How to give your character a problem
There's literally no story without one.
It’s been a busy few months…apologies for being away!
For those of you that signed up for the CITY OF ORANGE paperback giveaway, welcome! I really do try to share everything I know here. Comments welcomed and encouraged! :)
What have I been up to?
Today is the day the paperback edition of my novel CITY OF ORANGE goes on sale. I like to say it’s half the size, same amount of cry. (I’ve talked about my writing process for it before.) You can bet I’ll be going into the bookstore to see it on the shelf. That feeling never gets old. If you don’t already know, it’s a heartbreaking survival story about a man figuring out how to find his missing family and go on living when everything in the world has literally been lost.
Work-wise, I’ve been writing a new book (yikes!) and working on lovely projects with our Joy Revolution publishing imprint and Yooniverse Media production company. Literally life-fulfilling stuff, which I’m always grateful for. A nightly Yoon tradition is to go over our “thankfuls,” and we regularly marvel at how we get to be creative for a living.
I’ve also been going to a lot more in-person events, which I’ve missed so bad. It’s been amazing to see all of you again, in Austin, San Antonio, Santa Monica, Charleston, DC, and more! (Sometimes it makes me realize how much we’ve been through over the pandemic, and when I think back to the days of quarantine I want to cry in disbelief, especially for my daughter’s sake…but that feels like a topic for a future issue.)
What’s been on my mind?
I went to Korea recently, which I want to talk about in a future newsletter. Hint: there’s nothing old in Korea.
I also want to share my thoughts (ie. abject fear) about AI, racists on Substack (this platform), Twitter, zombie-ass TikTok, and as always the internet and social media in general.
What are we gonna talk about today?
I’d like to talk about other people’s problems. Specifically, the problems of a story’s characters.
I read a lot of manuscripts, and you’d be surprised at the number of times an author forgets to give their character a problem to solve. A story with a problem-less character isn’t really a story; it’s more of a 300-400 page hangout. In rare cases, the writing is so stellar that you don’t care that nothing is actually happening. But most of the time, characters need things to do. Moral quandaries to reconcile. Otherwise, they wind up just sort of wandering around, going to school, or work, or sleep. (Sounds close to real life…a little too close.) They have nothing to do.
Here come the MacGuffins
One way to give characters a problem is to create a MacGuffin, or a goal to chase after. R2D2 in Star Wars is a simple, unemotional example—get the droid to the end zone like a football, basically. Same with the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
If you want your MacGuffin to reveal things about you characters (which I like better), you can create something like Rosebud in Citizen Kane—an action goal object imbued with loss and pain, or John Wick’s souped-up stolen Mustang missing its doors and full of bullet holes and how is that thing still driving.
I think MacGuffins are great place to start. Not only is MacGuffin a fun word to say, it kickstarts action and keeps characters striving. Every book needs one, just like every bathroom needs a Washlet. Every one of my books has one. A MacGuffin, not a Washlet.
Frankly In Love — Frank’s MacGuffin: his crush Brit, who he pursues via a fake dating scheme.
Super Fake Love Song — Sunny’s MacGuffin: his crush Cirrus, who he ropes in by pretending to be a rock star.
Version Zero — Max’s MacGuffin: bringing down Wren, the biggest social media company on the planet, via a series of escalating hacks.
City of Orange — Unnamed MC’s MacGuffin: his family, lost to apocalypse and amnesia, via a harrowing journey of survival and memory.
Dave’s Untitled Book 5 — Jack’s MacGuffin: money needed to remove a horrible curse placed upon him, via the bizarre toxic-male-dominated world of corporate America.
I say MacGuffins are a great place to start because, my favorite characters usually have more than an action goal to strive for. The best characters, in my opinion, have internal demons to slay (or be slayed by).
Central Demonic Dramatic Questions
In writing school at Emerson College, we’d often ask ourselves over beer (cocktails if we were feeling pretentious) the question: What’s your central dramatic question? As in, what is the problem in your life you keep coming back to, over and over again? What are your internal demons?
For some, it was: Why can’t I ever make Dad proud?
For others: Why do I seek approval from strangers?
Still others: Why do I keep dating girls who remind me of mean old Mom?
And so on. Central Dramatic Questions (or CDQs, an acronym I just made up) are a little different from MacGuffins. They’re really a way to help define who your character is. All of us have lifelong struggles; so should our characters, to make them believable and relatable. And like in real life, sometimes characters resolve their CDQ, and sometimes they don’t.
Whether or not they overcome their CDQ is almost beside the point (although yes, most people like happy endings and would like to see your MC finally date someone nice for a change). A simple, clear CDQ gives your character drive. It overtly (as well as subtly) dictates their every compulsion. I say compulsion because sometimes characters don’t know why the f*ck they do what they do; all they know is they must do that thing. (Remind you of anyone? Me? You? All humans on planet Earth?)
CDQs also gives you, the writer, guidance on what they might do next in a given situation. They’re an essential compass to guide you—without a CDQ, characters will probably windup doing random things that make no kinda dang sense!
Everyone’s watching Succession right now (because Succession is friggin’ awesome), so let’s go through some of those characters. What’s their driving CDQ, and what does it compel them to do?
Ken’s CDQ: Why can’t I make Dad proud? His compulsion: Beat Dad at his own game by trying to take over the company.
Shiv’s CDQ: Why can’t I get Dad’s affection? Her compulsion: Replicate her childhood loneliness by beating up her husband in an attempt to master her trauma.
Roman’s CDQ: Am I really Dad’s favorite? Am I? His compulsion: Have sex with older women. (This one is delightfully weird, and rings weirdly true.)
Life goals vs. story goals
Another set of terms for MacGuffins and Central Dramatic Questions is a character’s life goal and story goal.
A character’s life goal is a kind of Central Dramatic Question. What is the thing they’ve been going after their entire life? Keep in mind they don’t have to be conscious of this goal. In fact, I’d say it’s more interesting if they’re unaware. Kendall Roy doesn’t sit around thinking he should go to therapy to solve his daddy issues; he just goes out there and makes massive, democracy-destroying mistakes. Man of action, lol, cry.
A character’s story goal is what a character needs to do (or what they think they need to do) in order to achieve that life goal—it’s the MacGuffin expressed slightly differently. This story goal should be driven by the character’s compulsion as defined by their CDQ or life goal. Again, I think it’s more interesting if a character doesn’t quite understand why they do the crazy things they do, but must do them anyway. (Hyper-self-aware characters, on the other hand, tend to strike me as a little boring, which is why I don’t like most Marvel movies and stories like Fleabag. Come at me, bruh.)
A fun (and uncomfortable!) exercise
Ask yourself what your own Central Dramatic Question (or life goal).
Then, try to find as many weird personal quirks, habits, and compulsions you can that are related to it. It’s a revealing exercise. Some might say exposing. We actually would do this kind of thing over drinks in school. I’ll go first, cheers!
My Central Dramatic Question (ie. Life Goal): Why can’t I get my parents to say they’re proud of me?
My MacGuffins (ie. Story Goals, or compulsions): Working head-down and hard in a career (UX design) esoteric enough to insulate me from ridicule…obsessively learning non-verbal ways of expressing emotion, like art and music…buying too many cameras…stuffing all my feelings between the covers of books.
(These are examples from my more anxious past, before therapy. I’m infinitely happier now. Viva mental health!)
Until next time, friends ^_^
Thanks as always for reading. Our interactions here are so much more meaningful than social media. Boo, social media.
If you haven’t already, go to your local bookstore and grab the smaller, more flexible version of CITY OF ORANGE this week. Snap a seflie and tag me (@davidoftheyoon) if you want, too. I have no idea why other than it’s fun!
— Dave
Phenomenal advice. Thank you for sharing so much! (Also... that first illustration immediately made me think of Cronenberg's adaptation of NAKED LUNCH)