This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 537th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

I hope you enjoy this week's episode, Arcetypal Character Arks Part 4, The Queen Ark.

So what happens after the Happily Ever After?

This is a question we often ask, but seldom explore.

As discussed in previous weeks,

the two archetypal character arcs

that began the cycle of six life arcs

are the maiden and the hero.

Together, they account for a great majority. the resolve the protagonist's initiation into adulthood, which often ends, quote unquote, happily, with the

protagonist's reintegration into a meaningful position of work and relationship within the larger tribe or kingdom.

But the vague ever after part of the phrase is only there if we choose not to follow the character into the life

arcs of the second act of her life. Just as the two arcs of the first act were

characterized as representing the first 30 years of the

character's life the next two arcs can be thought of as representing the second

act and comprising the next 30 years approximately

from the ages of 30 to 60. Obviously what we see represented here is a more

mature phase of life, an unequivocally adult phase.

The protagonist has put behind her the challenges of individuation and initiation on her way to discovering healthy relationships,

building her own family, and investing herself in meaningful work.

But as any of us chronologically in the second act can attest, the adventure is far from over.

The challenges of the first act were primarily about the character's relationship with self

and her ability to integrate the separate parts of herself.

...