Throw Obstacles at Your Characters

By developing obstacles, you add conflict and tension to the plot and keep your readers turning pages to see what happens next.

The first obstacle your character will encounter is that of the critical situation. This is the point in the beginning of your story at which the character's life changes.

Once you select the critical situation, get out your list of goals and select several that lend themselves to creating opportunities for relevant obstacles throughout the story. For example:

— Does the character have to be somewhere at a specific time? Make him late.

— Does the character need to find something? Make the search difficult or fruitless.

— Does the character need to be alone? Make sure she's surrounded by people.

Ideally, the character runs from one problem to another until finally he either succeeds or fails at his goal.

Create obstacles and progressively raise the stakes for your characters. Then you'll have characters your readers will want to root for.

Writer

Throw Obstacles at Your Characters

By developing obstacles, you add conflict and tension to the plot and keep your readers turning pages to see what happens next.

The first obstacle your character will encounter is that of the critical situation. This is the point in the beginning of your story at which the character's life changes.

Once you select the critical situation, get out your list of goals and select several that lend themselves to creating opportunities for relevant obstacles throughout the story. For example:

— Does the character have to be somewhere at a specific time? Make him late.

— Does the character need to find something? Make the search difficult or fruitless.

— Does the character need to be alone? Make sure she's surrounded by people.

Ideally, the character runs from one problem to another until finally he either succeeds or fails at his goal.

Create obstacles and progressively raise the stakes for your characters. Then you'll have characters your readers will want to root for.

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67.0K viewsDec 3, 2022 at 13:08