World-Building 5: Paths and Prospects

[Prof. Sky Alton]

All characters need some kind of goal to aspire to, even if that’s just to survive from one day to the next. Understanding these goals and what drives characters is a large part of forming that bond with a reader that you want to establish. They can give you a point to keep referring back to when you’re not sure if a character would act in a certain way; also, they give you instant tensions or exciting plot points as one character's goal interferes with someone else’s. While these goals have a lot to do with the characters themselves, they also should have a lot to do with the world they come from. Someone’s ambitions are going to be informed by what they can realistically (or unrealistically) achieve where they are.

If you want to create an underdog or someone longing to escape a particular situation, you need to establish just what disadvantages them in this context to make a reader care about their struggles. It also helps you immeasurably because you can think of all sorts of nasty ways to set your character back or frustrate them if you know the ins and outs of how achievement works in your world. It’s also a good way of showing how a character’s priorities might change from the start to the finish. Even if your characters initial goal ends up being totally turned upside down by future events, understanding what they wanted (or thought they wanted) to start off with does a lot of the groundwork with your reader.

For this final prompt, I’d like you to think about several goals someone could have in your world. They could be very ambitious (world domination) or really quite ordinary (starting a business). Where might they start from and how might they achieve them? What’s likely to get in their way? How could they impact on those around them? Is this a goal lots of other people have or is it something quite unique? Anything is fair game.

Your piece should be at least 200 words in length. You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.