Character Motivation: What is Her True Journey?

Some people believe that we incarnate in the world to heal a specific wound that, at birth, we forget. Most of us spend our lives unconscious of this deeper destiny.

The opposite is true when writing a story. What happens throughout the story makes it impossible for the protagonist to remain unconscious. The Crisis in the Middle forces the protagonist to consciousness. This gives her the ability to face the greatest challenge of the entire story -- the Climax at the End and not only survive but to triumph.

The Climax at the End usually hits a scene or chapter from the last page of the project. By then, the protagonist has learned everything she needs to know, scene-by-scene throughout the entire story, to do what she came here to do.

The End feels inevitable because every scene that comes before the Climax has led the reader scene-by-scene to that very moment.

ASSIGNMENT 

Answer the following:
1) What is your protagonist's true journey? Purpose?
2) What is it that only your protagonist can do? Deliver? Conquer? Overcome?
3) What is the gift only your character has (granted they have to go through all the trial and challenges throughout the story to get there, but...)?
4) Why your character?
(Excerpts from the Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories)

Today I write.
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

A Coming of Age Story or Rediscovering a Lost Skill?

She's confused about how best to begin her middle-grade historical novel.

After  many drafts, she's perfected the plot and structure of her story and seamlessly incorporated a fascinating historical character and event into a contemporary story. Now, as we consider only the first quarter of her story, it becomes clear that the writer has not yet completely determined the depth of who her protagonist truly is.

She tells me the young male protagonist use to be brave and then lost his courage due to the backstory wound inflicted by the sudden death of his father. Yet, as she conveys her scenes to me, it becomes clear that there is confusion between whether he has always been small and scared versus having once been brave and then lost his courage.

As she decides which traits he embodies at the beginning of the story, she then must decide whether those traits will change and develop over the course of the entire story and lead to his ultimate transformation or whether old strengths that have been lost due to his backstory will be rediscovered along the way. This is a subtle yet pivotal difference that affects the tone and emotion of the entire story.