In the overall story, your character has his external goal. In this chapter, he has a more immediate, less motivating, but still important goal. He believes (and maybe he’s right) that by achieving his in-chapter goal, he’ll get one step closer to achieving his external goal. In each scene within each chapter, he has an even more immediate, but

Simply put, a story is a character arc—a personality making a progression from an emotional or psychological Point A to an emotional or psychological Point B. Story is all about internal growth, not external events. It’s a character’s struggle to shed old behaviors or beliefs that have held him back from becoming his “true self”—the person he was

Therefore, the way to create an arc—the way to invest a reader in your book—is to start with a character that needs some improvement.

They’re vying to determine the main character’s fate—whether he remains cursed or not. The external goal is control over the main character’s reality.

When you start with a badly flawed character, the arc will be all about correcting that flaw—about your character growing into a better person, the kind of mythic hero archetype he was “meant to be” but couldn’t become until this adventure—the events of your plot—pushed him to change himself for the better.

The very best yardstick for determining a main character is the presence of a serious flaw. Does this character have an inner problem that’s impacting his life or the lives of the people he loves? Then he’s in need of a hero’s journey: let’s give him an outline!

Story itself is a particular thing—a very specific something that we recognize by instinct.

The external goal should provide an opportunity, eventually, somewhere along the path of the book, for your character to recognize her internal flaw. It should be a desire that forces her to confront her weakness, and to decide whether or not she’ll embark on a journey to overcome that weakness and emerge with hero status.

In order for a flaw to feel compelling, it has to provide an obvious obstacle to your character’s growth. It has to hold him back in some meaningful way, keeping him trapped in an uncomfortable state.