Fiction Writing Tips: What Is Your Hero Pursuing?

by Henry McLaughlin @RiverBendSagas

We’ve all heard story is about conflict and tension. And that is definitely true.

Stories about happy people living in Happy Valley don’t excite readers. Frankly, they can be boring. 

The story becomes a story when something disrupts the status quo. As John LeCarré once said, “The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the dog’s mat—now that’s a story.” 

Here’s another way to look at it: Stories are about the pursuit of happiness. It’s even in the Declaration of Independence. Happiness is unique to each individual. 

Story is about more than resolving conflict. It’s about our hero pursuing happiness and the challenges and obstacles she must overcome. Sometimes all she wants is to return to the way things were before. Other times, she wants to correct an injustice. Still other times, it can be about rescuing someone or something of value, a rescue that entails risk and the real possibility of failure. And death. Remember, our hero must face death either physically, emotionally, psychologically, or relationally.

At the basics, we can look at a novel as two people—the protagonist and the antagonist—pursuing happiness. The plot in its simplest form is they both want happiness, but in the end only one can achieve it. And achieving it will be at the expense of the other. For example, two people are running for President of the United States. Each must overcome obstacles such as raising money, convincing voters their vision for the country is better than their opponents. Only one can win.

As Steven James wrote in his craft book, Trouble Shooting Your Novel, “Story is about more than conflict—it is desire in a specific direction.” That desire is happiness in whatever form it takes for the hero. And, as Steven wrote, “Pursuit is action with intention.”

When we’re developing our story, we need to ask what happiness is our hero pursuing? What does she have to do to get her happiness? Our responsibility as authors is to do all we can to stop her from getting there.

What is the happiness beyond our hero’s grasp? Why is it important to her? In our story, we want to focus on the concrete ways she pursues it—keep the action believable and her intention clear. 

We need to establish why she seeks it. What is her motivation for the goals or purpose she is seeking to achieve at story’s end? The motivation must be believable in the context of the story. We need to avoid overly focusing on explaining the whys because will this slow our story down by making it too introspective.

How does the idea of having your hero pursue happiness change the way you look at her and how you see your story playing out?

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Fiction Writing Tips: What Is Your Hero Pursuing? from author Henry McLaughlin (@RiverBendSagas) on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Henry’s debut novel, Journey to Riverbend, won the 2009 Operation First Novel contest.

Henry edits novels, leads critique groups, and teaches at conferences and workshops. He enjoys mentoring and coaching individual writers. 

Connect with Henry on his BLOG, TWITTER and FACEBOOK.