What is a positive character arc?
A positive character arc occurs when a character (1) believes a lie (2) is confronted with the truth (3) and rejects the lie and embraces the truth (4) the acceptance of the truth allows the character's arc to improve: the character gains something such as redemption, etc.
What is a negative character arc?
In a negative character arc, (1) the character believes a lie and is confronted with the truth. (2) The character either rejects the truth or fails to adjust adequately to the truth. (3) The rejection of the truth and the doubling-down on embracing the lie leads the character's arc to spiraling out of control.
Personal Aesthetics
These elements relate to the fate of birth: era, location, race, ethnicity, social class, relative wealth, family values, access to education, fight or thrive environment, profound experiences, values of society, community, and family, and what the character values, feels, fears, prioritizes, and what the character is willing or unwilling to sacrifice to get what he/she wants. Home is a big part of self-identity. Watch also for the conformity and propriety expectations of society and how that impacts the CUMULATIVE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE and reactions of the character.
Sources of Power
All characters have Sources of Power: beauty, wealth, strength, power, social standing, charisma, sense of humor, poise, cunning, savagery, or courage and the antithesis of those traits. Figure out what the character's strengths and weaknesses are and in what scenes or circumstances those powers are enhanced or weakened.
The Bigger Idea of Work
The Bigger Idea of a Work is typically the hidden message that becomes a critique of the misplaced values, priorities, and beliefs of a character, society, or human nature. Watch for which characters get punished or rewarded and how and why to figure out the bigger idea.
"The Function of"
"The Function Of" means how a specific element of the work "works/functions" to put the character under increasing pressure to ILLUMINATE the bigger idea. Watch for the increasing pressure on a character that forces him into increasingly difficult decisions and watch for what he is willing or unwilling to sacrifice to get what he wants.
Freytag's Pyramid
(1) Exposition of Setting (2) Inciting Incident (3) Rising Action (4) Complication of rising action (5) Climax (6) Reversal of Fortune (7) Falling Action (8) Resolution. Watch for characters to gain, lose, and regain power and watch for which characters are eventually victorious or disenfranchised or marginalized or punished or rewarded to discover the author's critique of human nature, nature, society, or a culture's priorities, values, and beliefs.
Narrator
A narrator is the "teller" of the story. (1) The narrator can be objective: reports what is seen but isn't in the story (2) The narrator can be a character in the story and be subjective: we can't always trust the narrator because he allows his emotions to create an implicit bias toward or against certain other characters or events. (3) A narrator can be omniscient, able to read the minds of all other characters. (4) Or a narrator can be limited omniscient, meaning the narrator can read the minds of some characters but not the minds of others. (5) Typically, though, a narrator who is a character in a story cannot read anyone's mind, but he might report what he thinks and might also interject his opinion.
Symbolism
Symbolism is when an object or some other representation is used to convey new meaning to enhance a scene or to represent another idea in the story. For example, a raven might indicate bad luck. A storm might indicate trouble ahead. A teapot whistling might indicate building pressure. A clock might indicate time is running out, etc.