Define Your Character’s Goals Before You Start Writing a Story
Know what is driving your character
The largest element that moves your story forward is the character’s goal, or what the character wants. A character without a defined goal is aimless and leaves you without a story.
One memorable novel that I’ve read many times it Post Office by Charles Bukowski. I read it many times, not because it’s a favorite novel of mine (though I do like it a lot), but because I assigned it to my students and for many semesters it was on my curriculum.
It’s a story about a drunk who ends up working for the post office. The main character, Henry is an aimless, lost soul who is a misogynist pig with no apparent goals but to get drunk, have sex, gamble, and waste away his life. These are not goals to hang a story on.
So, how can a book like this with a character like this get published and do well in the marketplace? And Post Office did do well. It became Bukowski’s first published novel. But I just said that your character has to have a goal. And Henry is a character who just wants to get by in life and lead a hedonistic life. Why am I using him as an example then?
Do characters have to want something or not?
