doubt his own worth because he can’t seem to build connections with anyone.
At the beginning of the story, your character is likely oblivious to their fatal flaw. But then conflicts arise, and as they maintain a death grip on their ineffective but comfortable old habits, they become aware of the flaw and how it's holding them back.
Just like real-life self-awareness, this is a slow process for our characters. They may not want to see the truth at first, but as each failure brings their weakness into focus, the character eventually becomes aware of it. This is the first step toward growth, and the only way for the character to get there is to fall on their face multiple times.
But awareness doesn't necessarily result in change. How often do we recognize a flaw or shortcoming in ourselves and actively take steps to correct it? Your character will react the same way.
With each conflict that comes along, they'll stick with their old ways because those are familiar. But each instance of digging in their heels and refusing to change will create bigger problems—not only for them, but for the important people in their life. And those choices will bring them no closer to reaching their story goal.
It's painful (for them and for us), but these repeated failures are necessary if the character is going to not only recognize their flaw but realize a need for change.
Failure Pushes the Character to Embrace New Methods
Once the character acknowledges that something's got to give, they'll begin altering the way they respond to conflict. Instead of always resorting to dysfunctional methods, they'll toy with new, healthier approaches, taking baby steps toward change.
But while the character is now moving in the right direction, they're still going to struggle and make mistakes. As the story progresses, the character's plight will worsen until they're faced with a situation where half-measures just won't work. They must fully embrace the change they've been flirting with. At this point, the character will finally reject their old, ineffectual habits and replace them with new ones that will allow them to become the person they were meant to be.
“Finally” will always show up toward the end of a character’s arc because growth takes time. The character will need multiple conflict opportunities to face their demons. In the beginning, they'll fail spectacularly, which will reinforce (in their mind) the need to cling to methods that aren't working. Toward the middle, they'll have more successes—but those will only be partial victories. Growth still needs to happen. And then, in the end, once they fully commit to their new way of dealing with conflict, they'll finally be able to win.
This is the one-step-forward-two-steps-back formula that works so well in stories because it mirrors real life. It takes time and courage to see flaws for what they are and choose the hard road of discarding them and their limitations. Success and failure are intermingled, both parts of a process that eventually result in meaningful growth. And conflict is the vehicle through which we provide these necessary opportunities for our characters.
Do you agree or disagree? How does your protagonist handle failure? How many times does your character have to fail before they learn to overcome their fatal flaw? We'd love to hear about it in the comments!
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 700,000 copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that's home to the Character Builder and Storyteller's Roadmap tools.
There are writers whose characters jump off the page to live in your head. Lyrical writers can make music on the page that goes straight to your heart. And writers of intricate plots with twists and turns that thrill and delight. Every writer, no matter their experience, has strong skills in at least one area. Every writer also has skills that are weaker. It’s up to you to discover your writing strengths and weaknesses so you can develop more powerful writing.
Why Do This Exercise?
Your strengths are those things that take less energy to do and do well. You can use your strengths to seek opportunities and work more efficiently.
It’s scary to admit you have areas where your writing is weak. Often we think weak is bad. It’s a problem when we focus so much on our weaknesses that it disempowers us. If we focus on our weakness, we lose self-confidence and enthusiasm. As a result, our performance goes down, which reinforces our negative feelings.
Weak doesn’t mean bad. It simply means that skill takes more of your energy and focus to use. That part of writing is not a thing that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Don’t try to “fix” your weaknesses, but don’t ignore them either. Improving your weakest skills will improve your work overall. Improving your strengths will make your work shine. But before you can improve, you must discover your writing strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, you may not be the best judge of your own skills.
Know the Basics
You can’t recognize your strengths and weaknesses if you don’t understand story structure and genre. There are books and courses all over the internet that can teach you story structure. Not to mention, the hundreds of helpful blog posts on Writers in the Storm.
Not every post, book, or course will resonate with you. That’s okay. Keep reading until you find those that speak to you and that you can use. Most importantly, don’t read or follow one way. Learn about many techniques so you can choose what works for you.
It's helpful to deconstruct shorter works while studying story structure. The Christmas Carol is an example of a story with excellent structure as discussed by Janice Hardy right here on Writers in the Storm.
Finding Your Strengths
Start by looking at what comes easiest for you. Trusted first readers can tell you what they like best in your manuscripts even if they don’t use story structure terms.
If you have a trusted mentor or writer’s group—discuss your strengths with them. Be prepared to set aside your immediate and emotional reactions and listen. Listen to what they say and to how it makes you feel.
If you’re published, and you’re able to read your reviews without imploding, your reviews may reveal your strengths and weaknesses. A word of caution: individual reviews are not helpful. Look for a pattern among multiple reviews. If better than 50% they like something, that is probably a strength of yours. If the majority mention something they don’t like, that may be a weakness. (Caution: “pile-ons” are not reliable indicators of either strength or weakness.)
Remember, strengths energize you. Yes, it takes energy to write. But when you are writing from your strengths, it gives back, too. Those are the skills that are your best.
Finding Your Weaknesses
What is the most difficult for you in writing your story? What is missing from your first drafts? Description or dialog? What do your first readers point out as problematic? What is that niggling little doubt you have?
Remember, you aren’t looking to “solve” your weakness. You can improve them, but you are unlikely to turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Try to avoid writing stories or genres that rely on skills where you are weaker. Why make it harder on yourself?
Make an Improvement Plan
Your strengths and weaknesses will be different as a newbie than when you’re a mid-lister and different, or at least more sharply defined when you’ve got a dozen or more books out in the world. Not only that, every book you write may challenge your strengths and weaknesses in different ways.
Whatever your level of experience, make an improvement plan. Don’t try to improve in all areas at once. That’s the way of madness or career burnout and destruction.
Focus on one, or two related, skills. Choose a method for learning. Make a specific, measurable goal. Something like, "I will study using conflict in story by reading and doing exercises from James Scott Bell’s book, Elements of Fiction Writing:Conflict & Suspense, during the next month."
Resources for Improvement
Create an inspiration file (or three) of examples of strong writing. Never copy another author’s exact words, but you can parallel their construction with your own choice of words.
Deconstruct books you admire. Identify the strengths and weaknesses in those books. You can take the book apart for one piece of storytelling or all of them. Try to figure out why the author chose the words, characters, settings, plot twists, etc.
Need to learn more about conflict aka story stakes? Look no further than “Why the Word Conflict Frustrates so Many Writers." Or, deconstruct conflict-heavy stories by Agatha Christie, or other successful thriller and mystery writers.
Don’t be ashamed of your weaknesses or feel you cannot write because of them. Having weaknesses doesn’t mean you can only write at your skill level. It also does not mean you cannot write stories that rely on your weaknesses. But do so understanding that you will have to work much harder to be successful.
Knowing your writing strengths and weaknesses means you can use both to your advantage. You can level up your weaknesses and your strengths.
Your growth will be sporadic. Sometimes in great leaps and other times you measure it in inches. Challenge yourself to discover your writing strengths and weaknesses, work on improving them, and be proud that each book you write is better than the last one.
Everyone please help us welcome Lynette, our newest contributor here at WITS. Also, what do YOU consider to be your biggest writing strengths and weaknesses? Please share and discuss down in the comments!
About Lynette
Lynette M. Burrows loves hot coffee, reading physical books, and the crack of a 9mm pistol—not all at the same time, though that might be fun! She writes thrilling science fiction readers can't put down.
Her series, The Fellowship Dystopia, presents a frightening familiar American tyranny that never was but could be. In Book One, My Soul to Keep, Miranda discovers dark family secrets, the brutality of the Fellowship way of life, and the deadly reality of rebellion. In Fellowship, the series companion novel, a desperate young man and his siblings hide in the mountains from the government agents who Took their parents. Book two of the series, If I Should Die, will be published in 2022.
Owned by two Yorkshire Terriers, Lynette lives in the land of Oz. You can find her here: Website | Facebook | Twitter
In spy and crime fiction, one of the most common mistakes that my writing partner and I see is confusion about which organization does what, to whom, and where. As a result, our first goal in writing Spycraft: Essentials was to draw on my partner's 45 years of experience in military and intelligence field operations to clear up that confusion and provide a window into the top spy organizations.
While there are countless military and civilian intelligence organizations, some famous, some infamous, and some never heard of at all, we’ll focus on four of the biggest civilian branches because they are also the ones that most commonly appear in fiction:
the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA” or “Company”)
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”)
the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”)
the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (“NSA/CSS” or “NSA”)
Overview of the "Big Four"
Central Intelligence Agency
Purpose:
To collect, assess, and disseminate foreign intelligence. The CIA does not set foreign policy or make foreign policy decisions. It treats the branches of the military and government as clients, providing them with the information they request and carrying out the tasks assigned to the agency. The CIA isand always was what Congress thought it was creating for the first time with the DHS.
Where the CIA operates:
Exclusively on foreign soil.Entire novels and TV series are premised on the notion that the CIA conducts elaborate surveillance and investigations of American citizens on American soil. (i.e. Homeland and Burn Notice). No. Even in the case of an internal investigation, such as the investigation of traitor CIA officer Aldrich Ames, the agency must contact the FBI and/or the DHS—depending on the foreigner’s activities—as soon as surveillance on American soil is involved.
What the CIA is authorized to do:
The CIA is authorized to gather intelligence on foreign countries and foreign individuals outside of the United States. The agency has its own employees, also known as blue-badgers because they carry blue government badges. It can also employ contractors (a.k.a. green-badgers for their green badges) and foreigners. Any combination of employees, contractors, or foreign agents can be involved in an operation.
Power to arrest:
The CIA does not have the authority to arrest anyone. They do at times detain foreigners in the process of covert actions, but the CIA never arrests people for the purpose of prosecution.To arrest someone on foreign soil for the purpose of prosecution, the CIA must cooperate with the FBI, which must in turn cooperate with the host country.
Islamabad house where Ramzi Yousef was captured Image by US govt., public domain.
An example of this interaction is the arrest of the first World Trade Center bomber, Ramzi Yousef, in Islamabad, Pakistan. A US State Department employee found the relevant lead by passing out thousands of matchbooks with a modest reward offer printed on the covers. He turned over the information to the CIA, which located Yousef and kept him under surveillance until an FBI team could arrive in Pakistan.
The FBI executed a raid while the Islamabad Police waited outside the building. When the FBI brought Yousef out, the Islamabad Police performed the arrest and immediately turned him back over to the FBI team to be escorted to New York for formal prosecution.
Oversight:
The CIA reports to the National Intelligence Director, who reports to the president. The agency is overseen by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
As much as Congress and the president disavow their knowledge of CIA activities at times, the CIA has never operated without oversight from Congress and the White House. It is definitely worth noting that elected officials such as senators and representatives (i.e., politicians) do not have to pass so much as a polygraph, much less a security clearance, to sit on these committees that oversee the Intelligence Community.
This lack of security at the Congressional level has definitely caused problems for Intelligence Community professionals, some of whom no doubt feel at times like they are duct-taped to a chair while watching toddlers play with loaded guns.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose:
The FBI was originally intended to be the federal government’s investigative agency. Now, the FBI investigates both criminal and terrorist activities and has offices in several overseas US embassies.Official priorities listed at the FBI website:
Protect the United States from terrorist attack
Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage
Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes
Combat public corruption at all levels
Protect civil rights
Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises
Combat major white-collar crime
Combat significant violent crime
Support federal, state, local and international partners
Upgrade technology to successfully perform the FBI’s mission
Canstock photo of three actual FBI agents.
(Unofficially, the FBI is tasked with keeping suit manufacturers in business. The stereotype of the FBI agent as the quintessential G-man in a three-piece suit is very much based in fact.)
Where the FBI operates:
The FBI operates inside the US as both an investigative and a law enforcement agency. Outside of the US, the FBI assists foreign governments in investigations and conducts investigations of crimes against Americans and American installations. It also acts as a liaison to foreign law enforcement agencies.
What the FBI is authorized to do:
The FBI is authorized to conduct law enforcement and surveillance inside the US. Outside the US, it relies on the CIA for surveillance and must obtain the permission and cooperation of foreign governments for any US law enforcement activities on their territory.
Power to arrest:
The FBI arrests people inside America and, with the cooperation of foreign governments, takes criminals abroad into custody. Anyone arrested by the FBI will be processed through the US court system with all US civil rights afforded to them.
Oversight:
The FBI answers to the Department of Justice and the head of that department, the Attorney General. The president can and does speak directly to the Bureau, and the Attorney General and various congressional committees provide oversight.
Department of Homeland Security
Purpose:
We’re not sure they know, and if they do know, they’re not admitting it. We are not actually being as flippant as that may sound.
Law prevented the FBI and CIA from operating effectively to avert terrorism in the United States in that the FBI and the CIA weren’t allowed to share most of their information with each other. This could have been fixed with a few changes in the law.However, Congress, never one to do for a dollar what could be done for $38 billion dollars, created the DHS.
Their intent in establishing the DHS was to set up an agency that could work with itself in order to prevent the next 9/11. Its original core mission was counter-intelligence in order to ensure a "homeland that is safe and secure," whatever that means.The DHS is still creating itself and being created by outside forces such as Congress and any given president.
Since its inception, the department has grown to include FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, ICE, Border Patrol, TSA, and more.
Where the DHS operates:
DHS operates both inside the US and outside the US, supposedly with the cooperation of the CIA. That boundary is a grey area that has never quite been defined.
What the DHS can do:
The DHS can order surveillance on anyone inside the US for virtually any reason under the Patriot Act and its legal progeny. To spy on people outside the US, it relies on the NSA, the CIA, and other agencies.
Power to arrest:
Like the FBI, the DHS can arrest people in the US or abroad if it obtains the cooperation of the foreign country. Those arrested by the DHS in the United States have all the rights they would have if arrested by any other US police body, and they will be processed through the US court system. If the DHS nabs someone overseas, that person will likely show up in the US judicial system.
Oversight:
DHS has full department status and has their own department head, unlike the FBI or the CIA. The director of the DHS holds a Cabinet position and reports straight to the president and only nominally to the National Director of Intelligence.
This section is worth a summary:
DHS is a surveillance and law enforcement body with jurisdiction throughout the United States which can order surveillance on anyone inside the United States, US citizen and foreigner alike, for almost any reason and arrest them with virtually no oversight beyond the president. (Does that concern you? It certainly concerns us.)
In other words, when you want an organization to break all the rules and behave badly in your books, DHS is the logical one to blame, not the CIA, especially if the operation is domestic.
National Security Agency/Central Security Service
Purpose:
Cryptology is at the core of the NSA/CSS. It’s the agency’s job to break foreign codes and set codes for the entire US government. It also listens to and stores foreign and domestic signals, including computer signals.
The NSA is famous in the Intelligence Community for being stingy about what it shares out of what it gathers. Other intelligence organizations, both civilian and military, view the NSA as a black hole where information and money go in and nothing comes out. In fact, it is undoubtedly the source of astronomers' models of cosmological black holes.
Where the NSA operates:
Most NSA employees reside and operate inside the United States, though they might travel to US embassies or foreign bases. Anywhere the United States uses secured communications, the NSA has the authority to show up and investigate to make sure that security procedures are in place.The NSA neither confirms nor denies having any facilities for gathering signals outside of the United States.
What the NSA can do: The NSA does not discuss its foreign and domestic intelligence-gathering operations; however, I would refer you to my PRISM articles listed below. In short, feel free to let your imagination run wild.
Power to arrest:
The NSA does not arrest anyone. Not ever. If someone shows up flashing an NSA badge, threatening to arrest you, feel free to shoot them or at least shut the door in their faces. They are a Hollywood crew and not NSA employees.
Oversight:
The question of NSA oversight has been afloat for many decades. They are supposed to report to the National Director of Intelligence and the CIA, but the CIA has never been satisfied with the NSA’s sharing of information. See black hole reference above.
Everyone in the NSA leadership serves at the pleasure of the president. As with the CIA, the president likes to pretend that he forgot that the NSA does what he tells it to do.
Do you have any questions about who gets to do what to whom in the real world? Are there any other Spycraft questions you'd like Bayard and Holmes to answer? Please share them with us down in the comments!
What do the main intelligence agencies do and where do they operate? How do they recruit personnel? What are real-life honey pots and sleeper agents? What about truth serums and enhanced interrogations? And what are the most common foibles of popular spy fiction?
With the voice of over forty years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Bayard & Holmes answer these questions and share information on espionage history, firearms of spycraft, tradecraft techniques, and the personalities and personal challenges of the men and women behind the myths.
Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.
“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”
~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown
About Bayard & Holmes
Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing.
You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes(at)protonmail(dot)com.
