by Deb Elkink

Character, Plot, or Message-Based Novels

In the audience of a long-ago Christian writers’ conference, I sat entranced before a panel of book editors describing the types of manuscripts they were looking to acquire: character-driven novels and plot-based books, but never, ever stories written primarily for message. I knew right then I might be in trouble. You see, I begin plotting and peopling my fiction pieces with, first of all, an underlying but specific point I am dying to share.

Many authors don’t start to draft without a well-developed set of characters in mind whose goals form a predetermined plot, whereas other writers create these elements as they go along, writing by the seat of their pants, so to speak. I myself am more a plotter than a pantster (at least for my longer works). And I stand by my decision to write literature that comes out of a message bubbling up in my soul.

Not beginning a story focused on character means it’s imperative for me to understand how to create goals that move the plot along—first my own overarching goal (the message that in effect works out as theme) and then two levels of characterization fueled by the individual macro-goals and micro-goals of my story characters.

Authorial, Macro-, and Micro-Goals

In my novel The Red Journal, I purposed to write an allegory taking the shape of the Book of Hebrews (my authorial goal, as I wanted to point the readers to my subtle biblical theme: “The promise of entering His rest still stands”). Keeping this main theme in mind, I then created a suitable setting before plotting and populating it. I built each character’s main macro-goals (that is, driving motivations, such as my protagonist’s desire for long-term security in a home of her own), which in turn supported their micro-goals (that is, smaller objectives they hold at the beginning of each section and how these targets create problems for themselves or others, demanding response and redirection through new goals). Generally speaking, the protagonist’s goals must be constantly frustrated and the antagonist’s goals consistently fulfilled—until the conflict comes to a climax and resolution. I find, then, that my novels are definitely message (not character or plot) driven.    

To summarize so far:

• I first identify my authorial goal (resulting in theme or message of the story),
• I identify each character’s underlying macro-goal, then work towards supporting both message and goal while
• I plan chapters, sections, and scenes, building character personalities around such elements as virtues and flaws, background lives, and personal histories—each informing that section’s micro-goals.

Goals Interacting with Plot

So how do I decide what sort of goals a character should have? I begin by composing a list of the areas of human inner and outer life as it relates to the personalities and plot I’m coming up with. I might think of physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual aspects. That is, my goals tend to be about:

• the storyline itself (in The Red Journal, the two main characters are touring a mansion museum together, offering me a canvas upon which to express my main Hebrews goal),
• psychological needs (such as the sensual, controlling compulsion of my power-hungry antagonist, her macro-goal),
• relational aspects (for example, family connection of daughter, mother, grandmother, providing my protagonist’s macro-goal), and
• the spiritual realm (the wanderlust of my antagonist and the “holy homesickness” of my protagonist giving clear purposes to each).

Finally, in rounding out my planning pages for my story, I create brief notes outlining each scene, jotting down:

• the viewpoint character’s section goal or micro-goal from the preceding scene (for instance, my main character begins one scene determined to clean out her dead grandmother’s apartment),
• the conflict created by that last scene (she takes a bag of Gram’s garbage to the outside bin only to find her estranged mother lurking there; she pushes that woman into the path of a careening car), and
• the change in direction or new micro-goal this conflict creates (to justify her guilt, my main character lies to herself about other bloody images from her past that she wants to deny).

Here’s a great list of 101 character goals I happened upon online that act as a springboard for brainstorming, including such fun items as break a curse, find a muse, explore the world: https://www.dabblewriter.com/articles/101-character-goals-that-dont-involve-anyones-dead-wife. Although these seem to me more macro- than micro-goals, it’s a great place to start, and you can refine them for your specific scenes.

by Deb Elkink

Deb Elkink (The Third Grace, The Red Journal, Vagabond Come Home) writes from her cottage on the banks of a creek in the rolling hills of southern Alberta, a stone’s throw from the Montana border. Her award-winning fiction—literary with a theological twist—incorporates travel and taste buds and tumults of the heart.