What is Your Protagonist's Key Goal?

If you know your protagonist's key goal or final outcome in advance, you can work towards strengthening everything that takes them towards it (one conflict after another). Again, if you know what that key goal or outcome is (if you already have it in mind), you can avoid/remove anything that doesn't serve to move the plot forward!

Simple, eh? Well, OK, it can take some thought, and some practice!

First, you need to decide what the key goal is. It could be that your very normal character becomes a detective or world-saver, and by the end of the story the crime is uncovered, spies apprehended, aliens despatched back from whence they came . . . or it could be a more subtle outcome. Perhaps your protagonist is fearful of everything and feels hopeless and trapped, but by the end of the story he finds courage and hope to face the future. It may very well be both! Often in novels there is both an action-related and a spiritual/moral goal. In the last podcast we discussed your character’s evolution (if you haven’t listened, do check it out). This is part of the goal!

Your protagonist might not know what his goal or outcome is, of course. It may be a big surprise to him! It may be that at the beginning of the story he lives in an abandoned building, but by the end he has a safe home. It may be that he has no idea that God exists, but by the end of the story she has discovered that he has a Father in heaven who cares for him. Perhaps at the beginning of the story he thought his goal was to be a millionaire, but by the end he realises that's not all there is to life. There are endless possibilities, as endless as human imagination!

If you already have a manuscript, take a long, hard look at it. Does your protagonist have a key goal? Or what is your final outcome for him? If there is no clear goal, do you think he or she needs one? Once you've thought that through, go back through your story and see if there’s anything that needs strengthening – or cutting!

If you're not really sure what I'm talking about, here's a tip to help you: read a selection of children's novels and decide what the protagonists' key goals are. (You can buy Christian books from the Dernier Publishing website.) Have the authors managed to keep your interest while their protagonists are reaching their goals? Jot down your thoughts in a journal, so you can learn from them!

We go into plotting and planning your story in much more detail in the Write for a Reason Academy so if you feel you could do with some help, why not take a look?

In the meantime, enjoy a bit of goal setting, see where it takes you. :-)

Children need books that will tell them of God's love. Could you write a story where children find peace?

Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me.' Christian writers, let's keep writing stories that will show children that there is another way – that the light of Jesus shines, even in the deepest darkness. 

If you’d like lots more free writing tips, hop on over to write-for-a-reason.com, where you will find lots more resources and encouragement to help you write excellent, relevant, fun novels and get them into your readers’ hands.

If you haven’t yet done my free course, Gripping Beginnings, you can sign up and start im