before you can upend your protagonist’s plans, you need to know what those plans are—and, more important, why they matter to her. Otherwise, how will you know what she might do when said plans go awry? That’s why first we’ll get more specific about your protagonist’s initial agenda—what she enters the novel already wanting, and what specific misbelief holds her back. Then we’ll tackle the most important question of all: why she wants what she wants, and why that damn misbelief has such a strong hold on her in the first place.
