Goals

"You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures." -Charles C. Noble

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted; I've been up at BYU.
Everyone has goals, right? Some of mine are to memorize eight or ten songs and play them in front of people, to get down my serves for tennis, and to do a lot of writing this summer. A lot of best-selling books open with a character's goal, such as Katniss's goal to survive, Harry's goal to escape Dudley's torment, and Percy's goal to graduate from seventh grade without getting expelled. None of these books scream it; we get to watch the characters fulfill the goals. (That's also an excellent example of showing, not telling.) Then we get to watch the characters succeed or fail in achieving that goal. Harry escapes Dudley and goes to Hogwarts, Katniss is doomed to a violent and painful death, and Percy is expelled.

Give your character a goal. One part of my book that I enjoy writing is that every character blocks another character's objective. For example, Ambrr and P'eter want to find Evelyn, but they can't get her because Stark is sheltering her. And Evelyn wants to get home, but if P'eter and Ambrr find her, she'll never get there. And that's just the beginning.

Goals are an easy way to give your character a bit more dimension. Try to keep it consistent with their personality. Good luck!

Kirah