It’s common for a story to begin with a character facing a significant life change. But how do you present that challenge accurately and with the right kind of emotion. In a post on DIY MFA, Dianne Braley offers some tips. “There are so many reasons for starting over in life, and they all come with their own challenges and feelings depending on the why,” she says. “Exploring our emotions and looking back to times we’ve started again and changed the path of our lives from the smallest to the most significant ways can help our characters come to life on our pages.”
Her advice includes:
- Tap into your feelings, the good and the bad. You might find it easy to tap into surface feelings and motivations, but more challenging to dive into messy, uncomfortable emotions. Do it anyway. Don’t be afraid to portray emotions that are selfish, inconvenient, or negative.
- Clearly define the reason for a new beginning. “Whatever we are fleeing or moving on from is still a part of us and a part of our character’s lives,” Braley says. “The stakes are significant to define. Without knowing or suspecting what would befall us if we didn’t do what was needed, would any of us ever change?”
- Looking at the past. For the reader to understand the character’s decision to start over, they need to also understand the past.
- Has everything changed? Even when our characters make a significant change, obstacles and challenges continue to arise. Does your protagonist feel guilty for leaving someone behind or do they fear being followed? How hard was the transition? What mistakes will they repeat? “Tap into your feelings and use this to bring authenticity to both the character and the plot,” Braley writes.
- A glimpse into the future. Unless you’re writing a series, you shouldn’t leave your reader guessing what’s next for your hero. You can leave the story open-ended but some denouement and hint of the future is important for closure. “In real life and book life, we want to know, even in the slightest way, if the journey and all the obstacles were worth it,” Braley writes.
