Agendas

"I want what I want and I want what I want when I want it." This simple phrase is the key to all good stories. Want, desire and agenda are the backbone to what drives a character's choices. Often as writers we tend to try and figure out our characters' goals, their life purpose that is hopefully fulfilled through the story. However, a life "goal" for the character is often daunting, and sometimes too much of a bill for the purchase of your story. Allow me to elucidate.

James is an average 14-year-old boy going to Saberwood Middle School. He has a crush on his classmate Melissa, who does not share his feelings. By any means necessary he will try and woo his true love to his heart, initiating crude (if albeit kindhearted) gestures of affection towards her. He is very much into basketball as well, and hopes someday to become an NBA all-star. Also at the same time, his mother is struggling with cancer and he prays earnestly for her recovery. Through the entire story James does whatever he can to win the heart of Melissa, and at the end he finally manages to get a quick hug in the hallway and his day is made.

In this silly little story, James' life goal is to become an NBA all-star, not become the sweetheart of Melissa. However what he wants in the story setting is Melissa and nothing else. Everything borders on her: his failures, his victories, his moods, his performance. His want for Melissa to love him back is so strong that it overshadows perhaps greater and more important desires in his life (such as his basketball career and his mother's illness.) In the story, James' passion is for Melissa to care about him, and it is this want that drives the story.

In your novel, your character may not be the most important person in history. He may not be Harry Potter, but rather like Bilbo Baggins. He may have a great big life goal, like making something of his life better than his father's past, or fulfilling a lifelong dream to become a world-renowned scientist. These are great life goals, but maybe you as the author don't want to write such a grand-scale story. Maybe your story is like James', where the entire plot revolves around the puppy love of two 14-year-olds.

Sometimes, stories don't NEED to be epic and grand-scale to be great. Your book doesn't have to extend into a 7-book series, or have 40-page chapters, or involve a massive universe of complex beings and history and lifestyles. The fact is, my friends, your characters and what they want affects everything. If your character wants a girlfriend, he doesn't have to save the galaxy in order to achieve that. Find something for your character to WANT, and let him achieve that.

The same goes for the enemies, villains, antagonists etc. They don't WANT what the hero wants, so they will fight against him. They may not be the most evil beings in the universe, but simply have contrasting opinions and desires than your hero.

Enter: The Hero

So you want to build a hero, huh?  Well what makes a good main character? First, look at several examples of other protagonists (main heroes) that have made history.

The Chosen Ones
Did Harry Potter pop into your mind when you read that phrase? The 'chosen one' protagonists are characters that right off the bat are special. They're born usually with cataclysmic events, or at least something drastic happens to them and their family when they're young, and they eventually learn that they are the chosen one: the hero who is meant to save the world, the only one who can. As likely as not, this character will have suffered childhood tragedy, usually involving the death of one or more parents. The character lives with an uncle, aunt or half-brother, until he is told by a wise, bearded man that he is the chosen one, destined to save the planet.

The Ordinary, Everyday Heroes
Not all heroes are destined to save the world (or galaxy). Many of them are normal, everyday humdrum people living normal, everyday humdrum lives. Frodo Baggins and Lucy Pevensie are good examples of this. These are normal people who are living normal lives as best as they can, when suddenly they are thrown into a world they didn't know about and become key parts of a grand adventure. Frodo didn't know he'd save the world, and Lucy for sure didn't know she'd become a queen in another world. But such ends the fates of our heroes who started out as seemingly insignificant folk.

The Eyes
This is an interesting character type, because it's the one that the world does not revolve around. These types of characters often play some key role to the story, but are not the 'main character' of the story. The adventure is seen through their eyes and emotions; they are a pair of glasses that you view the story through. Often with these characters, the reader is not able to see everything that goes on, but everything that happens to this particular character.

While you're planning for your book, whether you write by the seat of your pants or like to carefully plan out every detail before actually writing, you need a character profile. Chances are you've already thought of this, and seen something like this:

Exhibit A: The basic character profile

However grand this may look, often I find that this doesn't create a believable character. This is a cardboard cutout. 2-dimensional profiles create 2-dimensional characters. Your character won't be anything more than your profile makes him to be. So rather than this sheet or similar ones, try making your own (or adding to an existing one.) Human beings are so much more complex than their eye color and favorite food. What are their pet peeves? Quirks? Do they prefer cold weather or warm? Are they allergic to dairy products? Do they like fast cars? Are they closet fans of disco music? All these things are components to  making a great character. And don't start with one quirk, make a whole list! People are weird and strange and have many things about them that make them unique--and your character should be no different. Maybe your character secretly knows the piano or practices ventriloquism. Whatever your character's quirks are, they don't have to play into the story except to make the character unique and real.

As you make your character profile, there are questions you have to ask yourself:
Is my character believable and unique?
Do people like my hero?
Will the readers cry if he dies?
Are the readers emotionally attached to my character?

Your hero has to be believable and down-to-earth--relatable and emotionally attachable. Without a full and fleshed-out character, your reader won't be attached to your story, and cannot be fully immersed in what happens. Want your story to be a success? Make that character real!

The Noob Author

"Todo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"You're a wizard, Harry."

"I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure."

All good stories begin somewhere. It's not always "once upon a time," either. Sometimes the best adventures begin in the places you wouldn't expect, such as a galaxy far, far away or a hole in the ground. All stories begin with an idea: a little spark of the imagination, a phrase, person, situation or image that flashes into an ordinary person's mind.

That's when your troubles begin. For once the bug has entered your mind, it will haunt you day and night, possessing your every thought; infiltrating your workplace, classrooms, dreams and every activity you will ever do. This is how all great books begin.

A character is made, a plot developed, a world saved. In theory, at least. Now is the time to write, write, write. Pushing past all obstacles, slugging through the Doldrums, chugging coffee. You must do everything you can to keep the ideas alive and flowing, fighting on through brilliant ideas and gaping plot holes in order to get your characters safely to the end.

Writing takes on many names in the process of creating a story. Difficult; boring; exhilarating; painful; genius; dead--all different phases of the writing journey. Ernest Hemingway said,

"There's nothing to writing. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." And he was right.  

No epic has ever been made overnight, and it is the sheer determination and willpower that you own yourself that will get you to the end. So begin this journey understanding that you will bleed, cry, throw your hands up in frustration, take a break for coffee and then do the whole entire process over again. 

Never give up, never get in. That story, that bug inside of you HAS to get out, and only you can set it free. 

Get writing!