The Importance of the New Goal
A new goal at the end of a scene is essential for maintaining narrative momentum and guiding your story into its next scene. This post explores the importance of setting new, clear goals in your scene structure that emerge organically from the characters’ reactions and the events of each scene. Learn how to ensure these goals are relevant and engaging and drive your story forward, keeping your narrative dynamic and readers invested.
The new goal arises from reacting to the turning point. That reaction makes the character formulate a new goal that moves the story forward. This element is critical as it prevents the story from becoming stagnant and keeps your readers engaged.
How Does a New Goal Affect the Story?
Continues the Narrative Flow: A story needs a continuous flow to keep the reader engaged. The new goal serves as a catalyst, pushing the narrative forward after the turning point and reaction. It provides a sense of direction and purpose, ensuring the storyline does not stand still or become predictable. For example, after a protagonist fails to save their friend, their new goal might be to seek justice, propelling the story into its next phase.
Reveals Character Growth: A character’s goals reflect their desires, motivations, and values. As the story progresses, the events that the characters experience and their reactions to those events often lead to personal growth. A character’s new goal can show how the character has evolved, learned from their mistakes, or adapted to changes. It helps deepen the characters, making them relatable and engaging for the reader.
Increases Reader Engagement: Formulating a new goal in your scene structure creates suspense and intrigue. Readers will naturally want to know whether the character will succeed in achieving their new goal, how they will overcome potential obstacles, and what consequences they might face. This curiosity can keep readers hooked, compelling them to continue reading to find out what happens next.
Sets up Future Scenes: Each scene in a story should connect to the next, creating a seamless narrative structure. Introducing a new goal at the end of a scene can effectively set the stage for the next scene. This new goal forms the basis of the goal for the next scene, ensuring continuity.
Creating an Effective New Goal in Your Scene Structure
Establishing an effective new goal requires careful thought. It must be directly linked to the turning point and the character’s reaction. Moreover, it must be compelling enough to motivate the character and engage the reader.
Consider your character’s motivations, the stakes at hand, and the possible obstacles they may encounter. Use these aspects to shape a new goal that is believable, achievable, and challenging enough to drive the plot forward.
Techniques for Transitioning to the New Goal
Mastering the transition to a new scene and a new goal will keep from jarring your reader between the different scene structures.
How to Achieve a Seamless Transition to the New Goal
Leverage the Turning Point: The new goal should be a logical outcome of the scene’s turning point. Contemplate how the turning point impacts your characters’ circumstances and use it as a foundation for the new goal. Incorporate elements from the turning point into the character’s dialogue, actions, or thoughts to smoothly transition to the new goal.
Highlight Character Motivation: Establish a powerful motivation behind the new goal. This enhances character depth and realism, making it easier for readers to relate to them. Employ dialogue, internal thoughts, or subtle cues to depict their motivations and the reasons behind their pursuit of the new goal.
Ensure Continuity: As you transition to a new goal, maintain continuity with earlier parts of your narrative. Seek ways within your scenes to connect to previous goals or conflicts, fostering a sense of progression and coherence in your story.
Demonstrate Character Growth: Use the introduction of the new goal as an opportunity to showcase how your character has evolved throughout the story. Emphasize how the new goal is an important step in their personal growth or in fulfilling their ambitions.
Balance Exposition with Action: Introduce the new goal in a way that balances reflective moments with active ones. Combine introspective moments with scenes where characters actively strive to reach their goals. This keeps the story interesting and gives the readers the necessary context for the new goal.
Encourage Discovery: Rather than directly stating the new goal, let your characters discover it through their actions and experiences. This approach adds an element of mystery and gives your characters a sense of control over their destiny.
Effective Techniques to Show the New Goal
Different techniques can be used to show the new goal in your scene structure, each with advantages and intricacies. Here are some common strategies.
Dialogue: Dialogue is an excellent tool for revealing a character’s new goal. When characters converse, they can express their intentions, plans, and desires. The key here is to make the dialogue feel natural and not forced. The new goal should emerge organically from the conversation. For example, in a mystery novel, a detective might tell his partner, “We need to find the link that will tie Sean to the crime scene, or we don’t have a case.”
Internal Thoughts: Internal narrative is a powerful tool that gives readers direct access to a character’s thoughts. By allowing your readers to peek into your character’s mind, you can show the character wrestling with different choices and eventually forming a new goal. However, be careful to maintain a balance and not overuse this technique, as it could slow down the pace of your story.
Action: Showing the new goal through action can be an effective and engaging way to move the story forward. Instead of telling your reader about the new goal, you show it through your character’s actions. For instance, if a character’s new goal is to overcome their fear of public speaking, you might show them signing up for a public speaking class.
Remember, using a mix of these techniques can often yield the best results. Each method has strengths and weaknesses; your job as a writer is to understand which tool is right for which situation.
Common Questions about New Goals in Scene Structure
Can the protagonist go back to their original goal?
The protagonist can return to their original goal if it suits the narrative and character development. It’s crucial, however, to make this believable and motivated by the story’s events.
Can the new goal be in the next scene?
Absolutely! While often established at the end of a scene, the new goal can also be introduced in the next scene, especially if it adds suspense or anticipation.
What if the new goal seems unattainable?
The new goal can certainly seem unattainable. This can raise the stakes and make your story more exciting. The key is that it should seem plausible within the world of your story, even if it’s a long shot.
How to Use New Goals in Your Scene Conclusion
Finally, establishing a new goal at the end of each scene is essential in keeping your narrative vibrant and forward-moving. This element ensures a seamless transition from one scene to the next, maintaining the story’s momentum. As you write, focus on setting new goals that naturally arise from the preceding events and reactions, guiding your characters and readers toward the next scene.
Would you like to see new goals in action? Join my newsletter for a unique exercise on finding new goals in the first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’ Additionally, you’ll receive a bonus chapter analysis and a handy scene structure checklist for your writing projects.
