Give Them Purpose

It's somewhat tragic when people spend such loving care to build a rich character, but end up leaving them flat when they leave out the vehicle that drives them: purpose.

It probably seems ridiculous-- what would be the point of telling a story if that wasn't the FIRST thing you'd consider? For a writer, of course that would be confusing, but not all people arrive at writing first. I've talked about in my own past how I used to make pages and pages of character profiles, all supposedly for this epic story idea I had boiling up. Oo, I'm mapping where they'll go, what kind of crazy creatures they'll meet.

Only when it came down to purpose, they just didn't mesh as well as I thought they might. Precisely why I've also covered topics involved the complication of overplanning and forgetting to connect those rich yet conflicting ideas.

In many ways, we could learn from the way some mushrooms grow. At first, they spread out randomly, looking for the best sources in a comprehensive network, they send out a thin but fast moving gathering network to start. When the thin veins home in on the nutrient rich areas, they begin to concentrate on setting up shop on all of those key points and letting the smaller networks fade but not completely disappear (if a new source appears in the spread, they can detect it and spread resources to it immediately). Logically, they want to benefit from and even feed the source, so they don't just smother it but expand in as many directions as possible to, in turn, feed the source they are feeding from rather than deplete it.

So yes-- plotting is about a) spreading out to find the best ways to support the initial idea, b) locating the places to best develop it, c) keeping the web open to new possibilities and supporting details, d) continuing to build where needed, and e) feeding the ideas rather than exhausting all possibilities.

As a novice writer, one of the things that made me lose interest in a story was loss of purpose, not in my writing but for my character's sake. I ended up burning through all of the interesting points without holding back or developing the story so, once I'd removed all intrigue and mystery and conflict, they'd be left with nothing, including anything worthy of a story.

Lulls can happen in a story; they aren't unforgivable but they should reflect your intent in writing it. I'd be hard-pressed to find a story that is intentionally meant to bore anyone but it can happen, if you don't develop each part with a purpose. Does an informative section of a story have to be outright boring?

I know that 'purpose' is one of those variable words, much like 'voice' or 'style' when discussed by writers. However, when I talk about a character's purpose, it has to exist constantly. A character who comes back into the picture with no actual purpose can kill a story. It's okay if you haven't used them a while and it's okay if they don't come back if their purpose was served. They don't have to have a climactic exit, no matter how important they are in your head. You don't have to kill off characters to get rid of them. Not every exit has to be emotional-- even those can seem transparent or fall flat. A good way to ditch a stale character can even be to have them simply disappear. Maybe you can use that subplot of finding out why as a fresh lead-in to the main plot. Again, this doesn't have to be a focus, but be careful not to create intrigue if you're just going to drop it. 

One bad example for lost purpose happened in one season of The Walking Dead. My guess is that it was supposed to be an emotional or real moment for the character; even the strongest are weak and exhausted, something along those lines. Yet Rick suddenly becoming a sad sack of surrender for many, many episodes while his annoying son Carl was dragging him around with limp attempts to snap him out of it was excruciating and never quite hit the spot as anything but filler. One thing that I just can't jibe with in entertainment is any attempt to 'real-time' a situation. You're not really going to teach anyone how excruciating depression is by big-brothering it in entertainment. I've seen it done rather well across many forms of entertainment by homing in on very key points, showing how it affects others, etc. so you need never resort to rolling it out like that. The whole tedium of it reeked of losing the purpose of the show, not truly displaying a character that lost their purpose. In a world that constantly penalizes people for one misstep in the struggle for survival, Rick got a big fat fucking Mary Sue pass there.

Honestly, I never even made it to the end of the whole Negan debacle before I stopped watching. Killing off Glenn and Abraham was cheap enough. As much as I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I was just fucking tired of the badder than the last bad guy crap. It's the Sailor Moon/Dragon Ball formulaic rinse/repeat cycle that I avoid like the plague. Michonne was one of those characters that kept me hanging on longer than I should have, but even she was really running out of steam.

(I might have a purpose to this post, but don't count on it.)

In any case, purpose is one of those things you can't just keep in your peripherals. You really have to kept a solid eye on it. One reason I plan is because there is always the temptation to gush about the flow of great ideas while writing and I realize that the slow-burn (but not TOO slow) is worth detaching for. Unless you've crafted some masterful way to swap out main characters that are burning out with shiny new ones, then you must keep them relevant. You must leave some reason for conflict, some mystery to explore, some bait to lure them on.

Moving onto the next character color-combo piece, we have Pierait, whose entire point is Purpose.

While this very pale blue might also work for Belias's eyes, this is one I picked for Pierait's 'powder blue' hair. I wasn't going for some anime-blue but a subtle one that still differentiates from just a blue tinted platinum. This may be more of a highlight color were I to paint it, but if I had to choose a 'blue' that better represents the basic feeling I was going for, this is it. Clean slate, pure, even a sort of void on a moral spectrum. 

Now his eyes, no less a struggle to choose, needed a warm yet sunny quality. Yellows are tough to avoid being high-contrast bright without ending up more brown than yellow, but I liked this golden yet lemony yellow for it. It was intentional that I went with a reversal on what you'd find to be colors for hair and eyes. Blonde eyes/ blue hair? But then Pierait is opposite of what you'd expect from a human. This combination was actually not picked to be visually complementary as I did with my other choices. Again, this goes to the conflict of the character himself. His sort even had a history of being considered abominations so it's only fitting that his colors break all of the usual rules.

His 'people' are called the Soulless, although it is not a genetic condition. Due to an imbalance in the ways souls are distributed, some human are born without souls, which also leaves them empty containers when it comes to free will or Purpose. They seem to share the trait of apathy as children, although it's not quite that simple. They are capable of learning, but don't retain emotional baggage nor display strong emotions at all. It is akin to a functional state of autopilot.

Their state of being is dangerous and it was quickly learned that they must be granted a Purpose through a ritual in their teenage years or their deaths will release a fearsome deadly creature known as a Fury, that will leaves chaos and death in its wake. Whatever Purpose they are given must be one that can be immediately and constantly fulfilled, so it is more like a job assignment that makes their life one of contribution. Dying with a fulfilled Purpose is peaceful and without consequence. 

At one point, fear caused Soulless children to be killed on sight. If they never reached the age where they needed a Purpose, then they would never risk becoming Furies.

Where does this leave Pierait? His mother, a troubled young woman, decided to take matters into her own hands and go against convention. She discovers how to give her son a Purpose, but an impossible one: to acquire a soul. It's never been done and if his Purpose is discovered, he would be banished to where Furies flee and left to die. It's a lonely and isolated existence, but a Purpose is a Purpose.

(Next up, I'll have Lyria ready for you, an ordinary girl with an extraordinary gift.)

Speaking of purpose, what gives your characters purpose? Is your favorite current purpose the main plot itself or a fun subplot? My current WIP involves a golem, a blocked tunnel and a cryptic mystery while on the way to looking for dragons. All a subplot at the moment, but one I'm enjoying. Share yours below!