Options for Goals in a Scene

 

THE POSSIBILITIES FOR scene goals are endless and very specific to your story. Your character can want anything in any given scene. But within that universe of options, you must narrow down the desires expressed in your scene to those that will drive the plot. Wanting to buy pink carnations for Mother’s Day is a worthy goal, but if your character’s mother is a nonexistent player in your story of a nuclear war, it’s not going to belong in your story—and certainly not as a scene goal.

Scene goals are the dominoes in your story’s plot. Each goal is a step forward in your story. One goal leads to a result that prompts a new goal and on and on. They knock into each other, one domino after another. If they don’t—if one goal is out of place in the overall story—the line of dominoes will stop and the story will falter, perhaps fatally.

 

Exercise #1: Refine your scene goals by asking the following questions.

 

Question #1: Which of the following does your protagonist want in this scene? Specify what it is.

 

• Something concrete (an object, a person, etc.).

 

• Something incorporeal (admiration, information, etc.).

 

• Escape from something physical (imprisonment, pain, etc.).

 

• Escape from something mental (worry, suspicion, fear, etc.).

 

• Escape from something emotional (grief, depression, etc.).

 

• Other.

 

Question #2: Which of the following methods does your protagonist use to attempt to gain what he wants in this scene? Specify how.

 

• Seeks information.

 

• Hides information.

 

• Hides self.

 

• Hides someone else.

 

• Confronts or attacks someone else.

 

• Repairs or destroys physical objects.

 

• Other.

 

Question #3: If applicable, ask yourself what goal your antagonist has in this scene that causes him to oppose the protagonist’s goal. Which of the following does your antagonist want in this scene? Specify what it is.

 

• Something concrete (an object, a person, etc.).

 

• Something incorporeal (admiration, information, etc.).

 

• Escape from something physical (imprisonment, pain, etc.).

 

• Escape from something mental (worry, suspicion, fear, etc.).

 

• Escape from something emotional (grief, depression, etc.).

 

• Other.

 

Question #4: Which of the following methods does your antagonist use to attempt to gain what he wants in this scene? Specify how he tries to get it.

 

• Seeks information.

 

• Hides information.

 

• Hides self.

 

• Hides someone else.

 

• Confronts or attacks someone else.

 

• Repairs or destroys physical objects.

 

• Other.

 

Exercise #2: Once you’ve identified your scene’s goal, stop and ask yourself the following questions:

 

Question #1: How does the protagonist’s goal make sense within the overall plot?

 

Question #2: How is the goal inherent to the overall plot?

 

Question #3: How will the goal’s complication/resolution lead to a new goal/conflict/disaster?

 

Question #4: If the goal is mental or emotional (e.g., be happy today), what is its physical manifestation (e.g., smile at everyone)?

 

Question #5: How does the success or failure of the goal directly affect the scene narrator?

 

Reference: Structuring Your Novel, chapter 15, pages 193-200.