 Drama: August 24, 2011 Issue [#4558] |
  Drama
This week: Creating the Characters' Goals Edited by: Joy  
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"In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps including his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw."
John Gardner
"Plot springs from character... I've always sort of believed that these people inside me- these characters- know who they are and what they're about and what happens, and they need me to help get it down on paper because they don't type."
Anne Lamott
"I hate seeing a 'run-down list:' Names, hair color, eye color, height, even weight sometimes. Other things that bother me is over-describing the scenery or area where the story starts. Usually a manuscript can lose the first 3-5 chapters and start there. Besides the run-down list preaching to me about a subject, I don't like having a character immediately tell me how much he/she hates the world for whatever reason. In other words, tell me your issues on politics, the environment, etc. through your character. That is a real turn off to me."
Miriam Hees (editor)
"Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day."
Ray Bradbury
"Any character who is going to drive the story has to grab and hold the audience's attention at all times. There must be no dead time, no treading water, no padding in the story (and no more metaphors to hammer home the point). Whenever your lead character gets boring, the story stops."
John Truby from The Anatomy of Story
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. Our discussion in this issue is on character goals.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Imagine a great story idea found you. From that, you wrote down a one-sentence premise and developed fully a protagonist to act in your story, a protagonist with weaknesses, strengths, and needs. Now, your protagonist will need one more thing before you come up with the antagonist and the other characters.
What your protagonist needs next is a goal to fit the premise. Without that goal, which some call desire, no serious plot can be formed. Without that goal, there will be no antagonist, either. Your main character's goal should be what she (or he) particularly wants in your specific story, and not what she wants in life.
The goal has to be something concrete. If your character wants world peace, freedom in general, or the affection of a parent, these things would not make workable goals as these are needs, which may or may not be fulfilled during the process of going after the more concrete goal central to the plot. A practical tip to remember is: The need is inside the character; the goal or desire is outside the character. Where need is concerned, the readers see how the character must change to become a better person. Goal, on the other hand, is something the character wants and tries to achieve as readers root for him, through the twists and turns of the plot.
If your character's goal is, for example, to build a certain bridge, to become the president of his company, or to steal a statuette, then your story promises you a plot. The greater and stronger the long-term goal and the more intensely the character wants to achieve it, the more powerful the story will be.
In the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the main character Indiana Jones's goal is to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis get to it. In The King's Speech, King George VI's goal is to overcome his stammer. In Inception, the corporate spy Dom Cobb's (Leonardo DiCaprio) goal is to clear himself of murder charges and get back together with his children; to do that (as goal within the goal), he is made to sow an idea into the head of another person through dreams.
A small goal like wanting to buy a pack of gum would probably make a short story at best or, as a short term goal, it would give color to the plot or strengthen the main goal. If your protagonist's goal is achieved somewhere in the middle of the story or if the character abandons his initial goal for any reason, the first goal should be replaced with a better one to bring the story to its conclusion.
A tip for successful plot building is to start the goal's intensity at a low level and increase it as the story progresses. If the goal's intensity is at its highest level at the start, it can't build up, and the plot may run the risk of falling flat or becoming repetitious. For example, if a character badly wants to own a small two-bedroom house and starts working toward his goal, as the events and scenes accumulate, his goal can gradually become to own a much larger and fancier home.
The antagonist and other characters in the story should have goals too, to brace and support the main character's goal.
Give your protagonist his goal, first. Keep in mind that he has to want that goal badly enough, and not in a tentative way. This will help you find the antagonist, as the antagonist has to be somebody going after the same goal as the protagonist. The antagonist will want the same thing the protagonist wants and will fight him for it, to construct the conflict of the story.
If your protagonist wants something and the antagonist wants to prevent him from reaching that goal, they still have the same goal with two different faces. For example, if the protagonist (son or daughter) wants to enter the army and his parents (the antagonist duo) want to stop him, both the protagonist and the antagonist duo are after the same goal, except they are looking at it from two different angles.
It is not a good idea to give two separate goals to the two main characters. With two different goals, the protagonist and the antagonist will reach their separate ends with no direct conflict, and without conflict, a story will not exist.
The goals of all other characters should be there, also, but to a lesser degree, and they should in some way add to or enrich the main character's goal. If you give any one character a goal stronger than the protagonist's, it will shadow the main conflict in the story.
May you find the best goals for your characters, and may all your goals be fulfilled.
Until next time...  |
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Your Drama Newsletter Editors: NickiD89  Fyn  Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
 This Issue's Tip: If you let your characters into a physical fight, make sure the weapons are correct. If the fight is with guns, for example, you'll need a thorough research on their feel, range, and the operation details.
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 Reading Recommendation: A book with anecdotes of experience
Reviewed by spidey 
If you have a recommendation, a few words on a book or a product review, send it to me or to this newsletter. I'll highlight it here.
Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
This was a great newsletter, Joy. It was filled with good advice to help authors write episodic works. Readers must be able to identify with the protagonist from one book or short story to the next.
OBTW, thank you for the mention in your newsletter! There is always room for humor.Life happens, funny things happen, thus, it would happen to your character if you want to keep him real in the reader's mind.
~WW
Thank you, WW, and so true. Humor always comes to the rescue even in the most dire situations.
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StephBee 
Joy, thanks for giving me a shout out this issue. Much appreciated. I'm so glad you enjoyed the novel. If you're into steampunk, I just released Victorian Scoundrel, Book 1, The Windsor Diaries. hehe
I bet it is as captivating as the others. Steph. Power to your pen!
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BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  submitted item: "Unbelievable Theft: Stolen Life" by BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful
Getting your life stolen is miserable.
And interesting, too.
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