Building Stories: Characters & Goals
Part 2 of 5
Welcome or welcome back! In the previous installment of this series, we talked about Concept & Premise. Each article in this series will build on the last as we highlight and examine the steps of building a story. This is meant to be a quick, easy, and condensed look at story building. If you haven’t read the Concept and Premise post yet you can find it linked below. In this post we'll move on to characters and goals. This part might help if you are still not sure what the premise of your concept should be.
Here is an overview of how I've broken it down.
• Concept & Premise (Last Week)
• Characters & Goals (Today's Topic!)
• Themes & Tone
• Antagonist & Adversity
• Climax & Reflection
Characters & Goals
For many writers creating the characters are the most fun parts of developing a story. But occasionally, (and I know I’ve been guilty of this) that development stops short of the most important question, what do they want? A simple question that's often hard to find a simple answer for. There is a lot to consider and a lot of options for character development hidden within this one small question. But since we are trying to break things into helpful manageable bits of information we’ll just be focusing on a few key points.
•Who are we taking this journey with?
•What are their wants, hopes, and goals in life?
•Why do they want these things?
Three questions that rarely start with easy answers. I usually have to boil some pretty complicated stuff down into what can sometimes feel like an overly simplified version of the reality the character is facing. Since I like using examples let's do that.
Captain America: The First Avenger
•Who are we taking this journey with?
Steve Rogers, a young man with a strong moral conviction to serve his country with his peers during World War II, but with various health and physical issues.
•What are their wants, hopes, and goals in life?
Steve wants to join his peers in the military to serve his country. He wants to prove himself, and stand up to bullies.
•Why do they want these things?
After being bullied his whole life, Steve wants to defend those that need defending and prove that he can make a difference. He doesn't want to be left behind while others, including his best friend, are allowed to go fight when he is not.
See what I mean, way over simplified. But that is really what the story of Steve Rogers boils down to. (In that film at least.) What Steve wants and why he wants it are important things to determine. Those answers dictate how and why he and those around him make the decisions they do as the story moves forward. Steve, agrees to the experimental treatment because he sees it as the only way to reach his goal of joining the war efforts as a soldier. Dr. Erskine, picks Steve because he sees Steve's goal is not to gain power but the gain the ability to defend the weak. Character informs story.
Knowing what your main character or characters want, why they want it and what they are willing to do to get it are vital to a great story. And while the main character gets a lot of the focus when talking about story the other side is just as important for bringing the plot together. Knowing what your antagonist's goals are, why, and the lengths they are willing to go to reach them, will help later in determining obstacles and outcomes for the main character.
If you didn't already have your premise, having the answers to these questions might help with getting it nailed down.
While not every one of these answers needs to be explicit on the page, I find it helpful to have the information as the writer to inform my characters actions. What should be clear are their goals. Knowing their goals is what helps the reader know what the story is all about, the point we are working towards and the question that we want answered, will they achieve their goal?
Once we as the writer have these questions answered we can start to understand the shape our characters and our story is taking.
