Today, the second day of the Plot Your Novel in Just Five Days challenge, is subtitled Researching the Route. Yesterday I had to formulate the Story Question, External Goal, and Internal Motivation for my main character. Today I had to consider what the character needs to do or have happen in order to meet her goals, what obstacles could get in the way (we are encouraged to brainstorm a list of as many as possible), and how she will overcome them.
I’m still not feeling that I have enough obstacles brainstormed. I plan to go back and add more to my list. But I don’t need so many of them just yet.
After writing this all out for ourselves, we were asked to post the goal, just one of the obstacles, and a way that the character will overcome it. Here is my answer:
“Clare’s external goal is to figure out who is sabotaging the college so she can keep the school open, with the ultimate goal of fulfilling her dream of becoming a starship captain. One obstacle is that a fire set by the saboteur endangers her roommate’s life; Claire overcomes that obstacle by rescuing her roommate.”
The Petrini Page 