I’m not much of an athlete (ballet was my thing while growing up), but I do remember being told to “keep your eye on the ball.” Unfortunately, whenever a ball coming toward me got close, I tended to close my eyes and turn my head away. Ping-Pong balls were the only ones I could come even close to staring down.
So, if you’re like me, maybe keeping your eye on the ball isn’t something you’re too concerned about. But I suppose that in basketball, at least, it would also be appropriate to say, “keep your eye on the goal,” and this is something we fiction writers should take to heart – no matter how we feel about those ball-and-bat or ball-and-racquet sports.
In this instance, by “goal” I mean the goal of your protagonist, the main character of your story. What does zee want? What does zee need? What does zee yearn for?
A couple of years ago, I attended a class given by New York literary agent Jeff Herman at the Florida Heritage Book Festival. Of all the information this noted literary agent and author of Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents imparted to us eager writers during this class, the comment that stuck with me most was what he said about the opening of a novel.
It was not about how you must have a hook that grabs the reader by the throat and won’t let go or how you must start with immediate heart-stopping action or unbearable suspense or even that you must come up with an extraordinary turn of phrase to lure the reader into a less action-oriented story. No, it was much simpler and more direct than that and pertained to any type of fiction, from an action thriller to a romance to a literary tale of family dysfunction. And that advice was simply this:
“Tell me about the yearning.”
Jeff Herman wanted to know what the protagonist of a story yearns for right from the get-go, and your readers will, too. That’s what helps them connect with the main character and what keeps them involved enough to find out whether your character ever reaches that goal. If there is no goal to shoot for, then why should readers bother with cheering for your hero and groaning (at least inwardly if not aloud) every time something gets in the way of zir reaching that goal?
In her most excellent book, Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story, K.M. Weiland emphasizes that not only every story but also every scene within that story begins with a goal. Your protagonist wants or needs something that is vital to zir physical or emotional well-being, and your story will quickly reveal that the intended goal will not be easy to attain.
The entire plot is based on this goal and the protagonist’s desire to obtain it. The goal “defines [the protagonist] as a person and, by extension, the theme of the book as a whole,” Weiland says.
So, if you want to keep your readers happy and keep them reading, keep your eye on the goal. If your main character is as well-developed and realistic (I mean that in an emotional sense, of course; any kind of character goes in fiction) as zee should be, then you can be sure that the main goal will never be far from zir mind, no matter how many distractions and deterrents you throw in the way.
Just make sure that you, too, keep that goal in mind while writing every chapter and every scene of your story so that you don’t wander off into the land of reader boredom — one that is, for all too many readers, a land of no return.
AUTHOR NOTE: My apologies if I have confused anyone with what I call my “z-nouns,” but I think you can tell by the context that “zee” stands for “he or she” and “zir” for “his or her.” The reading of the previous sentence alone should make the reason for such a substitution obvious. Enough said, and thanks for staying with me.