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Giving your characters urgent goals will help make your story dramatic and interesting.  For example, let’s say John wants to go to prom, but his parents won’t let him unless he does well on a chemistry test.  Will he actually go to prom?  That’s a dramatic question.

Unfortunately, many manuscripts introduce the character without a goal, hoping that readers will trudge along until the character actually has something to do.  Don’t trap yourself into something like this.

CADET DAVIS:  In this first chapter, your hero doesn’t do very much except for walking across town and chatting with another character.  What’s the point?  What’s he trying to accomplish?

AUTHOR:  He’s introducing himself and the setting.

CADET DAVIS:  That’s what you’re trying to accomplish.  What’s his goal?  What’s at stake for this character?

AUTHOR:  Well, nothing, not yet anyway.  In a few chapters, he’ll find out that he has to realize his destiny by going on a quest to stop the villain.

CADET DAVIS:  If nothing’s at stake now, why will readers find this chapter interesting?

AUTHOR:  *silence*

Unfortunately, if publishers or readers find your manuscript’s first few pages boring, they will not keep reading.  From the earliest part of your story, your main character needs to have a goal.

So what do you do if your hero doesn’t know what his main goal is yet?  For example, at the start of Harry Potter, Harry doesn’t know that his primary goal is to “go to Hogwarts and thwart Voldemort.”  He doesn’t even know that he’s a wizard.  J.K. Rowling used temporary goals to tide us over.  For example, “read the letter that Uncle Vernon is trying to hide from you.”  Those goals made him interesting even though we didn’t know anything about his magical destiny.

What sort of temporary goals work? Anything that has high-stakes for the character.  It doesn’t have to be life or death, of course. (Harry Potter only needed to obtain a letter!)

What sort of temporary goals don’t work?  Joy rides.  If a character is trying something just for kicks, or to have a good time or just because he’s curious, the stakes are probably not high enough for him for us to care.  One main exception to the rule against joy rides is that sometimes, deep into a superhero story, you can briefly show the character trying out his new superpowers.  That will stall the plot, but that’s mostly OK because we need to know what the hero is capable of.  Also, by that point of the story, you better have convinced readers that you have a plot or you are screwed anyway.

A Chosen One is a hero that is passively chosen for greatness, like Eragon.  Readers typically prefer characters that make their own destiny.  This quiz will help you diagnose and fix the problem.

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Many stories create suspense by withholding important information (like the killer’s identity, in a mystery) until the end. But publishers usually reject works that are cryptic. How can you make your work intriguing (good) rather than cryptic (painful)?

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Many beginning authors think that they can create a brilliant plot by adding layers of deception, betrayal, double-agents and triple-agents, lies wrapped within feints, etc. Err, no. That’s actually a recipe for a horribly convoluted plot. Rather than seeming brilliant, your plot will probably come off more like this assessment of Metal Gear Solid.

These convoluted characters usually try to show that their characters are brilliant because they make freakishly accurate predictions about what other characters will do. At its worst, that devolves into a game of “I know you know I know” that will leave your readers writhing in agony. A genuinely brilliant character should use plans that leave the audience wondering why they didn’t think of that. Typically those plans are simple and rely on predictions that seem obvious in hindsight. Let me demonstrate.

In Justice League, Batman tries to find the Joker by convincing his assistant that the Joker has ignominously replaced her with another woman. (See 4:24-4:54 here– if the link doesn’t work, check the bottom of the page*).  A mediocre writer would have ended this scene with the assistant telling Batman where the Joker is.  Fortunately, that doesn’t happen.  The resolution is that Batman only makes her slightly more distrustful of the Joker.  She goes to confront the Joker about the new girl and… Batman follows her!  You can see that glorious scene here (1:45-2:25).

*TRANSCRIPT, in case the link is broken.

BATMAN: Where’s Joker?

HARLEQUIN: After all these years, you still think I’d give up Mr. J.

BATMAN: Why not?  He gave you up.

HARLEQUIN: That was a long time ago.   He’s changed.  We’ve been to couple’s counseling.

BATMAN: I’m talking about right now.  Haven’t you been watching?  [He points at a screen showing Joker with his new female sidekick.]  The way he touches her hair.  The way he rubs her shoulders.

HARLEQUIN: You mean Ace?  She’s just a kid.

BATMAN: Really?  Then why is she with him when you’re in the cold?

[Harlequin slaps Batman, but goes to confront the Joker.]

Let’s say you’re writing a book about a candidate trying to join the Navy SEALs.  If his quest gets too hard, he can always walk away.  That’s a lousy plot.  There’s no consequence for failure!  If failure is an acceptable option, we probably won’t care whether the character succeeds.  You can make this story more dramatic by adding personal urgency.  For example, perhaps the SEAL candidate had a brother or father that died as a SEAL and he sees it as his life’s mission to finish the job.

Here are some other suggestions to keep your characters in the story.

1. There is nothing to return to. The Empire killed Luke’s family.  (Careful, this is a bit cliche).
2. Too much is at stake to walk away. In The Day After Tomorrow, the protagonist doesn’t have to trek from Philadelphia to Manhattan, but it’s the only way to save his son.  Alternately, the characters in LOTR have no choice but to fight their genocidal enemies.
3. The character physically cannot walk away. If your character is in prison, he can’t avoid the local thugs.  His only choices are submission and resistance.  Alternately, she may be trapped on a spaceship with a killer alien.

John August did a post on writing a plot that isn’t contrived.  He focused on the role of coincidence. I found it highly useful…

Given a choice, try to find cause and effect. One event happens because of something else we’ve seen — ideally, something the hero himself has done.

Instead of having the hero accidentally overhear a key conversation, get him actively trying to listen. Or have an interested third party steer him in that direction — perhaps for his own reasons. At every juncture where a reader could ask “Why did that happen?”, try to have an answer that isn’t, “just because.”

CADET DAVIS ADDS: The most contrived plot I can think of is Heroes season 2.  Please consider the following…

1. In the last two minutes of the first season, Sylar is nearly killed by a crowd of ten heroes but somehow slinks away into a sewer.  No one, including a psychopathic MPD victim or the police officer who was seriously wounded by Sylar, thinks to make sure that he’s dead or otherwise accounted for.
2. The Company captures Sylar and keeps the formerly-superpowered serial killer in a zero-security facility with a single attendant that is tasked with restoring Sylar’s powers. There’s no reason to suspect that Sylar would have made a good employee under any circumstances, but how were they hoping that this would turn out?
3. Sylar kills the attendant and walks out of the facility.  He tries to return to the US to find Suresh, but he drops of famine along the side of the road.  The first person to come across him is Maya, another superpowered person that’s looking for Dr. Suresh’s father.  What a lucky break!  Sure, why not come along?
4. In spite of being wanted for murder and presumably not wanting to attract suspicion, Maya and her brother take Sylar along.  Do not pay attention to the gringo in the back seat!
5. Peter’s failure to consider the possibility that Adam is evil starts out as implausible and gets so unbelievable that it strains the suspension of disbelief.  Peter knows the following facts:  The Company has held the virus for 30+ years without using it.  Shortly after Adam escapes, the virus is unleashed.  If you’re wondering whether Adam’s escape is related to the release of the virus, you’re already 5 episodes smarter than Peter.

Don’t have your characters spend too much time musing about events that have already happened in the story.

When characters are preoccupied with something that’s already happened, the author has probably lost track of where the story is going. You can give your story forward momentum by drawing our attention to what’s just around the corner. If someone tried to kill the protagonist yesterday, we will care more about what the assassins are planning for tomorrow than what the character thinks about the attack today.

If you are interested in building on what has already happened in the story, it will probably be more effective to try to have your characters investigate the mystery. But an investigation is very different than just musing with your friends and confidantes. An investigation will add evidence, either by looking for clues or trying to get witnesses to talk. Investigations are superior to musing because the search for information adds more to the story than just talking about what has already happened. (There’s also more potential for conflict, particularly if someone’s trying to sabotage the search).

Here are a few common scenarios that frequently lead to characters musing about the past.

1. Musing about the death of a loved one, particularly one who has sacrificed himself to save the protagonist
2. Romantic failures.
3. “Why me!?!”

How to Improve Your Characters

1. How to Name Characters (Superheroes and Otherwise)
2. How to Develop Interesting Characters– Easily!
3. List of Character Attributes
4. Writing Male Characters
5. Please Avoid Modeling Your Characters on Your Friends
6. Don’t Make Your Villains Unnecessarily Evil
7. NEW: Why Secret Origins Usually Fail (”Leia’s my sister!?!”)
8. NEW: How to Use Characters with Mental Disorders

These Characters Usually Kill Manuscripts

1. Children
2. Mentors
3. Mary Sues (for definition, hold cursor here)
4. Part-Time Dragons (for definition, hold cursor here)
5. Homo Superiors (for definition, hold cursor here)
6. NEW: Immortals

How to Improve Your Titles

1. 10 Words that Will Probably Ruin Your Title
2. 10 Common Mistakes of Novel Titles
3. How to Write Titles That Sell (Novels and Chapters)
4. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 1)
5. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 2)
6. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 3)
7. Your Title is Bad… (Part 4)
8. Your Title is Bad… (Part 5)
9. Your Title is Bad… (Part 6)
10. Your Title is Bad… (Part 7)
11. Your Title is Bad… (Part 8)
12. Your Title is Bad… (Part 9)

Structuring Your Story

1. How to Write Strong Introductions (Novels)
2. The Five Worst Novel Introductions
3. Don’t Wait to Introduce Your Main Character
4. NEW: Make Your Story Interesting with Urgent Goals
5. NEW:  Common Problems with First-Person Narration
6. NEW: Common Problems with Third-Person Narration
7. Your Introduction Should Not Read Like an Atlas
   
8. Organizing Your Plot: Five Kinds of Central Plots
9. Story Structure
10. Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Story

How to Avoid Common Writing Mistakes

1. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 1)
2. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 2)
3. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 3)
4. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 4)
5. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 5)
6. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 6)
7. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 7)
8. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 8)
9. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 9)
10. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 10)

Dialogue

1. Avoid These Common Dialogue Mistakes
2. Don’t Use Bad Accents
3. Keep Your Dialogue Tight

Other Writing Mechanics

1. How to Write Gripping Scenes
2. Write Concisely!
3. Eliminate Gimmicks in Your Writing
4. Don’t Abuse “There’s”
5. 9 Words That Should Never Start a Sentence
6. A Few Notes on Punctuation
7. NEW:  Make Your Story Intriguing, Not Cryptic

Editing and Refining Your Work

1. 100 Questions to Test Your Story
2. Style Checklist
3. How to Make the Most of Beta Reviews
   
4. How to Evaluate Your Writing with Google Analytics

Website Design

1. How to Format WordPress Text for Your Website
2. Organizing Your Site
3. NEW: You Can Do Better Than Archives
   
4. SOON: Picking a WordPress Theme

Marketing

1. How to Design Strong Header Art
2. Promotional Events that Work

Social Commentary in Fiction

1. So You Want to be an Opinionated Author
   
2. Writing About Racism
3. How Valid is Diversity Criticism?