Character

Three changes

A person grows, holds, or falls. Pick one. The titles are already measured.

The person at the end can do something the person at the start could not. Keep a promise. Tell a truth. Leave a house that asked them to lie. The change is the story. If you can name it in one sentence, it happened.

• A Christmas Carol85

  Hand it on. A man is allowed to change, and a child's house is the test.

• Jane Eyre78

  Conscience costs her the house she wants. She leaves anyway.

• East of Eden71

  Steinbeck's old question, still the right one: thou mayest.

• Pride & Prejudice70

  Courtship as a test of character. Marriage is the good, and it is not cheap.

• It's a Wonderful Life85

  The household, the neighbor, the quiet no to a predator. Keep this one in the house.

Eight ways a person changes

Each measure is a kind of change. The workshops call the whole thing an arc. The desk asks which way the person moved.

After the ending

1. Who is different, in one sentence?
2. What did it cost them?
3. Did the story reward the change, or only the charm?
4. Is that a person you want in the house?

Four answers. Then stop. A lecture after the credits is not character either.