Your Character Doesn’t Need to Change (Writers, Read This)

Free Video Tutorial for Screenwriting

What if your character doesn’t need to change—at all?

Many writers misunderstand character arc and accidentally weaken their stories by forcing transformation where it doesn’t belong. In this episode of The Storyteller’s Mission, Zena Dell Lowe explains why some of the most iconic protagonists succeed precisely because they don’t change—and how digging in can be a far more powerful form of growth.

This episode explores:

• The difference between changing characters and steadfast characters
• Why “digging in” can strengthen a hero instead of flattening them
• How weakness, not selfishness, creates redeemable protagonists
• Why forced character change often feels false on the page or screen
• How this principle applies to both heroes and villains

Whether you’re writing a novel, screenplay, or series, this episode will help you rethink character arc, avoid common storytelling traps, and write protagonists that feel authentic, grounded, and compelling.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] So, and I'm talking about arc, right? I'm talking about a character's arc and what I have been teaching. Some people understand it differently, so I wanna make sure I mention it here because I think it's really interesting there are two types of characters.

[00:00:13] There are the characters that change, but then there are the characters that dig in, the characters who don't change. And in fact. That's the whole point. These are the characters that are steadfast in spite of everything that happens. And so they're actually not changing. Now, we've talked about in the story structure course that every character goes through a change, and I still think that's true, 

[00:00:39] It's a different kind of change. And what I mean by that is if you are getting steadfast, if you are digging in, it's because you're becoming stronger. You are becoming clarified. You are still becoming the hero you are always meant to become. It's just a different kind of change. And we've talked about this like I, I mentioned Bosch and how we don't want Bosch to change.

[00:01:06] Bosch's character flaw is that he will not compromise. He will not play the games that the powers that be want him to play, and therefore it trips him up over and over again. He's passed over for promotions. People are out to get him. They even target him because he won't play ball, and it drives people nuts.

[00:01:28] It also convicts them of their own sin. It convicts them of their own wrongdoing. So Bosch becomes. A character who can't advance in the society in which he's in because he will not compromise. That is his character flaw. It's also what makes him heroic. And over the course of his journey, he digs in further instead of compromising as things get rough, he keeps digging in.

[00:01:54] He keeps digging in. It keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse, and we love that about him. How does Bosch change? Bosch does change. How he changes for one is by the end of the six seasons, he can't even continue working for the police station. He feels it's so corrupt. He's just gonna go and do the private thing.

[00:02:16] I don't know that I completely buy that, but nevertheless, that's a change. He also, ironically. He becomes more self-aware. He understands himself more and is able to have more empathy for the people in his life that he's let down. He cares that he can't do it. He feels bad that he can't do it, but he can't do it, and therefore there is greater.

[00:02:43] Self-awareness. There's greater compassion for some of the characters that he wounds with his inability to compromise, and it gives him more clarity over the issues when it comes to others. He's able to see his partner when his partner has truly crossed the line, versus maybe just breaking some rules.

[00:03:03] And he's able to it, it gives him greater clarity into those types of things. And so he changes, but he changes in really relatively small ways because the whole point of Bosch is we wanna see a character who doesn't change. He digs in. And I just thought that was a very interesting perspective, that there's a lot of characters who won't change.

[00:03:23] And I think the reason this becomes important. Is because a lot of people knowing that the character must change, start the character in a place where the change that has to be take place is so dramatic and is so dark to begin with. Like we've talked about, giving a character the trait of selfishness, very difficult to redeem someone who's selfish, very difficult, and so probably a bad characteristic.

[00:03:52] Instead, what you wanna see as a character. That actually cares. That is a much better starting point for a character. They care, but they're weak in some way than they can be strengthened over the course of it. So that they become the heroic character that they were already meant to be. And so I've talked about in the course how they already have the heroic characteristics, but there's something missing that prevents them from fully walking in their heroic ness.

[00:04:22] Well, that's what this idea, I think helps crystallize. They're not actually changing. They're digging in. They're, they're becoming more confident. They're being strengthened in whatever their character traits are to be the hero they were always meant to be. So they're overcoming whatever that weakness.

[00:04:43] Might have been, that was preventing 'em from fully embodying their heroism, if that makes sense. So I kind, I just liked it. I liked that sort of paradigm shift on that. What do you think? Is that helpful in any kinda way? Hey. Zena. Yeah. What if we use that? Not for the protagonist, but for the antagonist. So I've got in my mind, like Frederick Nietzsche's, Uber Mitch, he digs in and becomes the Superman, the Overman, the Uber, Mitch, and he's Well, way more aware of himself.

[00:05:13] Yes. I like that. sometimes when the antagonist. Or the villain digs in, it's because they are unable or unwilling to alter their perspective. To align their perspective to what is actually true. So it's ironic. It's a different sort of a path when a hero digs in. It should be because they refuse to compromise values.

[00:05:40] When a villain or an antagonist digs in, it's because they're unwilling to adjust their perspective to something that might be more correct or right, because they're just, they almost idolize that idea. No, no, I'm not gonna look. They suppress the truth. Clinging to their idea. And so it makes them worse.

[00:06:02] They get more and more villainous as a result because they might have started out with something that is, okay, I get it. I get how you got here, but here's the truth. But they refuse to be corrected. And if we look at it this way, this is what happens to us when we refuse to be corrected in our own sin, right?

[00:06:19] It makes us harder. It drives us into further rebellion. It certainly severs our relationship with God and others. It causes further damage, harm to self and others. You know, a man for all seasons, he wrestles with it. I mean, does it matter if I don't like for England, does this really matter? You know? But at the end of the day, no, no. It's a bigger law. I can't do it. And therefore his life is very, life ends up being cost. But we admire him because he will not compromise what he believes to be true.

[00:06:53] Whereas in another character, a villainous character, they will not compromise, but it actually solidifies their damnation and probably their foolishness too. I haven't worked that all out, but I love the concept. Cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance. Yes. And they're just, they refuse to see it, and by God, they're gonna clinging to this because it's really what they want.

[00:07:17] This reminds me of Walter White. Yeah. In Breaking Bad, he kept saying, no, I'm doing this for my family. I'm doing this for my family. But the worse he got and the more monstrous he became as a character, he was finally forced to give up his illusion of heroism. And to admit, no, I did this for me. And he was finally, actually, it got him out of his cognitive dissonance, which is a good thing, but you know, he was 

[00:07:46] damned.

[00:07:46] 

[00:08:04] ​