On writing: Desire line #2

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Do you have a killer concept, a promising premise, and a protagonist worth a damn? Then you should determine the goal that your characters will pursue, and that will result in the plot of your story.

-How is the story about this one problem that complicates everything else?
-Though your heroes might initially perceive this challenge as an unwelcome crisis, it will often prove to be a crisis that ironically provides just the opportunity your heroes need, directly or indirectly, to address their longstanding social problems and/or internal flaws.
-Does this challenge represent the hero’s greatest hope and/or greatest fear?
-Your protagonist’s goal should inspire some kind of emotion. Anything relating to food, violence, sex or chaos is inclined to stimulate emotions at the base level. The most compelling emotion to evoke in writing is anger, so if you can include a bit of outrage, give it a try.
-How specific can you make the desire? Is there a specific moment in the story when the audience knows whether your hero has accomplished his goal or not? You should be able to photograph the moment.
-Are you sure the choices for the objects of desire aren’t wishy-washy? It shouldn’t be too nebulous, too intangible. Can you embody the desire in an object?
-How is the desire a visible one, something substantial, not esoteric or emotional or spiritual? You should be able to describe your hero’s goal to someone in a way that they can see it played out in their mind as if on the silver screen.
-How can you center the goal in the concept of your story?
-See if it could be a story that plays more gradually as the hero realizes the unforeseen true nature of the conflict. This only works if the hero seizes what seems like a positive (albeit intimidating) opportunity in the beginning, without realizing how much conflict it will cause.
-How do you make sure you have a single desire line that builds steadily in importance and intensity?
-How is at the beginning the desire at a low level, so the importance of the desire increases as the story progresses?
-How is it a single, escalating problem that your characters can’t avoid?
-Are you sure the problem has a power to grow, intensify and complicate?
-What prevents your protagonist from achieving his goal easily? Try to explain how the goal is difficult to achieve.
-You want to convey to the audience just how big and important and impossible your hero’s goal is. The reason for this is that the more impossible the audience finds the task, the more doubtful they become that the hero will succeed.
-Are you sure your chosen goal can sustain the entire novel from the first page to the last?
-See if you can make the obstacle goal something hard to want to do. For example, defeating your sister instead of a random person.
-How will your chosen goal explore the themes you want to include in the story?
-The desire should be accomplished, if at all, near the end of the story. If the hero reaches the goal in the middle of the story, you must either end the story right there or create a new desire line, in which case you’ve stuck two stories together.
-Decide whether or not, in detail, your protagonist succeeds in his external goal, and how either the character overcomes the external flaw or not.