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I honestly don’t know whether to put this in the plotting section or the character section…maybe both? Anyways I’ve planned a character arc for my deuteragonist in my second act where she struggles and eventually learns to forgive the protagonist for lying to her about who he is and manipulating her. The MC is also going through his guilt and trying to redeem himself to her. Problem is, I have no idea where to start, as I haven’t read any forgiveness arcs and don’t have much real life experience to draw upon. Some advice would nice, and if you know any good examples forgiveness arcs, please tell me; I need all the reference I can get. Feel free to ask me questions if you need more clarification.
Hmm, how shall I emotionally torture my ocs today I wonder...
Hmm, forgiveness character arcs. There aren’t a lot of well written ones that I’ve read, but The Viking Quest, Broken Bow by LaJoyce Martin, and Ben-Hur (although I highly recommend listening to the Focus on the Family audiobook instead of the actual book) were all good. Sir Kendrick and the Battle of Belion, The Green Ember series (especially the last three), and The Wingfeather Saga have forgiveness sub plots. I know I’ve read others, but I can’t think of them right now.
I’m actually rather happy you started this as I’m working on something similar.
Spion O’Lasair. He hates anyone of the wolfish kingdom and for good reason. His family died because of them. His nation is no more because of them. And now he is their captive, a prisoner of war. But he had already decided on what he thought about them long before his ‘activities’. Oh, didn’t you know? That’s how he got here, where only the Poets still believe in Hope.
Anyway, Spion ends up almost not being able to escape because his bitterness, and ends up having to be rescued by the book’s other MC, a fox who somehow never became embittered and therefore ‘can’t be trusted’. Yeah, I make a pretty good mess of my MCs. I tend to grind them into the dust before making something worthwhile put of them.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Hmm, forgiveness arcs…
First, huzzah for you book! Forgiveness is a powerful theme.
As for examples, I’ve heard that The Count of the Monte Cristo has an amazing forgiveness plot thingy, and Les Miserables has one too, if I’m not mistaken. Koshka already mentioned the others I can think of.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
Okay, I have no experience in writing a character arc of forgiveness. I have also read very few books with it. However, I am working on a nonfiction book about loving the hard to love people in our lives. That includes the learning curve of forgiveness.
A few things I have learned about forgiveness:
1. Most people know that forgiveness is essential to living a better life. When we refuse to forgive somebody, it is normally because we don’t want to give that person “control” when, in all actuality, by the act of unforgiveness, we are giving that person control of our heart.
This is especially true in your characters situation. She has been manipulated by this guy and so, in response, she is determined to rise above him and stay in control of herself.
She believes that she is doing the right thing. God doesn’t want her to bow down to somebody else’s manipulation, right?
If the guy truly wants to reassure her that he regrets what he did, he would need to approach in a way that tells her that he possesses a heart of gold… He has just made mistakes… Like she has. How you would go about that is the tricky part. It’s different for everybody.
2. Forgiveness is hard. It hurts a LOT. It’s exhausting because it is a long process. It’s the act of letting go, and that’s one of the hardest things to do. It’s admitting that while the other person is in the wrong, we are also in the wrong for not forgiving them. EVEN if they show no signs of remorse. That only makes the forgiveness harder.
When it comes to forgiveness, sometimes we have to tell ourselves over and over that we forgive our trespassers before we actually feel it.
3. In the girl’s case, it sounds like she’ll need to talk to the guy to find more closure. To get to that point, as mentioned, she is more than likely going to go through a deep spiritual warfare. (This depends on how deep you want to go and which readers you want to relate with.)
She might even pass up on a couple opportunities to discuss it with him. Say… He’s being vulnerable and she realizes she could open up as well, but then gives herself permission to shut him out again due some random but reasonable-to-her excuse.
Eventually, she will need to, though, for your readers to feel the atmosphere of closure. As we all know, every good book ends in some sort of closure.
Hopefully, by the end of the book, she will recognize a profound truth that acknowledges her reasoning from earlier in the book: God doesn’t want her to bow down to somebody’s manipulation, right?
That’s just an example though. Instead of a search for an answer, it could be that she believed a lie about why it was okay to not forgive him. Of course, later discovering the truth. The possibilities are endless! I simply needed to use an example for my points to make more sense. (Hopefully.)
I’m no expert on the topic (at all), but I do hope that some of that information proves to be useful. After all, fiction is just real life with a twist of creativity. 😂
Words have the ability to touch the darkest souls... The receiver must simply allow them to.
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