What I learnt at Louise Cusack’s Literati Masterclass in 2012.
Well I can’t share everything, because the very brilliant Louise has protected her work with copyright. So I suggest you get to one of her classes/sessions/seminars because she’s an awesome teacher.
The theme of the class was ‘Plotting after the novel is written.’ Yes, a perfect class for pantsers like me!
We took a moment to write down our main character’s greatest virtue and worst flaw. Then we wrote down the character’s goal, motivation and conflicts. With these tiny pieces of information, we partnered up with someone, who knew nothing about the novel we’d written, to share our character.
This exercise sounds easy but proved quite difficult. It also became obvious that if the motivation isn’t strong and clear, there will be weak plot issues.
I came away with a new tool in hand to tighten up my plot after I’ve written my novel.
Have you tried analysing your characters after you’ve written a story with someone who doesn’t know anything about the story?
PS… and now that I’m pulling out a bunch of drafted novels, I’m returning to this technique to help hone in and start tidying them ready for beta readers.