Writer's Workshop: The Steadfast Circle

I've wanted to do this post for a while--a dig into Steadfast Characters and what makes them different from Changing Characters. However, I didn't quite know how to do it in a way that would feel different from all of my previous posts that have brushed against the concept. While I'd pushed this concept towards the back of the sock drawer that is my brain, another project came to me, which just so happened to tether nicely to the idea of explaining Steadfast Characters like I'd wanted. But before I can explain my idea, I have to explain somebody else's. Let's look at Dan Harmon's Story Circle for a moment.

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I've talked before about the Hero's Journey. It's a popular formula, not the least of reasons because it's a simple, vivid story model with clear icons and plot motions to give you direction. But for me, it's a little too specific, to the point where it doesn't really apply to every possible story. The Hero initially rejects the Call--but what if my Hero calls themselves? The Hero crosses the Threshold to an unfamiliar world--but what if the story stays in their hometown? The Hero descends to Hell and meets the Goddess there--but what if there's no God, and no Hell? What if my character is ascending instead of descending? Silly objections, perhaps, but when you're working with a formula as specific as the Hero's Journey, these little objections add up; or perhaps more importantly, an author who doesn't object but just throws in those elements willy-nilly because Joseph Campbell tells them to may introduce elements that don't belong to their story. I wanted a story model that follows the general concept of the Hero's Journey, but doesn't require as much arm-twisting.

Luckily, that's exactly what Dan Harmon's Story Circle does! The Story Circle takes all the specific points from the Hero's Journey and boils them down into simpler, more generic key scenes. Here's a great example of what this looks like:

It's literally so simple, you can boil it down into eight words: You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change. I use slightly different words when I plan my stories, but the concept is the same. From here on out, I'll be using the following modified Story Circle:

1. You I: Establish the main character. Who are we rooting for in this story? What is their place in this setting?
2. Need: Demonstrate that the character needs something. What is their weakness? Why can't they stay where they are?
3. Go: The character begins their quest by trying something unknown, or by branching out into unfamiliar territory. (It doesn't have to be literally going somewhere, just the personal choice to leave their zone of comfort.)
4. Search Adapt: As the character works through their quest, they learn and grow, gradually becoming more attuned to the unfamiliar, or by learning new skills. That sort of thing.
5. Find/Get: The character makes some real headway, achieving their first victory. They may learn the lesson they've needed to learn all along, or they may get what they wanted at the start of the story, only to realize they're now setting their dreams higher than they were before.
6. Take Pay: This is where the hardship and suffering kicks up to eleven. The world tests the main character's resolve and forces them to slough off any unnecessary baggage they're still holding onto.
7. Return: This can be returning to the familiar world, or it can be returning to the original problem that had stymied them so much at the start. After all they've been through, suddenly it doesn't seem so bad anymore.
8. Change: Obviously, this doesn't mean they make a 100% turn-around right at the end; rather, it suggests that here's where we see them demonstrate for sure that they've made a major change.

Now, there's a lot to unpack with this model. I'd love to talk more about, say, the relationship between points across from each on the circle, or the meaning of the different quadrants. But I want to get to the point of this post, which was to help writers understand Steadfast Characters and how to depict them effectively. That last word on the Circle, Change, keeps blaring me in the face every time I look at it. There's this idea that a story doesn't "work" unless the main character makes some major change in their personality. Just like we see in the Circle, the character needs to start with some major weakness, their Need, and the story is all about Finding the cure to that Need, Paying for the right to take it, and Returning home, accepting the Change that comes with the cure.

But so many great stories don't follow this model! What do we make of Pinkie in "Griffon the Brush-off," whose moral ends with, "Just keep being a good friend," or Applejack in "Super-Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000," who ends her lesson with, "I didn't learn anything! I was right all along!"? What about "Rarity Takes Manehattan," which begins with Rarity believing in Generosity, and ends with her... believing in Generosity? She ends the story exactly as she started, only with renewed confidence in her ideals. We need a concept for characters that don't seriously change, but instead grow and improve within the boundaries of their original beliefs. This is the Steadfast Character.

The key to understanding the Steadfast Character, and how this relates to the concept of change as espoused in the Story Circle, is to recognize the existence of the Influence Character, that fabulous new narrative concept I can't shut up about. If the Main Character changes, then the Influence Character remains Steadfast; conversely, if the Main Character remains Steadfast, then it's the Influence Character who changes. Neat, right? In fact, if you use the Story Circle on the Changing Influence Characters in the stories I just pointed to, you may find they fit better than they would for the main characters themselves. That means the Story Circle and the circle I'm about to describe work together, in tandem! They're reflections of each other, in a sense.

My original plan had been to make the Steadfast Circle a perfect opposite of the Story Circle, with each original word reversed from the one in Harmon's concept. But as I tinkered with it, some of the words stayed opposites, while others grew in their own light. Here's my current version of it, which I've found really captures the spirit of the Steadfast Character (and doesn't capture the Changing Character):

1. You: Here's why I changed Harmon's first point from You to I. It depends on which character we're doing the circle for. The Main Character is our viewpoint into the story; they are us, and we are them. That means the Main Character should be "I." The Influence Character, on the other hand, is alien, unknown. They're often set apart from us, knowing things we don't know, or believing things that seem unusual. So the Influence Character should be "You."
2. Have: In contrast to the Changing character, whenever we have a Steadfast character, we establish the trait that will power them through the entire story. This is Rarity's song about Generosity, or the moment we see Pinkie pump the brakes on a prank that would harm Fluttershy.
3. Push: Next is the Push, which, in creating, is now my new favorite narrative term. (Modest, I know. ) The Push can be a couple different things, but primarily, it's the moment when the Steadfast Character's ideals are tested for the first time. Unlike the Changing character, who accepts the Call and ventures out into the unknown, the Push is typified by the Steadfast Character rejecting the call of the outside world and remaining true to themselves. But this isn't going to last...
4. Resist: While the Changing character is rapidly adjusting to the new world's environment, the Steadfast Character is finding themselves beset upon at all sides by the enemy. They're making a good show of keeping it at bay, but droplets of corruption may sneak through the cracks. This is the part in "Sweet and Elite" where Rarity is trying to balance working on Twilight's dress and hobnobbing with the Canterlot nobility, or in "Sonic Rainboom" when Rainbow Dash is trying to keep up a good front at the weather factory while Rarity keeps showing off. (Notice that Rarity, meanwhile, is Adapting to her new wings!)
5. Lose: Here, the Steadfast Character drops the ball. Either they crack and forget their defining trait for a moment, or they suffer some major beatdown as a result of maintaining their belief. Either way, this is the moment when their Steadfastness really starts to seem like more of a burden than a strength. The Steadfast character is really starting to feel the burn of being a paragon in a world full of people who don't think like they do.
6. Question: This is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Steadfast Character begins to wonder, "Is this worth it? Should I really keep being Steadfast? If I folded right here, nobody would blame me. Am I the wrong one here? Why shouldn't I just give up right here?" This and Pay are pretty similar to one another, but I think the places where they differ make this profound. In the Story Circle, the Changing character has just found their elixir at the bottom of the well. They're suffering to get back up to the top, but with the elixir in hand, they can survive anything. Question, on the other hand, is when the Steadfast Character's grip on the elixir they've had since the beginning is really starting to slip.
7. Recall: "It's always darkest just before dawn." Just as the Steadfast Character is at their lowest point, their metaphorical sun rises, and they remember why they'd believed in their central tenet all along. I chose Recall because of its similarity to Return, but where the Changing character's plan in step 7 is to go back home, bringing their new understanding with them, the Steadfast Character's method here is to pull everything they'd lost back to themselves. This is Rarity in "Rarity Takes Manehattan" getting her friends back with her apology, or Twilight and co. in "The Last Roundup" reminding Applejack why they'd never abandon her just because she didn't get first prize in a rodeo. It's Superman tossing off his Kryptonite shackles and regaining his true glory!
8. Grow: Where a Changing character, well, changes, a Steadfast character grows. Though they may have retained their beliefs from the start of the story, their trials throughout this adventure have helped make them a better person. (Or pony, as the case may be.) And just like the Changing character, this isn't growth that has come out of nowhere. This final moment is just the culmination of that growth, the blossoming flower at the top of it. At the end of the MLP movie, Twilight still believes in friendship just as firmly as she did when she sang, "We've got this together," but now she better understands what it means to trust and believe in your friends, even when they let you down. Throughout "Equestria Girls," Twilight never wavers in her belief in friendship as the cornerstone of leadership, but now she knows how to put that into action, and she can take the lessons she's learned back to Equestria as a more confident, emboldened princess. Without giving up on that innermost spark, these characters show us how they've developed as people and become more effective in asserting their central belief.

I hope that gives you an idea of what it's like to write Steadfast characters, and how their arcs tend to form. I'll throw in the caveat that neither of these models are set in stone; they're just helpful frameworks to organize your story and create meaningful growth or change. At the very least, now you can start to see these two frameworks in action. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help you to see when a character is Steadfast versus when they're Changing. If I can do that... I'll count this blog as a success.

Comments

[Super Trampoline]

Thanks for the tips!

[Feather Note]

Huh. This is definitely a nice contrast to the Hero's Journey. Seems a lot more fun, too. I really liked this and it definitely makes me want to try it out.