The ideal story will have the protagonist’s character arc run parallel to the advancing plot. As each scene flows into the next, the character will progressively advance en route to an end state materially different from whence they started. For most stories, this is the gold standard. But the methodology can differ for tales outside that ideal. If your story is a long form piece you may find a need to pause a character arc.
What I mean with that term is a point in the story where the character’s personal progression is pulled from the spotlight as the rest of the story carries on. Obviously you can’t freeze the character along with their arc as the story moves past, but that’s not the goal. The purpose in pausing a character arc is largely utilitarian. If the story is very long, then the character arc needs to match its pacing. If the story goes on longer than the single character’s arc should take, some scheduling needs to be considered. If the character only makes one substantial change or learns one lesson in fifty years they’re practically fossilized.
Such a need also occurs when the story is larger than that character i.e. an epic. A story that explores one set of events to another over a wide period of time isn’t conducive to the streamline paralleling of a three act story. Eventually there’ll be a part where the plot overreaches the character in time skips or abbreviated sequences. It’s a tough pull to say in a couple paragraphs how the protagonist restarted their life after a breakup, went back to college, started a new career, got a promotion, bought a house, but still thinks about the one that got away with the same emotion as before as if several years didn’t just fly by and they didn’t date anyone in the meantime. Likewise, you can’t explore a massive war that’ll reset the power balance of feuding aristocracies on a continent wide scale and put above it all the emotional conflict of a single lowly soldier. At that point the focus must shift.
This is an issue I’m combatting as I’ve a protagonist in that aforementioned scenario. It’s anachronistic to have a character swept up in the tides of history while putting the narrative microscope over their every conflicted thought. “Does she love me or not?” might not be the first second or third thought while staring down a flying cannonball. It can also be an immersion breaking stretch to tie every development back to the protagonist’s personal conflict. Where the cannonball falls and who it takes out doesn’t answer does she love me or not.
If the story is grand in scope and deviates from characters with rotating first person narrators or subject characters, the audience will be attuned to putting those characters in the back of their minds. Thus having a character show up in the background of another’s chapter can abide without having to progress much or at all. Small inferences can be magnified by the justified lack of attention. Additionally, how can I miss you if you never go away?
A method I’ve picked up recently is straw piling. When a character’s arc enters a period of introspection or strife, it’s understandable that it’d take some time to overcome that obstacle. I’ve got a character who just lost his last family member and is now drifting aimlessly through life pushed along by a manipulative boss. Little agency, no growth. But he can’t live like that forever, no one can. So where’s the breaking point where he’ll finally have to come to terms with his loss and move on with his life? Don’t know, but every unethical task he’s given, every four AM workday, every impossible ask and subsequent ridicule, those are all just straws on the camel’s back. Which one will be the last before he snaps out of his fog and continues on his arc? It isn’t growth or development but it is suspenseful.
It’s also a great opportunity to explore how the character is impacted by those recent developments. If you want to get an in depth view of the effect of a breakup or new job can have you can do so without any distraction or deviation towards advancing onto the next stage of their arc. There’re still plenty of opportunities to develop the characterization showing their daily life. The issue here is repetition. The character can’t wake up sadder than yesterday based on the same conflict that got them there in the first place. Every example of the impact must qualitatively differ from the last. First it’s the difficulty of returning to the daily routine while missing someone who partook in that routine. Next it’s a gradual onset of malaise. Then forgetfulness of every task by checking the door three times before acknowledging it’s locked. Don’t repeat. Reinforce.
The justification then comes from what took the top billing from the protagonist. For a grand story it’s almost always war because of the inherent conflict and ability to shake up the status quo. Fell into that trapping didn’t I? It makes poignant sense if the character plays but a small part that everything important in their life is tossed aside by an uncaring machine such as warfare. For a rotating narrator or focus character the paused character stands in the background as the events that materially changed their situation are past whereas the spotlighted character is contending with events that could or are currently impacting their life and which they can immediately do something about.
That’s a good overall synopsis. Can the character change their circumstances and be active in the story? If not, consider putting their arc on pause till the plot reopens for them. Of course that isn’t left to chance as you’re responsible for planning ahead and leaving an entrance ramp for that character to continue their arc. If they were paused for exploration or backgrounding you can largely pick up where you left off. If they were straw piled and broken then arc must account for the dramatic change in disposition.
Colin Klawans 