How to Define Your Characters' Story Goals
Photo by Dorrell Tibbs on Unsplash
Are you struggling to finish your first draft, lost in an aimless middle act or lackluster conclusion? Is your manuscript worrisomely bland, lacking a strong narrative thread to draw readers from Point A to Point B? Writer, it’s time to rev up your story’s narrative engine…
The surest way to drive your plot forward is to arm your characters with goals they’re motivated to achieve. Pit your characters’ goals against one another (or against their internal needs), and you’ll create deliciously engaging conflict that keeps readers turning pages.
But how does one develop goals that effectively serve their characters and story? Is it even necessary to give every character a goal, for that matter? Let’s delve into this topic together, writer.
Story goals as a catalyst for conflict…
A story’s narrative engine is the force that gives its plot momentum, moving the characters through each act with clarity and direction. This force is also known as a story’s central conflict, the question that keeps readers engaged from beginning to end.
Will Frodo destroy the One Ring, saving Middle Earth from certain doom?
Will Poirot discover who killed Rachett on the Orient Express?
Will Noah and Ally ever find their happily-ever-after?
In genre fiction, the primary characters’ story goals serve as the catalyst that sparks this integral narrative engine. With strong story goals in place, conflict doesn’t just happen to your characters; your characters play an active role in creating (and resolving) it. In essence:
Character + Goal + Conflict = Plot
Two types of fuel can power a narrative engine: external conflict and internal conflict.
External conflict occurs when a character struggles to achieve their goal due to opposition from an outside force, typically another character. Think: Frodo vs. Sauron’s army or Poirot vs. Rachett’s killer. When a story’s central conflict is external in nature, the plot formula above can be read as:
Character + Goal + External Opposition = Plot
Stories driven by external conflict are also known as plot-driven stories. Defining characters’ goals in a plot-driven story is usually fairly simple. The protagonist wants something, the antagonist also wants something that happens to conflict with the protagonist’s goal, and boom! Conflict ensues.
However, characters’ goals can be more difficult to define in character-driven stories, i.e. stories that feature a central internal conflict.
Why internal conflict can muddy the character-goal waters…
Rather than dealing with external opposition, internal conflict occurs when a character struggles to achieve their goal due to some form of inner opposition. Think: Allie’s struggle to decide whether she’ll remain with her wealthy, devoted fiancé or leave him for the working-class man she loves.
When a story’s central conflict hinges upon an internal obstacle, the plot formula can be read as:
Character + Goal + Internal Obstacle = Plot
However, defining a character’s goal in stories driven by internal conflict can be tricky because what the character wants isn’t often want they need to find happiness or satisfaction.
In The Notebook, Allie’s internal conflict is fairly straightforward. She wants to be in a relationship with Noah, but external circumstances drive them apart. When life brings them back together again, Allie is engaged to another man, leaving her with a difficult choice: Is she willing to disappoint her devoted fiancé and risk her parents’ disapproval to marry the man she truly loves?
What Allie wants is what she needs to lead a happy life, but this isn’t often the case in character-driven stories. Take Talia Hibbert’s Get a Life, Chloe Brown for example. Early in the book, Chloe writes a to-do list of “Get a Life” experiences she believes will make her happy — experiences she previously avoided because of her chronic illness.
However, throughout her journey, Chloe comes to understand that what she needs to be happy is to take a risk on love, allowing others to nurture and support her. Chloe’s goal evolves throughout her story as she overcomes her primary internal obstacle: the false belief that she’s unlovable.
How to develop your characters’ story goals…
To determine effective goals for your characters, consider your story’s end game. What do you want each character to achieve, experience, or realize by the time their story ends? Will they shed their inhibitions and fall in love? Save the galaxy from invading aliens? Realize the value of forgiveness?
With this end game in mind, determine whether your character would desire this outcome in the early chapters of your book. If so, then you’ve identified the essence of your character’s story goal. Use the prompts in the following section to further strengthen the plot-driving power of this goal.
If your character’s goal in the early chapters of your book wouldn’t align with the end game you have in mind, then consider why this might be:
Is the character an antagonist who will fail to achieve their goal because the protagonist succeeds? If so, first identify your protagonist’s goal. Then consider what aim would best enable your antagonist to create conflict in your hero’s journey.
Does your character’s goal evolve because their original goal was misinformed? If so, consider what the character originally wanted and what new information would lead them to adopt an alternative mission.
Are you writing a character-driven story that highlights your character’s personal growth and transformation? If so, consider what fear or false belief might initially hinder your character from understanding what they truly need, then develop a goal defined by that internal lie.
As you consider the type of story you’re writing, you should have a general understanding of what your characters’ goals will be. For example:
If you’re writing romance, then your lovebirds will likely need to overcome their fears and false beliefs before they can admit their love for one another.
If you’re writing a murder mystery, then your protagonist will likely want to solve the murder while your side characters will have various reasons for hiding their connection to the case.
If you’re writing fantasy or science-fiction, then your heroes will probably set out on a quest to defeat a Dark Lord or obtain a life-changing magical object.
Of course, not all stories are so straightforward. The more literary your narrative, the less definitive your characters’ goals may be, as literary stories are defined by social commentary rather than plot.
Finally, know that developing your characters’ goals may take time. It’s okay to identify a basic version of your character’s goal (e.g. survive some sort of haunted-house situation) before refining it as you develop other aspects of your story.
Strengthening your characters’ story goals…
Story goals may be a catalyst for conflict, but they can fail to fan the flames of your story’s plot if they’re not properly developed. What makes an effective story goal tick? Five things, writer:
1) An effective story goal is specific
Ambitions are a dime a dozen, but goals? Goals prompt definitive action.
It’s hard to spin conflict out of a character’s desire to become an actress. But if that aspiring actress challenges herself to book a job in thirty days or give up acting for good, then you’ve got story fodder on your hands.
2) An effective story goal has meaning
Characters with strong goals have a powerful reason for pursuing them.
They risk death to defeat the Dark Lord because their village is at risk, they avoid their attractive new neighbor because their last partner ruined their self-esteem, and they hide their sexuality because their parents would otherwise kick them out of the house.
3) An effective story goal fuels internal conflict
Regardless of the type of your story you’re writing, a well-developed goal either enables or hinders your character’s personal growth.
Their quest to destroy the alien invaders forces them to become braver and more self-assured or their determination to fight their way to the top of the corporate ladder leaves them feeling lonely and depressed.
In either case, the character’s emotional turmoil serves as the beating heart of their story, the human connection that gives readers a reason to care.
4) An effective story goal is immediate
Good story goals drive the action from page one, or near enough to it. By the time the first act ends, your characters have clear goals upon which they’ve already begun to act, pulling readers deeper into your story.
5) An effective story goal breeds pressure
There’s nothing exciting about a character who easily overcomes a minor obstacle to achieve a simple goal.
Strong story goals keep readers turning pages because readers understand what’s at stake should the character fail to achieve their goal (or to realize its flawed nature). More importantly, the pressure to achieve their goals drives your characters into action that leads to engaging conflict.
Should every character in your story have a goal?
There are two types of goals in fiction: story goals and scene goals. The difference between these goals is fairly self-explanatory. A story goal is an aim your character seeks to achieve throughout their journey. It may evolve to some degree as they learn new information or overcome a limiting belief, but this goal drives the majority of your character’s actions.
A scene goal, on the other hand, is a character’s aim in any particular scene. This goal can and should change as your story progresses.
As people, we’re driven by desires. Whether those desires are to reconcile with our estranged father or to find the nearest coffee shop ASAP doesn’t matter. We all want something, typically multiple somethings — which is to say that every character in your story should have a scene-level goal.
However, some characters don’t exist to drive a story’s central conflict. Instead, they may offer the main character advice or serve as a minor obstacle in their journey, lend to the depth of your world-building, or otherwise support (rather than directly impact) the story’s narrative engine.
These secondary and tertiary characters should always have scene-level goals, but you don’t necessarily need to give them story goals. Doing so may create a subplot that lends additional interest to your story, but it can just as easily over-complicate an already complex narrative.
Proceed with caution, my friend. That said, remember that goals drive action.
Any primary or secondary character whose actions directly (and repeatedly) impact your story’s central conflict should have a story-level goal that determines their actions. Allow those goals to drive your story’s plot, and you’ll soon develop a story that readers won’t be able to set aside.
