How do you write believable REDEMPTION ARCS? Story Science of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Episode 00 | Faith, Writing and Coffee Chats Podcast
Hello friends! Today I’m starting an all new podcast series called Story Science where we will be learning how to write stories by studying stories! This is how I have learned writing—by studying stories. If I want to learn how to write a certain story, a story or character arc, world build, dialogue, whatever it is I learn by studying stories. This can be from books, movies, tv shows, even songs. If it is a story then we can learn from it.
From good stories we can learn how to write good stories that capture you and make your love the characters and world.
From even bad stories we can learn what not to do and how to write well by seeing it done badly and figuring out how to fix it.
I love studying stories and understanding how and why some stories work and are so impactful and influential vs those who don’t. That is essentially what we will be doing in this Story Science series. We will be studying and learning from stories to create our own amazing stories!
So, grab a cup of coffee and let's dive into today’s topic and story analysis!
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How do you write redemption arcs that are believable, real, in-character and genuine???
Today we will find out exactly this by studying one of my favorite Christmas novels, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens!!! I am so excited to be studying this story with you all today as a part of the new podcast series: Story Science—Learning Story from Stories!
So today, we will be answering the question: how do you write redemption arcs/stories? AND how to write conversion stories? If you are a faith writer then your redemption story will most likely be a conversion story—a story of coming to faith, of becoming a Christian. Since these two concepts are so linked, I wanted to go into answering both these questions in this episode!
Let’s begin!
What we’ll be covering:
Part I
The character (that has this arc) has been going down a negative character arc/path. They have been choosing evil/selfishness/sin/their own evil desires, making mistakes and going down a path that leads them deeper into that negative character arc. Your character will be coming to the place where they either have to continue in evil beyond the place of no return or choose good. [Thinking from a more Faith perspective, the character is choosing sin and taking active steps away from God and salvation].
In the beginning of A Chrsitmas Carol we get to meet our main character Scrooge. He is described and depicted as just an awful cold hearted man. Literally.
“…He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge…”
So, Scrooge is not a “good hearted” character. His favorite saying is “Bah Humbug!” He is cold, negative, selfish and keeps everyone at a distance from himself. He is, as the book says, “as solitary as an oyster.”
We also see, Scrooge is very influenced by money. He runs a counting-house. He is very cheap—in that he spends money on almost nothing and tries to save it in any way he can by barely paying his clerk—keeping it cold in his business and home and dark. As the book puts it:
“Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”
Part II
Next, we want to show that hidden spark of good in your character (that thing in them that is hidden away but is good and shows them to be human and have a heart).
I believe we don’t start out as evil and bad. I believe we are born with the potential for good or bad and it is based on our CHOICES (our actions) that make us that way and define us.
[bible verse on it’s by actions and not words alone — the verse on a corrupt mind and a mind set on God]
22But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” —James 1:22-25
And in the book, I think Jacob Marly said it perfectly: “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard: I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” (Page 236)
Later Marly goes on to say that Scrooge too has a chain like his though it has only grown and gotten heavier as the years have gone by to surpass Marley’s. The only hope Scrooge has is to be met by three spirits and to change his path proving his change before it's too late. Scrooge is given the choice—the same choice really all of us has—to choose good or bad.
Yes, there is more to this than just you choose good then you are a good person and vice versa but it's a good place to start. Of course as a Christian, and a writer of faith stories, there is more in this in that the distinction is more being a Christian and following God or not, I think. So in the case of a conversion story your character will be from this place of staying away from God then finding Him and becoming a Christian and being saved.
But back to the story, Now, usually this (showing the spark of good) is shown to us through backstory. Backstory is my favorite and A Christmas Carol does this beautifully through the ghost of Christmas past.
In his past we are able to see him young. We are able to see there is goodness in him even presently. Early in this first visit, at the first Christmas the spirit showed him, we see Scrooge being left behind and forgotten as a child and Scrooge starts crying and shows remorse and feelings. He was described as this cold hearted man and now we see the humanity and warmth even that he can cry and feel.
We meet his sister who is trying to reunite the family. We find Scrooge was sent away and his father it seems wasn’t the greatest, but his sister who has such a big heart reunites the family. We also in these moments find out why Scrooge is so reserved (we find out his sister died after having her son, Scrooge’s nephew and we see also why Scrooge stays so distant from even him. Scrooge’s sister was the good in his life and her death was really tragic and shaping.
Later we also get to see Scrooge’s backstory and we see Scrooge's problem with money set in. He says: “there is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.” Scrooge begins in poverty and ends up choosing money and loses the girl he promised to marry, setting him completely on the path he finds himself in now.
Part III
Give them a “aha” moment when they realize that the path they are on is wrong and that they want and need to be saved. Oftentimes, for a redemption arc this will involve the character going through a disaster moment of loss or tragedy (so this can also be a disaster moment combination). [This, for a faith story, will be the moment your character realizes they are a sinner and are far away from God and NEED Him and His salvation and they have a change of heart and become a Christian = the conversion story]
In A Christmas Carol you can see this moment of realization happen when the ghost of what’s yet to come shows Scrooge two pivotal moments happening in unison.
The death of Tiny Tim who we first met with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Tiny Tim is this sweet little boy with a heart full of joy and thankless despite his sickness, being poor with little to almost no food and needing a crutch to walk. He is a character you instantly fall in love with and he dies. That is the first disaster.
The second comes when Scrooge is faced with his own death. That is the moment where everything changes and he has to make a choice. This is another thing I want to mention, their choice will and should come with a price or consequences based on their own internal conflict.
For example: if Scrooge stays how he is then Tiny Tim will die. Scrooge will die. His life will amount truly to nothing. He has no friends, no connections, no love, no anything of true value. All he has is money and even that he won’t have in death. He has spent his life pushing people away and protecting himself and in the end that won’t matter with the life he is living.
But if Scrooge charges: the hope is Tiny Tim will live. He will live. If he can truly change then he can gain true riches though the price will be being around people, having to care, and spend money on others. He’ll have to change. That is his price.
Part IIII
Show them carry out that moment of realization, that conversion that happened in their heart and mind by ACTION. Remember, it’s your choices that defines you, so to show your character truly has changed you need to back that with action proving they have had this redemption.
Scrooge after facing this fate says: “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on the stone!”
He wakes up on Christmas morning with a second chance. He does not waste it. He ACTS. He gets food for the Cratchit family, he goes and makes Bob Cratchit his partner, he looks at the world with light and joy, he sees his nephew and celebrates christmas with family and friends!
“21Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” —Ephesians 4:21-24
He changes not just in his heart and mind but in his actions. Your actions are a product of what’s in your heart and mind. The words you say, the things you do, how you react all comes from the heart.
[ verse on actions from the heart]
“23 Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life.” —proverbs 4: 23
2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. —Roman’s 12:2
Part V
BONUS: To make sure your character’s redemption from more of an antagonist or morally gray character to a good character feels believable you have to make sure it makes sense.
There has to be a reason behind this redemption. A CLEAR TRIGGER. We don’t want the conversion, the change, to feel forced or out of character.
This is why backstory is so good and understanding where a character started and see how that beginning shaped their life and the choices they made to be evil then to see how that relates to the conversion—you see what lead them there and also how they can be redeemed. You want to make it PERSONAL to the character and the character’s struggles and their previous choices.
No one wants a villainous character who has been made and shown to be evil just randomly decide to “be good” because the plot needs it. It needs to be personal to the character and who they are.
This is why I think having a price for their decisions (when they are in that or those moments of choosing good or evil) can be good. It costs them. It’s personal to the character.
It took for Scrooge seeing a truly good person/character dying along with himself dying for him to turn things around. There became a price for what he does and he had to make a difficult choice.
That's another thing, your character has to ACTUALLY CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES what they want and what they believe. They have to CHOOSE to stay as they are with those consequences or change with change’s consequences. Either way, they have to choose and you want it to feel still “in character”.
For Scrooge, his death mattered to him. He, not wanting to die, chose to live a new life and have a new attitude toward life. It feels in character because we know how selfish Scrooge is so it makes sense that Scrooge himself had to see why change would matter to him. If he didn’t change he would die along with more gloom and death for those around him. It first had to matter to him for him to change and then help others.
It feels perfectly in character.
With that we have reached the end of this story science episode! As Tiny Tim said, “God bless us, everyone!”
A Writing Exercise:
Make up a character either a new one or one from your own stories that is an antagonist or morally gray that is in need of a redemption arc. Write a bit of backstory that shows the hidden good in your character as well as the moment(s) when they became as they are now—not good but with the hidden potential for good.
Unforgettable villain — Kate & Abbie Show
Books with this trope:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
IRON by Madisyn Carlin
There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B Jones
Shattered Reflection by Madisyn Carlin
All the light we cannot see
Movies & Shows:
Free Reign — tv show
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Mickey Mouse A Christmas Carol
The Man Who Invented Christmas
War Room
All the light we cannot see - tv show
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