Evolution of Godzilla
(Originally posted on July 25, 2013. Not exactly the evolution about since we’re talking more mental and emotional than physical. Realizing that many of these are kind of short too. Guess it’s from a time when I had more activity in the comments. Still, it’s nice to see where people stand on the big author topics.)
One of the benefits to writing a series is that you get to extend your character’s evolution. They don’t have to fully mature by the end of the first book. This is something for readers to remember too. Once a character hits his or her final form, the adventure has to eventually come to a close or you devolve them. Look at comic book characters and the sudden rise of reboots because they’ve done everything for decades. With novels, you don’t really have this luxury. You need to raise your character at a proper, steady rate to an endgame. Going further can weaken your character and series.
I like a slow growth with ups and downs. A character that wins and loses is believable because you can’t always win or lose. Even if you win, there can be a twist or a sacrifice to it. Save the damsel, but lose your hand type of thing. For me the character must be evolved by their decisions and situations. You can’t step into a war or decide to let someone die to save someone else without changing. That isn’t human and reeks of lazy story writing. Doubt, grief, anger, fear, happiness, sadness, numbness, determination, and all the other emotions are needed for this evolution.
So, what do you look for in character evolution?
Legends of Windemere 
I look for some kind of change. I’ve read several series in which the main character’s evolution involved his or her relationships mainly—mostly falling in love, getting married (I can think of at least two Golden Age mystery series in which this happens), and having children (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series) or becoming friends with someone who later partnered with him or her in solving mysteries (the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters). In those cases, the friend or spouse helped to soften the character to a degree. I read a police procedural series (the Maigret series by Georges Simenon) in which the main character’s on-the-job stress led to his alcoholism. In Frank Herbert’s Dune series, Paul Atreides goes through an evolution as does Tiffany Aching in Discworld.
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Good points. You can’t evolve and stay the same. It makes it feel like a pointless adventure.
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I agree with L. Marie. Relationships and also just growing older can bring in change.
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So true.
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I look for a characters to learn from the mistakes and become more proficient. Nothing worse than having a hero continue to make the same mistakes.
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What if they don’t make mistakes?
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Well then, we are talking a different kind of story.
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A boring one.
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Yup.
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I agree with you. This stuff is personal and emotional. It’s isn’t about going from some hillbilly to become the military’s top sniper. That is a trained evolution. This has to be how the personality grows and changes.
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Well said. Though I do like the idea of a hillbilly to top sniper story. ‘Murican Sniper? Scooter instead of Shooter?
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Might work, as long as he has some PTSD visions while enjoying his moonshine.
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