Tip #3: Character Goals

I talked briefly about goals earlier, but that was mostly as it related to an individual scene. The most important element in an overall plot is your character's goal. A character striving for something is what moves a story forward.

If your main character doesn't have a goal to go after, you don't have a story.

Most of you, hopefully, are saying Well, duh! But I've come across several manuscripts where the characters don't have any kind of goal. A goal has several functions.

1. Moves the story forward (as I already said). As your character moves closer to achieving her goal, or is distanced from the goal, that's story.

2. Wins reader sympathy. Everyone can identify with having goals. When we see a strong desire in a protagonist, it tweaks our sympathies. Forges a connection. Makes the character more real.

3. Makes for a satisfying ending. Most stories end with the protagonist reaching his/her goal. With no goal--nothing acheived, nothing realized--how can the ending of a book possibly be satisfying? There's no sense of accomplishment in the end. The story is simply over, as if the writer ran out of words.

I'm sure there are other functions, but I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I recommend Brandilyn Collin's book Getting Into Character for an in-depth look at character goals, which she calls Desire.