The #1 Mistake Writers Make in Plotting—and the Simple Fix
by Zena Dell Lowe @ZenaDellLowe
I was sitting across from a writer at a recent conference, and she looked at me with that familiar, frustrated expression. “I know what happens in my story,” she said, “but I don’t know how to get there.”
Suddenly, I was reminded of something I’ve seen over and over again: How so many writers try to build a plot before they’ve built a character. They treat plot like it’s separate from the person experiencing it. And that’s why they continue to struggle. Here's a simple truth about story structure to help you stay on track.
At the end of the day, story is all about perspective—it’s about WHO the story is happening TO that matters.
When you approach your story from the primary character’s point of view, it helps you avoid a heap of common problems, such as:
- Passive main characters (who don’t drive the action)
- Episodic plotting (where events happen to the character, but they don’t cause them)
- Unmotivated scenes (no clear stakes or goal or urgency driving the character)
- Characters reacting to circumstances rather than shaping them
Let’s say you have a detective trying to solve a murder, but he’s just wandering from clue to clue. All he’s doing is reacting.
Now flip it—what if he’s pursuing justice because his partner was the victim? Now every clue is a personal choice, driven by emotion, and the plot becomes electric.
Why?
Because changing the motive can reposition the character as the engine of the story—but only if that motive then drives intentional, high-stakes choices.
In other words, just having emotional motivation doesn’t automatically make a character active. To really flip it, the detective’s actions must change. And that means:
- He doesn’t just follow leads—he pushes for new ones.
- He breaks protocol because the case is personal.
- He burns relationships, makes risky choices, maybe goes rogue.
- He pays a price for every step forward—because he’s driving the plot, not just walking through it.
Now we’re watching a man on a mission, not just a cop doing his job. That’s the difference between passive and active.
Let’s define the terms clearly:
- A reactive character responds to external events. Things happen to them. They follow clues only when they’re given clues. They go where the plot sends them.
- An active character makes things happen. They pursue goals, escalate tension, and create ripple effects with their choices. Even when reacting, they do so with intent, urgency, and personal stakes.
This shift is crucial because your plot should unfold according to the choices your main character makes under pressure in pursuit of their goal.
This means you can’t plot out your story separate from the character. Your plot depends entirely upon who your main character is. Your plot is your character’s journey.
Even a well-known story like The Pied Piper would change radically depending on which point of view you chose to tell it. The main plot elements might be the same—the town has a rat problem, hires the Pied Piper, refuses to pay, the children are taken away. These may be the main components of the story, but what the story is really about and how we will experience it as readers will change radically depending on who’s telling the story.
- Is it the Pied Piper's story?
- Or a member of the council?
- Or one of the mothers?
- Or one of the children?
Same events. Completely different story. Because whoever the main character is will radically transform the plot depending on the choices that character makes.
Again, just changing a motive doesn’t necessarily flip a character from passive to active. But when you know who your main character is and what drives them personally, you can have that character pursue their goal relentlessly over the rest of the story.
All great stories are character-driven because they’re about that character’s pursuit of one primary goal.
When you approach story with this perspective, you’ll end up with a plot that unfolds organically and feels emotionally satisfying.
I’ve read hundreds—maybe thousands—of scripts and manuscripts over the years, and I’m telling you: Most stories would dramatically improve if the writer just made this one adjustment.
This one adjustment will prevent you from ever getting lost, because you’ll always be able to go back and ask yourself, what does my character want?
When you can answer that question, you’ll be able to figure out what next steps your character should take to get it.
TWEETABLE
To find out more about Zena or her current courses and projects, check out her websites at WWW.MISSIONRANCHFILMS.COM and WWW.THESTORYTELLERSMISSION.COM
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