The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story

PLOT: Main characters

10 main elements of a main character.

1 - Weaknesses: Main characters should be flawed, but I'm not saying this because it will make them more realistic (though it will) - I'm saying they need to be flawed because if they're not, they shouldn't be the main character. 'Story' is another word for change, or more accurately, character growth. Not character as in 'fictional person', character meaning 'heart and soul'. Story is someone's character changing, for better or worse. Main character's at the beginning of the story are lacking something vital, some knowledge of how to live a better life, and this void is ruining their lives. They must overcome these weaknesses. Psychological and moral. Psychological ones only hurt the main character. Moral ones cause the main character to hurt other people.

2 - Goal: Characters exist because they want something. Desiring something, and the fighting against the opposition for that desire, is the lifeblood of that story, and because the character is the story, it's also desire that can breathe life into words on a page and can begin the process of creating a real person in a reader's mind. It's this 'desire for something' that sparks that first connection between reader and character. It makes us think "Well, now I have to find out if this person gets what they want." This is a powerful link. (How many mediocre movies do we suffer through when we could easily stop watching because we're still trapped by that question of "what happens next?" ) So if this is powerful enough to keep people watching an annoying movie, imagine how powerful it can be in an excellent story.

3 - Want: If the main character wants something, they want it for a darn good reason. Usually, they think that attaining the goal will fill the void they can sense in their lives, the deficiency they can feel, but don't know how to fix it. And they're almost always wrong. Getting the goal doesn't help anything; which is why, while pursuing that goal, they discover a deeper need that will heal them. Which brings us to...

4 - Need/Elixir: Main character's are missing something, a weakness in their innermost selves is causing them to live a less-than-wonderful-life. Through story, these main characters can be healed. Once they discover what's missing, and accept it, and change the way they live to include this truth they've uncovered... they're healed. Learning this truth, whatever it is, forms the purpose of the story for the main character. The reader and the character think the story is about achieving that big tangible goal the premise talks about; really, underneath it all, the story is about someone achieving a big intangible truth, that will ultimately save their life and future. Often, this need is exactly what the character fears or professes to hate.

5 - Ghosts: Ghost's are the main events in your character's past which mark the source of their weaknesses and strengths. Because these happened, the character becomes who they are. All we need to know about backstory are these moments because who the character became is all we care about. There's really only one ghost you absolutely need: the source of their moral and psychological weakness. Something happened that knocked the character's world off kilter, and everything from that moment onward has been tainted by what happened. This moment haunts them (hence the name), and hold them back from uncovering that need that will heal their weakness.

6 - True Character: These are strengths, values, convictions, fears, faults beliefs, worldview, and outlook on life that make the main character who they truly are.

7 - Characterization: This is everything on the surface of the main character. The way they look, talk, act etc. All of this originates from those deeper elements of their being, the strengths, values, ghosts, weaknesses, needs, that make them who they truly are. So often, you can think of this as a facade they're projecting, a way to shield the truth about themselves, how they wish to be perceived. The story and the other characters are slowly going to see deeper than this characterization, revealing more and more of the reasons it is the way it is. 

8 - Arc: If the character is going to change from 'incomplete person' to 'complete person' there's going to be a journey they go on to make that possible. The external story, the pursuit of that big tangible goal the premise is about, is causing an inner journey to take place. What they have to do in pursuit of that external goal will apply pressure to those weaknesses, and pressure causes change. 

9 - Changed Person: Who is the character going to be at the end of this story? They better be different, or else the story didn't work. How do they show how different they've become? What is the moral choice they make, that spins their trajectory from 'the future doesn't look so great' to 'happily ever after'? This should be known right away, maybe even before anything is settled about the character. This gives a distinct end goal, a way to work backwards, a destination in mind that you can navigate towards.

10 - Fascination/Illumination: The surface characterization and the brief glimpses of the true character underneath create curiosity in the reader/audience. What the character says, and the implied subtext beneath the dialogue creates a puzzle the audience wants to solve. Actions they take work the same way if the writer indicates there's a deeper motivation behind why a character behaves in the way they do, we buy into solving that mystery right away. We can't help it. "Who are you really? Why are you the way you are? An how is that going to effect the story?" These are all the unspoken, almost not consciously acknowledged, questions that fascinating characters provoke. Searching out meaning, connecting the dots to find the truth - we can't resist this. We're not fascinated by tons of backstory and exposition about a character, we're fascinated by the story, by mystery, by the technique of withholding information and having to interpret and hunt out the truth on our own. So gradually, the story and the characters will force that character to reveal a little more, and a little more until we have a complete picture of who this person is. It's crucial that this information isn't told up front. Gradually illuminate it. It's just like getting to know a real person.