Exploring Character Arcs: Jay gets back into Digitopia

Hi there, I thought I’d quite like to explore the idea of a character arc of the main protagonist in ‘Digitopia 1.0 – Displaced Dreams‘.  

The main protagonist and the hero are not always the same thing.  I started writing Digitopia with Jay as the main protagonist in my comic book, at the time it was my intention that Jay would also be the hero of the story.  

But as I wrote the other characters I found that there were other candidates to become the hero (more on that in a later post).  

The definition of a hero, isn’t the character who does most of the action, stunts and ends up saving the world.  I’m using the definition put forward by Joseph Campbell in the book ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces‘ – https://amzn.to/2G05E0S, 

and later by Christopher Vogler in the ‘Writer’s Journey‘ – https://amzn.to/2YHlKDR, which is a bit more accessible, i.e. easier to read.   

Essentially the Hero being the character that goes on the journey of change, i.e. the hero’s start journey as taken him/her through various phases as described in these two excellent books.  

Where does Jay start in the story?

When we initially meet Jay his life is being turned upside down, on the one hand he is about to become a father as his partner Reema is giving birth.

 

but outside the tanks are rolling in closer and closer

Jay has to make an impossible decision of his life within the first two pages of the story. Reema is immobile as she’s giving birth, a new born baby is immobile, so essentially Jay who was totally mobile is now carrying his family – and the enemy doesn’t care.

Jay who was once a brave fighter, who stood up to invaders and struck fear into his enemies  is now reduced to begging for his life, his partner’s life and his baby’s life.

Within the first few pages I wanted to build up Jay’s problem, the reader now knows what the motivation is for Jay is in the rest of the story.  

As to whether that makes him the hero of the story, I don’t want to say just yet (I don’t want to put in any spoilers).  

I know where the story is going over the course of the graphic novel – although my editor and I may yet differ on that (actually let me know in the comments section if the writing relationship between a writer and an editor is something that interests you).  

If you’d like to read Digitopia 1.0, I have it in both digital format, via Kindle (Kindle apps are on smartphones and tablets) here – https://amzn.to/2YD8f8i

If you prefer paperback, I’m currently (at the point of writing this) running a Kickstarter for the paperback version here – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/farhanq/digitopia-1-displaced-dreams-the-paperback-comic?ref=evidkh

This Kickstarter goes until July 25th, the number of orders I get from this will determine the number I order from the printers – I hope you don’t miss out on this, I’ve put together lots of great rewards focused around the comic book, including

• lots of behind the scenes (articles similar to this) 
• a set of exclusive audio and video commentaries from the team behind the book
• mini art prints from the story’s Presidential election 

 If you’d like to keep in touch with latest developments of the story, you can subscribe to my mailing list where you’ll also be able to get a preview edition of the book here – 

Digitopia: Exclusive Comic Preview

Let me know if you enjoyed this article and if so, that will encourage me to share more of the characters and applied writing techniques I’ve used in the book.

Thanks

Farhan