By now it probably seems so insanely obvious that a writer needs to know what their protagonist wants, and what misbelief stands in his way, before they begin thinking about the plot, that there’s no way anyone could miss it. Not so. I recently taught a class full of hopeful novelists, many of whom were on the second or third draft of their work in progress. I went around the room asking each writer what their protagonist entered the story already wanting. Not one person knew the answer.
