Story Plan Checklist: Your Character's Goals

[ladyseishou]

Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead.

- Joss Whedon



What's your character's heart's passion?

Goals, writes Karen Wiesner, "are what the character wants, needs or desires above all else... [and] urgent enough for the character to go through hardship and self-sacrifice."

Multiple character needs can and are often at odds with one another - for example, a character that wants to break the news story that will make his career as a reporter and at the same time he understands that revelation of the facts will endanger his true love. The difficult decisions that he must make creates tension and conflict that drives the story and reader's interest. In my story, the main protagonist needs to demonstrate that he needs no one but to prove his innocence, he will require the aid of a man that has every reason to refuse his request...

So Nano Writer, what are your character's goals? What needs or desire are in conflict?

Comments

[elleth]

Plain and simple for most of them, survival. Of course the different characters have different wishes and passions, but the ultimate goal is survival - with exception of Nada, who keeps on hanging on for no apparent reason, and Max, who is being turned into more of a leader figure the further the story progresses, and wants that cup to pass him by rather desperately, but then his survival is never in question.