How To Write A Character-driven Plot

How to write a character-driven plot

image

The Character-Driven Plot Wheel

1. Emotions drive actions.

Make your hero act on their deepfelt emotions. This not only adds meaning to their actions, but also helps communicate to readers your hero’s core emotional struggle.

2. Actions trigger consequences.

When your hero acts, give their actions consequences that affect the plot, themselves, and/or the surrounding characters. For example, driven by curiosity, maybe your hero opens Pandora’s box; maybe they act recklessly and someone dies; or maybe they stand up for what they believe in, but at great personal cost. Consequences raise the stakes and empower your hero with agency.

3. Consequences compel change.

Use the consequences of your hero’s actions to create a crucible of growth — challenges and situations that force them to take the next step on their character journey. That step may be forward, or backward, and it may be large or small; but something inside them changes.

4. Change influences emotions.

When a character goes through a change, even a small one, allow it to affect them emotionally. Maybe they feel increasingly frustrated or guilty. Maybe they’re afraid, having just taken another step closer to abandoning their old way of seeing the world. Or maybe they finally feel peace.

Regardless of the form it takes, remember to reflect your hero’s change in their emotions. Then let their emotions drive action, to trigger consequences, which will compel further change.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And there you have it! That’s how you write a character-driven plot.

So what do you say?

Give the wheel a spin.

— — —

Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

More Posts from Thedudesareawake and Others

2 years ago

The double standard in the fandom with blaming all sorts of shit on All Might and praising Aizawa for being the «best teacher ever» never falls to astound me.

How is being super apathetic, using manipulation tactics and lies on students, and being generally very uninterested in them so much better than All Might?

He doesn’t want the kids in the war any more than Aizawa does, and still all I see is «Aizawa never wanted the kids to fight and now he’d watching them die waaah» and «All Might really sent these kids to war huh???» from the same people like what

All Might spends a lot of time on Izuku ofc, but how is that different than what Aizawa does for Shinsou?

All Might is great at cheering on all the kids. He took the time to really see and understand Bakugo.

He tries to be there for Shouto with the family issues.

Your little fanon version of secretly supersoft Aizawa isn’t real, and neither is All Might the Terrible.

They’re both flawed characters who’s doing their best, but one of them is a stereotypical hot tired man, so nobody bats an eye at him.

also, don’t get me fucking started on the fact that Aizawa never seemed to notice anything is off about Shouto.

People always includes it in fics, but he never ever mentions it.

As a teacher, it should be pretty obvious that something was wrong, and even if he obviously couldn’t take Shouto out of Endevours house, he could have done SOMETHING.

Talked to him. Anything.

And I know he is traumatized. I get it. But so is All Might. And Present Mic. And Midnight.

Everyone handles trauma differently, but if your refusal to deal with it affects your ability to be compassionate and ignore your own prejudice (like how he treated Izuku vs Shinsou based on his own experience when he had no idea how hard Izuku worked or what he had been trough) maybe you should’t be a teacher.

Again, the fact that he didn’t react to how Izuku clearly had very little control over his quirk and how he kept hurting himself???

I just think he is a very flawed character, and not half as great a teacher as the fandom wants him to be.

5 years ago

The Cullen’s probably forgot about Bella’s human needs once in a while (heck even in BD Edward states “I’m not feeding you enough”). Could we pretty please have some HC’s where the Cullen’s realize Bella might be in blankets cause it’s winter and there’s no heating in their home, or that they forgot to feed her until her stomach growls loudly, or that Bella falls asleep too late so she sleeps in too late too. Just human stuff the Cullen’s would forget now and then.

esme teaching herself to knit so that she can make bella hats and scarves to keep her extra warm her first winter in forks

emmett just constantly handing her snacks, like a cat bringing its owner things it has found

rosalie silently giving bella a bottle of water she’s bought her from the vending machine

when bella looks confused, rosalie just shrugs, “edward said you need to stay hydrated.”

when they’re out at a party, alice announces “bella, will you come to the bathroom with me?”

when they get there bella looks really confused and alice just says, “well people always say that girls go to the bathroom in pairs and i never knew why. um… do you need to use the bathroom?”

jasper keeping tabs on her emotions to see when she starts to get tired and reminding edward that she needs to get some rest

carlisle herding bella directly into the kitchen whenever she comes over so that she can try his newest dish that he’s learnt to cook from the cooking channel 

she always leaves the house with armfuls of tupperware containers of exquisite food to take home to charlie

edward turning the heating up way too high in the car so that she starts to sweat even in the dead of winter

he also wraps her up like a burrito when she sleeps so that his body temperature doesn’t make her cold

5 years ago
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU

Youve heard of Fake Dating AU now get ready for Fake Dad-ing AU

Youve Heard Of Fake Dating AU Now Get Ready For Fake Dad-ing AU
5 years ago

“ & that’s why they mad” 😭😂

5 years ago
I Made A Quiz, Its 36 Questions, And Y’all, I Play-tested This, I Got Feedback, I Hyper-analyzed, Its

I made a quiz, its 36 questions, and y’all, I play-tested this, I got feedback, I hyper-analyzed, its good. I wasn’t like, I was gonna just let hogwarts houses die but apparently y’all be like,,, not knowing what a slytherin or hufflepuff is no shade and if all these quizzes are gonna ask you this question anyways: this is it. Idiot tested. Idiot approved

take it here! or copy paste if you need to https://uquiz.com/oz0xOu

5 years ago
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….
Outfits For The Ladies Of Bustier’s Class! Please Don’t Ask For The Boys….

Outfits for the Ladies of Bustier’s Class! Please don’t ask for the boys….

5 years ago

so

we have this app called toogoodtogo where restaurants/cafes/bakeries/hotels and so on sell their leftovers for really cheap to reduce foodwaste

i got all of this for €4 from starbucks

So

bless

5 years ago
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 
MAILING ADDRESS 

MAILING ADDRESS 

Town of Tusayan 

P.O. Box 709 | 845 Mustang Drive

Tusayan, AZ 86023 PHONE +1 (928) 638-9909 

EMAIL

Mayor Craig Sanderson 

mayorsanderson@gmail.com 

Vice-Mayor Becky Wirth 

tusayan.rwirth@gmail.com

Councilor | Brady Harris 

Tusayancouncilharris@gmail.com

 Councilor  |  Al Montoya 

almtusayan@hotmail.com 

Councilor  |  Robb Baldosky 

robb@tusayanaz.com 

if you don’t have time to write an email, here’s a pre-written letter: https://pastebin.com/Cc3YBWYA 

just copy, add your name, and send the email to a town member!

Please do! Corporations are the biggest criminals of climate change, environmental damage and pollution. Capitalism is rooted in destruction. 

5 years ago
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good
These Are Just Too Good

These are just too good

  • kromazque
    kromazque liked this · 1 month ago
  • enbyhyena
    enbyhyena reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • enbyhyena
    enbyhyena liked this · 1 month ago
  • eternalparadisearchive
    eternalparadisearchive reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • antihell
    antihell liked this · 1 month ago
  • aaustinwrites
    aaustinwrites reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • islandmaria
    islandmaria reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • islandmaria
    islandmaria liked this · 2 months ago
  • archive-of-sorts
    archive-of-sorts reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • godasamortal
    godasamortal liked this · 2 months ago
  • vaultsofreferences
    vaultsofreferences reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • angelowithwords
    angelowithwords liked this · 5 months ago
  • rawfleshandhoney
    rawfleshandhoney liked this · 7 months ago
  • penguin-dem
    penguin-dem liked this · 7 months ago
  • soniciselectricc
    soniciselectricc liked this · 8 months ago
  • det-cupcake
    det-cupcake liked this · 8 months ago
  • captain-panic12
    captain-panic12 liked this · 10 months ago
  • kowai-kabuki-tanuki
    kowai-kabuki-tanuki liked this · 10 months ago
  • chipbuddy
    chipbuddy liked this · 10 months ago
  • fungi-mancer
    fungi-mancer liked this · 10 months ago
  • joshuamartian
    joshuamartian reblogged this · 10 months ago
  • kohitsuji
    kohitsuji liked this · 10 months ago
  • 1001layla
    1001layla liked this · 10 months ago
  • newdawnhorizon
    newdawnhorizon reblogged this · 10 months ago
  • grimbaloooveeroon
    grimbaloooveeroon reblogged this · 10 months ago
  • youareshauni
    youareshauni reblogged this · 11 months ago
  • ildflue-17
    ildflue-17 liked this · 1 year ago
  • cabbatoge
    cabbatoge reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • ego-ille
    ego-ille reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • vanillamidnight-us
    vanillamidnight-us liked this · 1 year ago
  • leda-timeandspace
    leda-timeandspace liked this · 1 year ago
  • herald0fgojira
    herald0fgojira liked this · 1 year ago
  • heckcareoxytwit
    heckcareoxytwit reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • heckcareoxytwit
    heckcareoxytwit liked this · 1 year ago
  • aluminum-pinstripes
    aluminum-pinstripes liked this · 1 year ago
  • roselyn-writing
    roselyn-writing reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • roselyn-writing
    roselyn-writing liked this · 1 year ago
  • peacewelll
    peacewelll liked this · 1 year ago
  • daydreaming-because-i-can
    daydreaming-because-i-can reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • thepoetjean-makes-stuff
    thepoetjean-makes-stuff liked this · 1 year ago
  • riviewrites
    riviewrites liked this · 1 year ago
  • mcyanart
    mcyanart liked this · 1 year ago
  • nerdy-chocomallow
    nerdy-chocomallow liked this · 1 year ago
  • martialwriter
    martialwriter liked this · 1 year ago
  • hydrangeahelper
    hydrangeahelper reblogged this · 1 year ago
thedudesareawake - Blog Description Here
Blog Description Here

217 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags