NaNoPlanno Exercise: Character

Let’s look more in depth at your main character. Specifically, let’s delve into his/her core: what does s/he want? No, I don’t mean a pumpkin spice latte (though that might make a good scene-let), I mean what s/he REALLY wants. The over-arching goal s/he has in the novel.

This goal isn’t always present in the first scenes, but it should become apparent pretty quickly.

The Hunger Games

Like with the Hunger Games–Katniss’ main goal is to win the Games, though that’s not even a consideration in the opening scenes.

Here I’m talking about an EXTERNAL goal: Winning the Games. Finding a birth mother. Solving a crime. Winning an election. Climbing to the top of Everest. These are concrete and require action. PLOT POINTS.

Your main character should also have a primary INTERNAL goal which probably relates to the external one. These tend to be more abstract, even subconscious. They also require action to achieve, but this is definitely a more ambiguous area. Think: to be worthy, to belong, to be a better person, to be a leader. We’re usually talking CHARACTER ARC here.

These “goals” are components of a great fiction writing tool: GMC – Goal, Motivation & Conflict based on a book of the same name by Debra Dixon (www.debradixon.com). If you don’t know GMC, I urge you to check it out. You can bet your plot points (and character arcs) we’ll be coming back to it!

Learn more here:
http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/07/31/emergency-post-goal-motivation-and-conflict/