All of us like to think we know where in life we’re going and most of us are realistic enough to know that it won’t always turn out the way we think! Sometimes the journey ends up being better than expected, sometimes not.
So how do your characters react when their “life plan” ends up being disrupted, for better or worse, permanently or temporarily? Reaction to a crisis (even if that crisis is just in the mind of the character!) should show a great deal about them and their nature. How do others who were relying on them react to unexpected changes of plan?
And if the “where in the world am I going?” refers to an actual journey, how vital is that trip to your character’s development and the plot? What is special about the place they’re going to and, if they don’t know immediately, where are they going and who is sending them? The Lord of the Rings to my mind is the best quest story and while Frodo knew he was going to end up in Mordor had no idea how he was going to get there. Equally there are stories that revolve around the character only being given a bit of information here, another there and they have to piece it all together.
So where in the world are your characters going, literally and metaphorically? Are your characters turning out to be as you’d initially planned them or have they taken on a life of their own? The latter is a good sign, it means your characters are “alive”, there’s a spark to them that will come through on the page but does this mean re-evaluating your story or the way in which it is told? Plenty of food for thought there!
So how do your characters react when their “life plan” ends up being disrupted, for better or worse, permanently or temporarily? Reaction to a crisis (even if that crisis is just in the mind of the character!) should show a great deal about them and their nature. How do others who were relying on them react to unexpected changes of plan?
And if the “where in the world am I going?” refers to an actual journey, how vital is that trip to your character’s development and the plot? What is special about the place they’re going to and, if they don’t know immediately, where are they going and who is sending them? The Lord of the Rings to my mind is the best quest story and while Frodo knew he was going to end up in Mordor had no idea how he was going to get there. Equally there are stories that revolve around the character only being given a bit of information here, another there and they have to piece it all together.
So where in the world are your characters going, literally and metaphorically? Are your characters turning out to be as you’d initially planned them or have they taken on a life of their own? The latter is a good sign, it means your characters are “alive”, there’s a spark to them that will come through on the page but does this mean re-evaluating your story or the way in which it is told? Plenty of food for thought there!
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