THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

When you are first thinking about your protagonist, the main character, the hero of your story, you will have some impressions of him/her. You may have some idea what he/she wants to accomplish in the story, what obstacles stand in the way, and how things will turn out. You should know these things, in detail, in depth, before you start writing your novel. Your understanding of them can grow and change while you write, but you will get better results while you write the more you know before you write. Here are some questions or points to consider while thinking about and planning your novel, before you start writing. Refer back to your answers while you write: they will surely evolve over time.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STORY IN ONE SENTENCE?

This means reducing your story to its simplest terms. Your sentence would sound something like this:

"This is a story about a man who wants to build a house by the river."

Specify who the main character (MC) is ("a man" is good enough, unless you need to be more specific, such as "an engineer" or "a fisherman"), and specify what he/she WANTS or NEEDS.

WHY DOES THIS PERSON WANT OR NEED THIS THING?

This is very important. It is ultimately what will make your story compelling. There must be a reason why this person wants or needs this thing. There can be some background, another story that happened long ago, that you will not tell directly, but you may give hints about it, or have a character tell us about it in some scene, so that we will understand what happened before that makes this goal so important now. Whatever it is, the person must really want or need, not just sort of want or need. Why?

Human interest, human interest, human interest!

WHAT OBSTACLES STAND IN THE WAY?

Brainstorm a list of various things that might stand in the way of the MC achieving the goal that you stated. There could be a long list. Some will be minor things, easily overcome, more irritations than serious obstacles. Others will be more challenging. Some will be very challenging. And one or more might even be "make or break", the sort of stuff that could totally stop the MC from achieving the goal.

Pick the main obsctacle, the thing that could serve as the main conflict at the end of the story, the final conflict, the big climax. The MC will fight this obstacle at the very end, win or lose, winner take all. What is it?

WHAT STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES DOES YOUR MC HAVE?

Now, consider how you conceived of your main character. What sort of person is he/she? You have some idea. Flesh him/her out further. Get a clearer sense. Most importantly for plot purposes, look at the list of obstacles. Who would find those things to be obstacles?

If one obstacle to building a house by the river is having enough money to do it, then it helps if your MC is poor, so that having enough money is more of a struggle. Or, if your MC is well-off, maybe something happens first that puts him/her in a position of not having the money.

Look at the main conflict that you identified, the one you may use for the climax. What sort of character would find that obstacle challenging? If it's a fist-fight, then a body builder would probably fare well, while a 90-pound weakling who just recovered from a serious illness after a 3-month hospital stay would probably find the fist-fight much more challenging.

Thinking about the conflicts and your basic conception of the MC, make a list of strengths and list of weaknesses that you might apply to him/her in your story. Can you pick the one main strength necessary to overcome the one main conflict?

And, very interestingly, can you take that same strength, flip it over, and turn it into a weakness? For example, a person who is very strong-willed will have the inner strength to face a difficult circumstance regardless of what others think (a strength when confronting difficult circumstances). However, this is also a weakness because it means the person will be so strong-willed that he/she may not really listen to others, work well with others, take others into account. That strong will may make intimate relationships more difficult. We've all heard the story of the workaholic who had an amazing career with great success but lost his wife, the kids, the house, and everything that truly mattered to him because he spent way too many hours at the office. What is the flipside of the MC's greatest strength? This will be his greatest weakness relevant to the plot.

TIP: GREATEST WEAKNESS = LESSON TO BE LEARNED

Once you know the greatest weakness, you have identifed the lesson your MC must learn. As surely as his/her strength is great, it is brought down by this weakness. He/she must overcome this weakness, learn some way to overcome it, in order to finally be able to use that greatest strength to overcome the main obstacle in the climactic scene. The hardworking office guy? He has to learn that success at work is not the only success. His family matters, too. Once he learns that, you can bring things together for him, and enable him to use his strength to overcome whatever obstacle he faced. Maybe his goal was "success" but he wrongly thought it would come from so much hard work. Now he knows real success is when he comes home at the end of the day to a family that loves him. Once he reduces his workload, repairs his relationships, reclaims his place in the family, he comes home from work a real winner.

USE YOUR ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS TO DRIVE YOUR STORY PLANNING!

This stuff drives your story. It drives character development (your MC grows, learns, changes) and plot progression (list of obstacles in ascending level of difficulty = steps in your plot!). Use your answers to these questions when you contemplate your story. Apply the same basic concepts to your other primary characters, the antagonist (villain), the "love interest" (husband, wife, lover), and any other characters important enough to deserve attention, such as in subplots.

Use these concepts to help you build your 12-Step Outline!