Of the 10 elements in the Character Emotional Development Profile, the one of greatest importance to the overall plot of the story is Goal.
The other elements help create conflict, tension, suspense and curiosity — all critical to a successful story — as well as create a three-dimensional character.
The #1 problem I find, well… perhaps that’s too sweeping but I’m trying to make a point here, is that writers often neglect to create a specific goal that in turn provides specific action steps the character takes to achieve her goal.
The Goal “to be happy” leads to a vague and meandering story.
Instead, be specific. What does she need = goal(s) — to make her happy? The Goal needs to be tangible and quantifiable = in other words, the reader or movie-goer must be able to determine when the character moves closer to her goal versus further away.
In a murder mystery, is solving the crime a sufficient goal, or do we need something other than that?
Sandra
You are so correct, Martha.
Clarifying your protagonist's goal and making it as physical and as tangible as possible is so important.
Many writers, particularly those of us who seek to craft literary works, all too often become vague and intangible concerning this matter.
In our efforts to imitate a master of the literary genre we have not read her or his work and studied it closely enough.
We also fail to see and understand the direct connection between goals,and character arc.
Thanks so much for a wonderful and enlightening post.
I'm going to re-Tweet this.
Can the Goal change along the way?