What is a protagonist, and does your story need one? What are the stakes your protagonist needs? Who is the right person to tell your story? And how is a protagonist different from a point of view character? And ultimately, do you have to discover one thing before another in your pre-writing process?

What is a character arc? What are the three kinds of character arcs and four main components of a character arc? How can you use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help with pre-writing? And how present does your characters wound need to be? Should you state it outright? Or should you weave it into the narrative? How many of your characters need wounds? And how can it affect your antagonist? Finally we discuss the details of finding your wound, and what it might do to your character.

What is the difference between script writing for the screen, and novel writing? How do the writing processes overlap? And how beneficial is the established collaboration within screenwriting? What are the benefits (and pitfalls) of the technicalities and structure of screenwriting as a novel writer? And are we tapping into our knowledge of film? Go out and study structure, story, and screenwriting! An informed writer is a better writer!

Kathryn explains an exercise in pre-writing she has been using to deepen her character arcs and relationships within her novel. We explore how it would affect sub-plots, character relationships, and arcs. What problems could this help you avoid? And how could you use it to develop your antagonist as well? We talk about how Kathryn got into this kind of development, and whether or not it would work for every kind of story!

How do you end your story? This week we talk endings and end notes. Don’t forget those loose ends. Tie them up!

Writers are naturally students of human nature. How can we develop our characters if we aren’t naturally curious about people? We three writers find ourselves putting our friends, family, neighbors, even strangers under our version of the microscope. What do we–and our stories–gain as observers of human nature? Where does our authenticity come from as writers? Is there a method to our madness? 

Does world building or character development paralyze your first drafts? How should you address this in pre-writing? How do you identify whether or not something is integral to your story? When it is, how do you make sure you get it right? And how should you approach research?